From Parisian high jewelry to Swiss watchmaking workshops, Estelle Lagarde has established herself in the demanding art of gouache rendering. Between resilience and an absolute quest for independence, discover the journey of a wholehearted artist who has turned her creative freedom into a manifesto.
What is your background?
I attended a jewelry school after 9th grade. My studies lasted four years in total. I earned my CAP (Certificate of Professional Aptitude) in Jewelry and Ornament Art, and then my BMA (Fine Crafts Certificate) at the Amblard high school in Valence.
Right after my studies, I was lucky enough to land my first permanent position at Van Cleef & Arpels, in their design studio in Paris, as a gouache artist. I was living a professional dream there. I was going to make a living from my passion! I was surrounded by people who were all incredibly talented. I learned so much during that period. But Parisian life did not suit me at all outside of work. I very quickly felt the need to return to those who mattered to me. So, after a year and a half of experience, I wanted to move back near my loved ones in Haute-Savoie.
I was going to resign, but I was offered a transfer to Switzerland to work in the enameling and miniature painting workshops for watch dials. I accepted, of course! I was hyper-enthusiastic, with a boundless desire to learn!
Unfortunately, this experience turned into a nightmare for me. I worked on the same piece on an assembly line for 4 years. I also experienced workplace harassment. And on top of that, I was going through some very complicated personal issues.
This whole downward spiral led to a severe depression, major physical and psychological health problems, and a violent burn-out. I let this situation drag on for 4 years, until the day I felt I no longer wanted to face another day. And that I would feel liberated if I followed through with that decision.
Thank God, when I had that thought of absolute distress, I understood that I was truly very ill and that I had to take care of myself. So I did everything I could to save myself. And acknowledging that I was very ill was already a huge step toward my recovery.
Beyond the treatments and psychological support, I started by requesting a layoff, which took a few months to materialize. The day I received my letter and my box, I cried with joy. With liberation! I felt like my real new life would start that day. I was 25. And to tell you the truth, I feel like I have been born since that day.
Today, I am 32. And I am living all the wildest dreams of my life. I am happy, in good health, surrounded, and supported! I have made myself and my life my priority.
This traumatic experience of distress became my strength. My engine. Today, I thank all those people for destroying me. They forever awakened the exceptional being that I am on this fucking earth!
How did your taste for jewelry and watchmaking gouache originate?
Even before that, I always loved to draw or paint with acrylics when I was young.
Then I discovered jewelry gouache when I was 15. It was a real discovery for me, because I had no idea this rendering method—or this profession—even existed!
We were told at school that it was an extremely difficult technique to master and that the beginning of the learning process was often laborious for students.
Then, when I tried it, I was personally surprised because I didn't feel any of that.
I loved the material, I understood how it lived, I loved the precision, and the high standards this technique expected of me. And ultimately, I felt I wasn't bad at all because, visually, it looked like something!
It surprised my teachers, my family, and my classmates. I think they saw it as a "gift," a kind of mystical grace. Personally, I don't believe in that at all. When I was young, it flattered me to think that I could be the "chosen one" for something.
In truth, I just think I had a form of sensory intelligence regarding the understanding of material, how it acts and reacts.
I have always had this form of intelligence regarding the ability to perceive and imagine volumes, material, reflections, shadows, and light.
Well... personally, I see it as intelligence, because I know that in society or in traditional school settings, that's far from the case. And even so, when it is recognized, it is very little valued in society! We tend to value very linear, logical, or verbal forms of intelligence that make money. The rest... we don't care.
But there you have it... I was precise, patient, conscientious, and a perfectionist. And I've always had that my whole life. And ultimately, those are the skills you needed to manage this technique. And the combination of all that and all those competencies makes it look like it's a gift.
But as you have understood, I mostly just think that I was lucky to have all the required skills that intersected at a given moment, in the right place, to give the world the impression that this was "my thing"!
But it is true that feeling so comfortable and taking so much pleasure in doing all this inevitably created a passion and a particular interest in this profession in me!
"Talent," when you dig a little, is often this happy encounter between: a natural disposition (for me, this ease in "seeing" volumes), a favorable environment (my encounter with this technique at 15), and a character structure (patience, conscientiousness, perfectionism).
Moreover, I think "talent" lies dormant in all of us.
What does the creation of LAGARDE represent to you?
For me, the creation of LAGARDE is the culmination of a personal dream. It is probably a reflection of who I am. Because I put my soul, my heart, my perception of the world, my experience, and my past into it.
But LAGARDE also and above all represents my freedom and an act of survival.
It is the place where I like to fly! It's my world! My universe that I created from scratch. With my values, my vision, my taste, my art! It is a true personal birth!
Even if I try as best I can to separate myself from this hyper-personal and self-centered dimension of bringing your own baby into the world, in the end, it would be a lie to tell you that is not the case and that it is not the goal of my approach either. This project is my selfishness and my narcissism in all their splendor!
I do what I want. Where I want, how I want, at the pace I want, surrounded by whom I want. It's the place where I can best enjoy freedom as I conceive it!
I choose the people I move forward with! And I have no one to obey here.
Except for the Urssaf. Which finally reminds me every month that I am not so free in this story after all!
And finally, LAGARDE, beyond the product or the art that I currently offer, is surely and above all, in its initial foundation, more a concept of freedom than anything else.
The product is only a vector, a temporary medium to transmit my energy of the moment. I don't choose them randomly either. I always aim for fields that I am passionate about, because I am incapable of doing anything without love.
Today I sell art and jewelry because that is what makes me vibrate right now, currently, at this moment. But if tomorrow I feel like getting interested in potatoes and I forge a mad love for the potato, believe me, LAGARDE will become a potato world! Do you see the concept?
For me, it is an infinite playground. It is the ultimate luxury to succeed in making one's work as alive and unpredictable as life itself. It is a living chronicle of what moves me.
By accepting this dimension of creative "selfishness," I remove all the pressure of having to "please the market" or remaining stuck in a niche. I am in constant motion.
Freedom as a pillar, authenticity as a driver, fluidity as a strategy.
Finally, I realize that I am chasing freedom, especially in this entrepreneurial adventure. I am and I create what makes me vibrate in the present moment. Quite simply.
Is there a particular event or collaboration that has marked your career?
Of course. I have several, actually. But one really left a mark on me. It is the 2022 Ballon d'Or ceremony.
I know nothing about football; not that it's a sport I dislike! I even enjoy watching it, but it's true that I don't have a particular passion for it. However, I have a brother who is a football fan, and it is through him, ultimately, that I follow this discipline.
Then, 3 years ago, I met a watch brand that was one of the official sponsors of the Ballon d'Or.
I met the CEO of this brand at a jewelry fair in Geneva where I was exhibiting my paintings and graffiti! We crossed paths and he told me, "I love what you do. I think I have something crazy to offer you. I invite you to come to my office next week if you're interested."
I was obviously surprised and very curious to know what was hidden in his mind. So I went!
Arriving on the day of the meeting, he explained to me that they are sponsors of the Ballon d'Or. Right there, automatically, something happens in my head. I say to myself, "Damn, no way." And I think of my brother. He says to me, "Here it is, I would like you to create a piece for the event, whatever you want. You have carte blanche. The only goal is to highlight the products we are going to offer to the two winners of the Ballon d'Or that evening." Then they explain to me that I would participate in the ceremony, the evening party, etc.
I was floored. Even if I didn't particularly love football, I was aware of what this event represented in the world of football. In the eyes of millions of people, adults but also children. And here, I was going to be able to go, and to do my art there as well! I couldn't believe it...
I left the meeting, retrieved my crappy car in the Mont-Blanc parking lot. I was in tears. I think I cried the whole trip, telling myself that it was impossible to have gone through so many trials in my life and that, suddenly, I found myself in one of the most publicized events in the world!
Obviously, this evening was totally timeless... I wanted to live a dream. So I went to have a dress made specially for the evening, I brought out my first piece of jewelry created specially for the occasion! I saw many players, coaches. My arrival by taxi, the walk on the red carpet! There was the arrival of the trophies in a Formula 1 car with Esteban Ocon, I saw and heard Andrea Bocelli open the ceremony, had a drink next to Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Didier Deschamps, De Bruyne and even Damso and so many others!
I didn't know these people, I was sending photos to my loved ones, selfie-style, and they were going crazy! They were the ones telling me, "Estelle, but he is this, he is that!" I was totally lost...
It was very stressful and intimidating. But everything was sumptuous! And my work was there. In the middle of all that. That's what I liked most about this story.
You also pass on your expertise through your training courses: what does teaching bring you?
For me, beyond what it brings me, whether humanly or financially speaking, I think it is a duty.
Craft professions are in absolute danger. And to keep them alive, it is our duty to create vocations and to pass on our knowledge so as not to lose all the artisanal wealth that we have in our hands and which is, for me, a very precious legacy of the past!
I am sincerely afraid for our future.
I find it hard to imagine our knowledge being lost forever and yet, every year, we lose many artisans with the arrival of all the digital and numerical tools that exist on the market.
What annoys me is that people compare our manual labor to artisanal labor. However, they have nothing to do with each other. And that is what is killing what we do as well.
This confusion is destructive. Craftsmanship is not just "manual production"; it is a synthesis between technique, long periods of time, and an artistic intention. Reducing this to mere execution is to deny the soul of the object and the know-how of the one who conceives it.
We need help and, here, it is my voice as an artisan that is speaking. Not that of a gouache artist. Because I want to support all my fellow artisans in the evolution of this world! We need our professions to be highlighted, supported, and for structures to be put in place to allow us to pass on our knowledge.
French-style luxury is our artisans. And I pray every day that the luxury industry stops doing stupid things in their production.
We are the ones who built this industry. And today, we are turned away or only called for marketing questions. I find that aberrant.
This is undoubtedly the most ironic and painful point for me. "French-style" luxury was built on the myth of the exceptional, of rarity and perfect mastery. If the industry forgets that its prestige rests on the hands of its artisans, it ends up selling a product empty of meaning, a marketing shell that will, in the long run, eventually turn against it.
They are starting to pay the price for it, and personally, that delights me.
You are also a painter: when did you start painting? Was it before jewelry design, or after?
Well... I would say that I turned professional after jewelry design. And what's funny is that it came quite naturally, in the end.
I was already doing graffiti, oil painting, and abstract art, but it was for my personal pleasure at first, apart from jewelry gouache. I needed to release my energy somewhere and it is true that graffiti allowed me to do that.
After painting the infinitely small, I need to let loose. Just to decompress from the concentration that gouache requires of me all day long!
As I became an ambassador for the brand Lefranc Bourgeois 6 years ago, it was only natural that they offered to accompany me further in my art! Especially on large formats. Then after that, there was the XXL canvas of the Ballon d'Or, which allowed me to really establish that in my activities.
Since then, I always create large-format canvases for large watchmaking manufacturers. Whether for shop decoration, factory decoration, client gifts, or even events! I also have my style in that art that I transpose onto my brand! It is part of my visual identity.
Moreover, soon I will take an internship in bodywork so I can paint on cars, motorcycles, helmets! My dream! I can't wait to start!
As a painter, what are you seeking to transcribe through your works?
An emotion! I think!
I want the reflection of what I have created to give an emotion to the person who discovers it.
And besides, it doesn't need to be a positive emotion. It can also be negative. The essential thing for me is that it has awakened in you a form of emotion, questions, curiosity!
If that is the case, then my mission as an artist is accomplished!
What are your achievements as a painter? Are they exhibited anywhere?
I only make custom orders and I do not produce any stock.
For now, it’s mainly due to a lack of time. Because between the high jewelry brand, our training company, and my subcontracting business, I never stop!
All the pieces you have seen are sold and are obviously all unique!
But stay tuned, because I’m going to offer some insane stuff in 2027! Which, for now, are not special orders. They will be available for sale!
What are your ambitions for the future?
Phew... well, they are very big and constantly evolving.
I think I could write a very long text on this question.
So, what I suggest is that you follow it with me directly on social media!
LAGARDE is also about that. You have to hop on the train to understand the journey!
