La Maison Goossens

“The soul of an artist, the hand of an artisan”

In 1950 Robert Goossens — who was born into a family of three generations of foundry workers — opened a small goldsmithery. This amazing artisan, animated by an incredible curiosity and always prepared to push the boundaries of technique, left a mark on his period as well as the world of couture jewellery. When he met Gabrielle Chanel in 1953, she discovered in him this creative bolt of lightning.
In the image of its founder, all of Maison GOOSSENS creations exhibit an audacious modernity, at the frontier of art and jewellery making. From this historic complicity between Robert Goossens and Gabrielle Chanel their remains to this day a creative and couture spirit, a desire to play with the rules of all that is precious and to endlessly push back the boundaries of creation, through an unexpected blend of forms and materials, through the association of noble and raw materials. Made by hand, hammered, burnished, decorated with one-of-a-kind stones with subtle nuances, each piece of GOOSSENS jewellery is unique.
At the end of the 1950s, Maison GOOSSENS extended its knowledge as a costume jeweller to the world of “room jewellery”: chandeliers, mirrors, lamps and other decorative items. Gabrielle Chanel invited Robert Goossens to broaden his field of expression anew. During a discussion in her famous apartment on rue Cambon, she asked him to create an object out of a rock crystal globe taken from a chandelier. Goossens thus created a plinth in order to support the crystal consisting of a trio of golden lions, a reference to the designer’s astrological sign. He then created other elements for her, such as a pedestal table of water lilies, or a table with a base consisting of sheaves of wheat, which is still present in this legendary apartment today. For Yves Saint Laurent, Robert Goossens expanded even further this new activity by offering him sumptuous objects with which to provide his clients: frames, tumblers, lorgnette…
Since 1995, Peter Marino has called upon the talents of Maison GOOSSENS in order to decorate CHANEL’s boutiques, in the manner of the store located at 19 rue Cambon in Paris, where one can see water lilies and pebble mirrors, as well as chandeliers which are inspired by Chanel’s emblematic quilted motif, thanks to a chequered pattern in rock crystal.
Architects and interior decorators now collaborate with Maison GOOSSENS for exceptional custom-made commissions.

Maison GOOSSENS joined CHANEL’s Métiers d’art in 2005.