alérie Messika grew up surrounded by precious stones. At an age when others were playing Super Mario, guided by her father, André Messika, an esteemed diamond merchant since 1972, she was learning to distinguish different gems.

After communication studies at CELSA Sorbonne University, in 1999 Valérie Messika joined the marketing team at Chanel’s watch and jewellery division and may well have pursued a career at the legacy brand… if her father, looking to the future, hadn’t been eager for her to join the family firm. And so Valérie Messika took her first steps in the diamond world in the best possible way: with a master.

In 2003 André Messika moved overseas to expand his business by becoming a sightholder. Two years later, Valérie Messika branched out and created her namesake brand.

Celebrating twenty years since taking that leap, in July 2025 in Paris Valérie Messika presented the Terres d’Instinct high jewellery collection: the first to feature coloured precious stones alongside the House’s signature diamonds. Then in March 2026 she unveiled Moderniste, a collection of jewellery and fine jewellery.

Valérie Messika

Ezra Petronio

Valérie Messika welcomed us at her rooftop offices in Paris’s “Golden Triangle” neighbourhood to talk about this spectacular success story.

Europa Star Jewellery: Not every child grows up playing with diamonds. Do you have one memory in particular of this time?

Valérie Messika: I saw a lot of very large diamonds from a very young age but curiously, my most vivid memories are of small stones. I remember my father opening an envelope of tiny loose diamonds. They were so white they looked more like powder or snow. I remember picking them up with tweezers, examining them with a loupe and being astonished by so many facets in such a small space. My father often says diamonds never sell for the price they should, considering the thousands of years they took to form inside the Earth, and the time and skill required to bring sparkle to a rough. It’s a magical process.

Kalahara necklace, Terres d’Instinct high jewellery collection

Yoann & Marco

What’s the most important lesson he taught you?

Diamond is carbon, energy, and my father has always told me “energy never lies”. When you put a diamond next to your skin, it brings strength, intimacy, a sensation. We are human beings, made of energy. I’m very receptive to this.

Are you drawn to diamonds more than other stones?

I grew up with diamonds. They’re a part of my family heritage and I’m proud of that. I work mainly with diamonds although I can create pieces using other stones.

When did you realise that diamonds would be your creative language?

At the age of 29, when I started designing jewellery. The day I bumped into someone in the street who was wearing one of my pieces and wasn’t part of my family, that’s when I knew I was onto something! [laughs]

What inspired you to set up your own brand?

When my father moved abroad. He has a big personality. One day he told me “small trees can never grow in the shade of a mighty oak”. I was young and used to make fun of him with his grand declarations, but moving was the best thing he could have done for me. I was quite shy and tended to hang back behind this charismatic man. Had we carried on working together, I would never have taken the plunge. Probably I would have done something else.

You founded Messika in 2005. What was your initial idea?

Create jewellery for women my age. I saw diamonds as rather formal, a little fusty, reserved for special occasions. My friends would say they’d wear a diamond the day their future husband bought them an engagement ring. When I was twenty, [the jewellers on] Place Vendôme didn’t appeal to me in the least. I thought to myself, why not give diamonds a revamp, make them cool? Because of my background in marketing and communication, I was interested in more than just designing jewellery. I wanted to create an entire world and I think that also played a part in Messika’s success.

What did you hope to bring to the jewellery world?

Shake it up a little. With all due respect, I belong to a generation of jewellers who have made diamonds sexy, more contemporary, which is also why we’re so incredibly popular with artists such as Rihanna and Beyoncé. They connect with this modern approach and aren’t afraid to wear jewellery in an unconventional way. They’re our greatest ambassadors.

Messika High Jewellery Show 2025, model Alton Mason

Giovanni Giannoni

Beyoncé wore your Persian Drops suite when she shot the Apeshit video inside the Louvre. How did that come about?

In 2015 Beyoncé and Jay-Z were staying at the Royal Monceau in Paris. Her stylist let me know she’d seen my Glam’Azone ring in a display at the hotel and that she loved it. At first I thought it was a joke, then decided I would send her one as a gift. A couple of days later, I was inundated with messages from people forwarding photos from Beyoncé’s Instagram account, where’s she’s pointing at the Mona Lisa and wearing my ring. So we issued a press release saying Beyoncé was a fan of a French jewellery brand called Messika. The news went viral.

A couple of years later, I got a call from Beyoncé’s office asking for a loan of the Persian Drops suite, but it had to be sent over without a guard. I called my father and he said I should trust her and he’d be my guarantor. Then one Sunday morning, not long after, there was that image of Beyoncé in a pink suit, wearing my earrings and my necklace, with the Mona Lisa behind her. Beyoncé is a superstar, she could have chosen any jeweller she wanted. It was an enormous gift. Some things you don’t control. You can only thank your lucky star.

Kate Moss and Valerie Messika - Holiday Season 2025 behind the scenes

Romain Laprade

Does she still wear your jewellery?

Yes, she’s still a friend of the brand. At one point she had a contract with a major jewellery house, so she was less present, but since the end of the contract she’s been wearing our jewellery again.

Your designs are both powerful and ethereal. Is that a reflection of who you are?

There’s a lot of me in this journey but it always happens organically. I enjoy contrasts: hot and cold, denim and diamonds. I’m not looking to over-sophisticate things.

You’re a woman at the head of an independent jewellery company in a sector still dominated by men and groups. How do you see your role?

I feel I’m at an advantage. A woman doesn’t run a company in the same way as a man. A woman has a way of approaching not just jewellery but everything that surrounds it, and part of Messika’s success springs from this. For a long time, jewellery was an expression of power, a man’s power, and status. That’s not how I do it. I started out on the ground floor, creating affordable pieces with small diamonds, worn close to the skin. I came to jewellery from a more sensual, feminine angle. For me, it was never a symbol of power. Another advantage of being a woman is that I can wear my designs, hence I’m always focused on creating pieces that are versatile and comfortable to wear.

Messika Moderniste Collection

Yoann & Marco

Describe Messika in a few words.

Leaving aside the high jewellery collections, which take sophistication to the highest level, I’d say there is an element of freedom. Diamonds that move freely, the fact you can wear them however you like. Some of the established brands have pieces with such strong connotations they overshadow the wearer’s personality, whereas customers can make our jewellery their own. A kind of fusion. Moderniste, our new line, encapsulates the Messika spirit pretty well.

Speaking of Moderniste, what inspired the octagonal shape?

While diamonds have always been a huge part of my life, I wanted to explore gold in its own right. I imagined these pieces not as accessories but as sculptures, as objects that exist in the fullness of their three dimensions. Moderniste is informed by the strong, clean lines of modernist architecture.

Do you see it becoming a new classic, alongside Move?

Twenty years after founding Messika and after redefining contemporary jewellery with diamonds in motion, I’m launching a bold new chapter. Moderniste is about contrasts: luminous and irreverent, powerful and precise, where opposites come together and find their ideal equilibrium.

Which piece would you say best encapsulates your journey so far?

Move. Diamonds that slide along a rail inside an oval. It’s a recognisable, identifiable design. A signature shape.

What is your most powerful memory of the past twenty years?

There are so many! Probably the opening of my first boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré. I’ll remember that day my entire life because, by complete coincidence, it’s the day I gave birth to my daughter, December 6, 2013. The anaesthetist kept asking me about the boutique and my jewellery, she wouldn’t stop asking questions about the brand and about creativity. It was like giving an interview when all I wanted was to focus on having my baby! [laughs]. Everyone was running around preparing for the opening and I wasn’t there. Symbolically, it was not one birth but two.

You’ve worked with Gigi Hadid. Kate Moss fronted your Christmas 2025 campaign. What does Messika get from collaborations such as these?

I loved working with Kate Moss. With Gigi Hadid, too. She appreciated the fact she wasn’t just the face of the brand, that we also designed a collection together. It was a way for me to enter her world, and vice versa. She was at a point when her career was really taking off. Gigi embodied the brand’s youthful spirit really, really well. It was a genuine and sincere collaboration.

Messika Paris Saint-Honoré Boutique

Which personality, real or imaginary, best captures the Messika mindset?

Wonder Woman immediately springs to mind, with her cuffs and her headpiece. When I was young, I adored Wonder Woman. She seemed so strong and sexy, with her lasso. Otherwise it would be Kate Moss. What I like about Kate is that she’s so incredibly laidback, the epitome of that mix of strong and ethereal you mentioned earlier. At the same time, I’d say she’s the most sensitive, fragile woman I know. She has class and style whatever she wears. Kate is a phoenix who always rises from her ashes.

You found inspiration for the Terres d’Instinct high jewellery collection while travelling in Africa. What did you set out to express?

A homage to our planet Earth. My father, who’s fond of speaking in metaphors, says that humans have roots and we sink these roots into the ground. We owe so much to this earth: the miracle of diamonds and most of all the miracle of life. I felt this anniversary was the right moment to go back and remember that however enraptured I am by these wonderful voyages and the incredible worlds of which I’m a part, everything originates with the Earth.

This is the first time you’ve introduced emeralds, rubies and sapphires to your collection, together with coloured fine stones. Why is that?

After staying true to my chosen stone for twenty years, I decided the time had come for me to begin a new chapter and add colour to my creative palette. We used Sannan Skarn [a green ornamental stone discovered a decade ago in Pakistan] for our Zebra Luhlaza necklace, which won the Design award at the Grand Prix de la Haute Joaillerie in Monaco. We were the first House to use this little-known gem.

Messika Know How 2025, Mille Feux Tsavorite necklace

Pierre Verez

Could you describe your creative process?

Anarchic, impulsive, intuitive. I don’t spend hours poring over a mood board. Ideas come to me throughout the creative process. A collection is something you build. I wanted Terres d’Instinct to convey power, so I focused on this word and what it evoked for me. When I’m creating, I’m free.

As someone who creates desire and beauty, what responsibility do you have in a world in search of meaning?

Make things that will last. Children are addicted to their screens and can’t stop scrolling, our attention spans are shrinking, there’s an endless cycle of product drops. My profession creates objects that will be handed down. They only need to be polished and they’re like new, which isn’t the case of, say, a handbag, however luxurious. There is something about jewellery that’s immortal, something more powerful than us that will be here when we’re gone. This gives some meaning to what we do.