Fred

Fred

Fred Jeweler, more commonly referred to as Fred, is a French house of jewelry and of watchmaking founded in 1936 by Fred Samuel in Paris.

Son of Alsacians who emigrated in Argentina after the 1870 war, Fred Samuel arrived in France at 16. Trained as a jeweler, he started his own business after his national service and opened a boutique bearing his name, rue Royale, in 1936.

He is one of the first introducers in France of the cultured pearl, a Japanese novelty which changed fundamentally the French jewelry until now using the natural pearl. It is from this time that the name of a pecular shade of pearl exists, light pink cream shade: The « Fred » colour.

His reputation grew quickly and earned him the clientele of American cinema stars, such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks or yet Marlène Dieitrich.

At the beginning of the second world war, the boutique is obliged by the General Commissariat for Jewish Questions to withdraw the name of Samuel from the boutique. In December 1941, a yellow star is applied on the window. Fred then joins the maquis and will only come back to Paris in September 1944 when he opens again his boutique.

« As a challenge » or as a memory, he keeps for the boutique the only first name « Fred » that the Vichy authorities had obliged him to withdraw.

The after-war years, especially prosperous and inventive for the Parisian fashion, benefit to Fred who calls on artists like Cocteau and Bernard Buffet. The young princess Grace of Monaco is among his clients.

During the 60s, the collections of precious gems attract the interest of fans from the Gulf and the Middle-East.

Besides Paris – where Fred jeweler has several exhibition rooms, in particular Place Vendôme –the company owns also a dozen or so boutiques in Cannes, Monaco, in Japan as well as in South Korea.

Fred is represented in several cities of France as well as in Andorra, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, in Hong Kong, Madagascar, in the Caiman Islands, in Tunisia, Marocco and in many Near and Middle-East countries: Koweit, Abu Dhabi, Syria, Qatar, Lebanon, Barheim, Saudi Arabia.

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