The man who famed the de Grisogono brand name and the black diamond
I have seen him on TV, featured his work and his brand’s gala dinners and red carpet moments through our pages, but never have I met him. It was only this summer that I meet him in person in Cannes at the terrace of the Martinez hotel where the brand displayed their latest high jewelry collection “Divine in Cannes”.
I chat to him and get acquainted with a genuine man that shares his humble start of his business with pride, shares his dream and his vision of a brand that looks like no other.
Who is Fawaz Gruosi?
He discovered his love for gems at a very young age and was in charge of vip clients in the jewelry industry. He travelled constantly, stayed at the most luxurious hotels, and hosted lunches and dinners with important people. He worked for two of the biggest mega houses in Jewelry, including Bulgari which made it even more difficult to decide what his next step would be once he found himself alone, as the standards were set very high.
He did something he disliked, buying and selling stones and he even sold them to Bulgari. He was unhappy since his ultimate goal was to open his own shop. After joining in with two friends/partners, and putting in the minimum capital, which was 60 thousand Swiss Francs at the time, he did just that. They started with a small shop, buying, and selling, but he still didn’t feel true to himself. Since he was the only one with such passion to grow, he decided to buy out his partners and start producing, with the little knowledge that he had.
He was criticized by many who thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He started to design, and drew sketches “like little kids.” He would go to the atelier and explain his vision on a piece of paper. At the time, most jewels were minimal, very small, using classic platinum white and yellow gold, and traditional stones, which is why he knew he would have to do something different if he were to have a chance.
“I did the opposite, lots of volumes, mix of colors, precious stones that were perceived as nothing at the time,” he says. He didn’t receive much success, but it was enough to keep him going. “The real launch was when I used black diamonds, they said I was crazy. Then within two years people were coming in and saying ‘it’s beautiful, but we can’t wear this.’ Then a couple of brands started using my black diamonds. I wanted to defend those diamonds, I was asking around auction houses about them and about their value. I believed in them, and even worked on a book about them so the press would spread the word worldwide. I received so many calls from everywhere, it became more acknowledged but no one knew how to pronounce our name ‘de Grisogono’, it was a disaster!”
At that time clients and buyers were fed up from the ordinary so he decided to make black gold designs and gold brown.
“People said: why do I have to spend money on gold that doesn’t look like gold!’ but that’s a snobbish way to look at it.”
He put a bit of groundwork in the company, but was still criticized a lot for playing loud music in his office and inviting friends. His first guest, when he opened his shop, was actually the iconic Sophia Loren. He’s proud to have opened fifteen shops in the years he has been active and his objective is to sell couture jewelry to the brains of people. “From the smallest to the biggest piece, the care is the same,” he says. Many of his pieces were inspired by the Mediterranean. “When I look at the sea and the many tones of green around me, this inspires me to use all these different colors.”
When it comes to different markets, he insists on never taking one seriously. “I don’t care to be everywhere, I just want to reach a number of people, and once clients come to us once, they will keep coming. We try to be very selective.
We have a franchise in Kuwait. In Dubai we are with Ahmad Seddiqi & sons and we are waiting to have a space in Dubai Mall soon.
”Next year, de Grisogono is opening a shop in Macau’s 1 billion dollar hotel. The stakes are very high when your clients are the ones who will stay in a room with its very own roulette section. It’s another world. You can sell nothing less than a million dollars there!”
“Today 15 boutiques are the fruit of the many years of hard work with a starting capital of sixty thousand swiss francs, but if you give me 200 million today and ask me to start from scratch I don’t think it would be possible!! I think I was lucky then”.
I ask him about his de Grisogono woman, and he says: “ I love a woman with character as beauty shines through character. You may see a gorgeous woman and after talking to her she might disappoint you and vice versa “.
Summing up the brand DNA in a few words, he tells me: “ It’s Perfection, it’s creativity, it’s top manufacture and Glam!”
Fawaz Gruosi takes all of these things into consideration but still makes an effort not to take himself so seriously as that’s his motto. With a team he regards as his family, whom he treats with so much respect, he is not afraid of growing personally and professionally by the day. His aim remains to surprise the world but above all, surprise himself first!
Melody of Colours Turquoise & Amethyst Ring
Jewel Melody of Colours ring I metal 18k white gold I stones 14 tube-cut turquoises (approx. 11 cts), 19 navette-cut amethysts (approx. 6 cts) and 146 white diamonds (approx. 2.72 cts)
A Melody of Colours ring is designed as alternating rows of navette-cut amethysts, superbly matched with tube-cut turquoises recalling the newly launched jewellery collection named TUBETTO.
Cushion-Cut Blue Sapphire Unique High Jewellery Ring
Jewel one-of-a-kind ring I metal 18k white gold I stones 1 cushion-cut blue sapphire (approx. 28.08 cts), 12 pear-cut emeralds (approx. 4.09 cts), 22 pear-cut and oval-cut blue sapphires (approx. 17.37 cts) and 54 white diamonds (approx. 0.14 ct).
Favouring a blend of vintage and contemporary styles, the cushion cut is one of the most glamorous cut often set in solitaire. With its rectangular outline, this stunning stone asserts its distinctive look with rounded corners. Featuring the timeless beauty of sapphires, Fawaz Gruosi intensifies the brilliance and mesmerizing colour of a sapphire whose facet plan gives the stone a depth as hypnotic as a woman’s gaze. This magnificent blue sapphire weighs 28 carats and its dimensions are 20 x 16 millimetres. A heavenly stone carried by a constellation of pear-cut and oval-cut emeralds and blue sapphires divinely exults.
Melody ot Colours Turquoise & Amethyst Creole Hoops
Jewel Melody of Colours earrings I metal 18k pink gold and titanium I stones 2 turquoises (approx. 13 cts) and 506 amethysts (approx. 28.56 cts)
A row of elliptical bands made of pink gold, titanium and turquoises, as well as a band set with amethysts, reinvents the classic creole hoops in a Melody of Colours creation.
Interviewed by Lara Mansour Sawaya
