Gauthier Borsarello and his HARPO jewels collection

English translation of the first interview we made with our fantastic customers : we present you hare Gauthier Borsarello's incredible HARPO jewelry collection!

Hello Gauthier, can you tell us a little more about yourself and how you discovered HARPO?

My name's Gauthier, I'm 35 years old, I used to be a classical musician, I grew up in the Paris suburbs in a family of six children with no money, but plenty of culture. I went to school in the center of Paris, which led the teenager that I was to set up a mechanism : looking cool in at shcool but avoid getting mugged back on the RER D to come back home.

My father, in particular, didn't attach any importance to clothes, but was passionate about 18th-century furniture. So we went to a lot of flea markets and Porte de Vanves together. This mishmash slowly led me to vintage, which was a passion that ran parallel to my life as a musician. First I was at the Capitol in Toulouse, then at the Orchestre de Paris... and then one day I just lost it, saying to myself, “I really don't want to be in that kind of life, I need to be in the clothing business”. I got a job as a salesman at RRL (Ralph Lauren line). I began to familiarize myself with the American and Native American world. When I was there I met Dorothée (HARPO's manager) in 2012, and thanks to her I discovered that there was a reality behind the storytelling that Ralph Lauren told so well. It fascinated me: the craftsmanship, the know-how, the culture... it all fascinated me. That's how I got my first connection with HARPO.

Until now, what part take jewels in your life and style? 

I've always worn a watch since I was fifteen, but jewelry wasn't my thing back then. The only jewelry I had was a signet ring I'd made from all my yellow gold christening jewelry: I'd had them melted down and gone to see a heraldist engraver and had a bee engraved when I was 19/20. At the time, I considered silver to be a bit “cheap”, a bit “sub-jewelry” and in fact I think it's like anything else, you have to be interested and knowledgeable to like it. I dug deeper into this field thanks to Dorothée.

And since your discovery of HARPO several years ago, what do you particularly like about this jewelry store?

What I loved about HARPO and Native American jewelry was the depth of the offer, the differences in techniques and the specific know-how of the artists depending on the tribe to which they belong and their own culture. In all the jewelry I've come across, the most beautiful to me is Native American. What I like here is that there's... I don't like to say things like that, but there's a bit of “soul”. There's something behind it!

Can you tell us a little more about the jewelry you bought at HARPO? You now have quite a collection!

It's funny because every time I buy a piece of jewelry, I tell myself that it's the piece of my life and that I'm going to wear it every day. Every purchase is like that. But I realize that in real life it's not the case haha. However, I can't live without these pieces either. I like to fill all the boxes so I want Hopi, Navajo, all-silver, turquoise, coral.... 

I might not wear jewelry for 4 months and then one day I wake up and want to wear several pieces. These are phases, moods... There are pieces that speak to me, I need to own them and then one morning sometimes you want to wear them, sometimes not. 

In any case, with each purchase I let myself be guided and I like to keep informed of new arrivals, which I can see via the networks.

What excites me is the craftsmanship behind a piece of jewelry I choose. Dorothée will point out to me “look at this finesse / look at this brutality / look at this stone” and that's where it speaks to me.
 

Do you remember what was your first Harpo's jewel? And can you tell us what what are your most important jewels?

Well, one of the first pieces, which is very dear to my heart and very important to me, is a Tufa Cast ranger buckle. At the time, I was paid minimum wage and it cost more than half my salary.

I always wear a silver belt. Even when I'm not wearing jewelry, I always wear a concho belt or a belt buckle from Harpo.

And not the first, but another very important piece of jewelry:

A concho belt given to me by Sarah Andelman, Madame Colette's daughter. Colette, has been selling Harpo jewelry since the beginning. They are a family I adore and respect enormously, and after a favor I gave to Sarah, she offered me her mother's concho belt from Harpo. A beautiful sterling silver concho belt. 

I have an extraordinary ring that I adore, which is square, with an oval turquoise in the center. There's also a bracelet that's very important to me, set with mat turquoise nuggets.

As someone who knows the company well, are there any Natives silversmiths you particularly appreciate? 

Well for example right now my absolute love is another belt buckle, smaller, rectangular, made by one of my favorite artists: Emerson. I also love Sunshine Reeves. These are really two Natives jewelry stars whose work I adore.

I think it's important to keep your own aesthetic, so I like to integrate my HARPO jewelry with the French-made clothes I like, with the 80s Parisian aesthetic I like, and try to hang it all together.

Can you tell us more about your style? 

I'd like to be able to summarize it, because that's my quest: the uniform.
A quest I can't manage to achieve, so I put myself under constraints that get harder and harder every year. So I've taken out the prints, the patterns, the bright colors... now I'm just blue/white/black, a little cashew and beige from time to time. Because I find this whole fashion guy thing a bit ridiculous, changing his clothes every day, having too much style and so on. So I'm looking for uniformity, and little by little I'm reducing my grammar. I stopped wearing denim completely two years ago, and it just came back two weeks ago, so sometimes I reauthorize things. I'm lucky enough to have two maids' rooms and my studio filled with clothes from my vintage collection. I have over 2,500 pieces and at home I have just what I like to wear. So I go back and forth depending on what I feel like wearing.

And so jewelry is the embellishment of this silhouette, which is becoming more and more extinct, more and more simple.

Is there a piece of HARPO jewelry you don't have yet that you'd like to have? 

There's one piece of jewelry I haven't had yet... well, I had a vintage one that I sold back to a friend, but it wasn't one of Harpo's and it was beautiful: it's the Squash Blossom. I'm waiting for the right one, the one that's going to slap me in the face!

Anyway, at Harpo I let myself be guided. And I like to mark a difficult or pleasant moment in my life with a piece. It can be a watch or a piece of jewelry, to mark an event.

If you had to describe HARPO to someone who doesn't know the shop, what would you say?

That it's a fantastic shop with lot of attention to detail. It is an absolutely gigantic collection that is regularly renewed. The jewels are constantly cleaned and special care is taken with after-sales service and curation. Quite simply, it's the purest approach there is. It's what I'd like to apply to vintage myself, but it takes mad courage... Courage that Gérard (the brand's creator) had, and that his daughters have maintained. This business is a bit of an utopia, but it's crazy that it exists. That's what I tell people: “You don't realize how lucky we are that HARPO exists”. There's no comparison, in anything else, in any field. When you buy a piece from HARPO, you're buying a piece of history, a piece of work, a piece of culture... I think it's extraordinary!

But then, as I was saying, it's also a question of people. If it weren't for the human beings inside, maybe I wouldn't like it so much. It's the whole package that makes it extraordinary: the product, the work and the people. In any case, as Dorothée says, HARPO's only advertising is the product: even if you don't know anything about it, after a few seconds with a salesperson here you're bound to be hooked. 

So, for me, this is one of Paris' jewels in the crown!