Marie Lichtenberg is a former fashion editor for French Elle magazine, now the designer behind some of the most original and coveted jewels of recent years. Made with soul, and imbued with playful humor and pop culture references, through her work Marie explores the idea of jewelry as an heirloom, an object that carries all the sentiment we wish to hand down to the next generation.
Marie’s journey into jewelry began with a traditional forçat chain she received as a teen from her mother, whose roots lie in Martinique. Symbolizing emancipation in Creole culture, the hollow gold chain links inspired her to design her first locket, which incorporated design elements from her travels in India, all infused with her irreverent humor and French sensibility. Designed in Paris, her collections are made by some of the most highly skilled craftspeople in the world.
Marie Lichtenberg Love Locket necklaces have become iconic. Exquisitely engineered and finely crafted, they tell a personal story in psychedelic enamel, colored gems and hand-crafted gold. More recently, box lockets have been added to the range, with a tiny, precious surprise inside, along with collections of gold pendants on handmade chain and pearl-strewn silk cords.
Her early Love Lockets were designed to be worn on a chunky oversized forçat chain, made in hollow gold in tribute to that first necklace handed down from mother to daughter. Since then, the line has developed to include a variety of handmade chains from strings of open links to tightly woven cables of gold, via cascading diamond rivières, all of which clip to pendants and lockets.
With her scapular necklaces and rings, Marie turned traditional Catholic religious jewelry on its head. Universal symbols of luck and love like the four-leaf clover and heart, combine with pop culture references like rockets and psychedelia, to create secular scapulars that pack a style punch. Designed to layer up with Love Lockets or wear alone, like all her jewels, they are hand-crafted in gold, enamel and gemstones.
In an evolution of the scapular rings, our box rings open to reveal a tiny precious surprise inside, just like the locket rings that have been popular through history. From Dick in a Box, featuring a tiny diamond penis, to our custom engagement box ring which opens to reveal a gemstone of your choice, each requires hundreds of hours of work to make.
In 2023, Marie designed the Magic Ball necklace in collaboration with Mattel© which won Best in Innovative at the By Couture awards. The piece channels the sense of fun that runs through her jewelry, with a bejeweled tribute to the fortune-telling Magic 8 Ball © toy that children have loved since the 1950s. Handmade in Italy, this highly engineered piece uses a miniaturized version of the original system to provide enigmatic answers to yes-no questions in a tiny window. As a piece of jewelry, it makes for a beautifully minimalist brushed gold orb with different colored enamel accents, and the characteristic ‘8’ picked out in diamonds.
As a jewelry classic, the initial pendant is a style staple. At Marie Lichtenberg, each letter is picked out in diamonds in a custom font, sculpted onto a solid gold guilloché sunburst tag, with enameled edges. As ever, the back of the pendant receives as much attention as the front, set with a diamond in an elevated take on the name tag necklace. Elsewhere, puffy hollow gold letters make for statement letter necklace charms.
In glorious contrast to yellow gold, precious ebony adds mystery and glamour to richly decorated scapular pendants, earrings and lockets. Ringed with gold and set with diamonds, colored gems or a tiny Evil Eye, ebony pendants make for an original addition to a stack, while dice pendants via for space with ebony good luck charms.
Marie is always honing her style and her designs' aesthetic, without losing any of the character which characterizes her contemporary heirloom pieces. Steeped in symbols and folklore with universal significance, influenced by retro pop culture, and fueled by fine craftsmanship, these are rare jewels with soul and meaning.
