PARIS — De Beers London is starting the year with a new home.
The jeweler on Monday unveiled its flagship on Rue de la Paix, a move that cements the rebranding revealed in February 2025 that included its current moniker alongside a new tag line and campaign.
Located at 12 Rue de la Paix, the new store sits in a recently overhauled 19th-century Haussmann-style building once home to Belle Epoque star milliner Madame Virot, a prime location directly across the street from Cartier’s 13 Paix flagship.
Such a prime location “of course positions us among the other jewelry houses in this Rue de la Paix [to] Place Vendôme axis,” De Beers London’s chief executive officer Emmanuelle Nodale told WWD in an exclusive interview.
Inside the Paris flagship.
Courtesy of De Beers London
“Strategically, it’s interesting because it also allows us to develop our notoriety with the Parisian and French clients who know us through the [Printemps and Galeries Lafayette] department stores,” she said. “It’s a different expression of the brand — and then there is all the international visibility that Paris offers on jewelry that allows us to draw that clientele, particularly for high jewelry, during events such as couture.”
Spread across 5,000 square feet, with a 3,670-square-foot retail surface, the Paris store is also the first to showcase a new retail concept “integrating this contrast and bridge between Southern Africa and London, and also always having this red thread of this journey of the diamond” from mine to jewelry, the executive added.
Unfurling across three levels, the design imagined by French architectural practice Pierre-Yves Rochon brings together touches that nod to rough diamonds, the African continent and the British capital in an immersive ensemble.
Such nods start from the street, where a stylized wave inspired by the Namibian coast takes pride of place in the 50-foot storefront. Upon stepping inside, the first impression is a whiff of a scent alluding to London parks and the nature around African lodges; the scent was developed by British perfumer Roja.
Next comes the Kimberlite Wall, a sculpture carved from the rock best known as the main host matrix for the gemstones by Dutch artist Ward Strootman. This takes pride of place between the ground and first floors, while a chandelier by Italian glass specialist Venini nods to the stone’s octahedral crystal conformation.
Other works include a hand-painted silk triptych with embroideries of pearls and micro-diamonds by Parisian artist Xiaobei Dong and a collage by Constantin Prozorov retracing key moments of the brand such as the “A Diamond Is Forever” slogan, the invention of the 4Cs used to evaluate diamonds, conservation efforts on the Okavango delta and the inception of the Kimberley Process.
Display cases in the store.
Courtesy of De Beers London
Throughout, a series of nooks and private salons telegraph an intimate feel, reinforced by a textile palette hailing from the likes of high-end French and British specialists Lelièvre, Pierre Frey, Thorp of London and Turnell & Gigon.
Epitomizing this high-end home impression is the London Library, a first-floor VIP salon inspired by the city’s town houses that features a fireplace, bespoke armchairs and Liberty of London fabrics. There will even be Fortnum & Mason tea on offer for visitors.
“This rather unique and singular, very authentic combination sets us apart from other jewelry houses and will surprise,” Nodale said. “Revealing this concept marks the reaffirmation of our brand territory, which will be continued through what we present in our collections.”
Exhibit A: the Echo high jewelry necklace unveiled on Monday at the Paris flagship.
Drawn from the opening chapter of the Vibrations high jewelry collection that will make its debut later in January, the rough white diamonds that trim the design mark the first appearance of stones sourced through the GemFair initiative, which supports artisanal miners through fair pay, ethical practices and sustainable community development.
Gouaché of the Echo high jewelry necklace.
Courtesy of De Beers London
After Paris, the new retail blueprint will be rolled out to the upcoming Hong Kong flagship, a relocation from the luxury Landmark shopping mall to the no-less-upscale Prince’s Building complex nearby.
The new format will be rolled out across the brand’s 37 doors globally, which include 24 owned stores including flagships in New York, London and Shanghai and 13 franchised doors with various partners.
Nodale said the Paris flagship signaled the jeweler’s ambitions in terms of brand coherence and depth of collections rather than rapid geographic spread of its retail network.
“We have an enormous potential where we are present that we can really continue to develop,” she said, highlighting France as well as Dubai, where it recently opened a flagship. “Once we have those codes well defined and this development, it will bring us more growth and development.”
That said, there are already new markets in her sights such as South Korea, “a market that is exploding and the kind of country we are looking at very closely to evaluate short-term openings,” she added. Singapore is another destination with potential.
Spaces on the first floor
Courtesy of De Beers London
Meanwhile, the brand is “benefiting very strongly from the positive momentum of jewelry, particularly on icons such as Lotus and Talisman, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year,” she said.
Taking a design-driven rather than diamond-centric approach has already started to show results.
“We have had some very, very beautiful sales on the collection this year,” she added. “So we are being driven by this strategic approach on design-driven pieces through our icons and high jewelry.”
In this segment, which starts above 100,000 euros for De Beers London, “client feedback has been exceptional,” the CEO said. This is particularly encouraging given it is a “very important part” of the company’s turnover, although Nodale declined to share a specific proportion.
Emmanuelle Nodale
Courtesy of De Beers London
This shift is taking place at a moment where having access to some of the most beautiful and rare diamonds in the world is no longer enough.
“When I joined De Beers [in June 2025], I found a house that has a long history, in particular as an expert in diamonds,” Nodale told the WWD x SJ Global Fashion and Business Conference in November. “But that is not enough for building a brand. To have beautiful diamonds, you need to tell stories and build desirability and emotion with your clients.”
Meanwhile, the sale of the jeweler’s parent company De Beers could be imminent. The miner was put up for sale in 2024 by its owner Anglo American, which is looking to divest its interests in diamonds amid plummeting prices, a downturn in luxury consumption, a flood of lab-grown stones and global geopolitical turmoil.
