Born in 1927 near Paris, Jean Dinh Van imagined himself as a sailor. Fortunately for women, influenced by his father who was a lacquer ware craftsman, he decided to craft jewelry. After studying at Les Beaux Arts de Paris, he learned his jeweler’s craft at Cartier during ten years, where his hands “fell in love with metal”. That experience influenced and forged his own idea of luxury and beauty.
At the start of the 1960’s, prompted by his intuition, Jean Dinh Van left Cartier and turned his attention to contemporary design.
He took a real interest in everything happening in his time, especially in everything that was new, such as the off-the-peg creations by Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin, Knoll furniture and the advertisements of Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, founder of Publicis. He joined a group of designers who wanted to free jewellery from the constraints of “preciousness”. He craved for creating jewels that can be bought by women and worn every day, his vision of ultimate luxury.
In 1965, Jean Dinh Van the jeweler created Dinh Van in Paris. He set up his own workshop with one ambition: to invent an essential jewelry, more personal, more lifelike. Dinh Van creates pieces of jewelry that are more intended to reveal those who wear them than to impress those who look at them.
A Dinh Van creation stands out and may be distinguished from a thousand others. Contemporary and timeless, it offers its pure and simple shapes to women, men and children. The entire dimension of these sensual, essential pieces of jewelry is revealed as they become one with those who wear it. Some universal symbols, issued from the optimistic observation of its time, have made the success of the brand: Dinh Van Menottes, Cible, Maillon, Seventies and Chinese Pi.