Did Louise Damas leave the Sorbonne because of Salammbô?
Flaubert inspired Salammbô, her first piece. Requests from friends followed, then artisan markets. By 2012, literature had become a jewelry brand.
In the early 2010s, Louise Damas was studying modern literature at the Sorbonne. She loved books, but she also loved making things with her hands. To bridge the two, she formed a singular habit: listening to the audiobooks of the classics on her syllabus while crafting her first pieces of jewelry.
One evening, Flaubert stepped in. In Salammbô, the descriptions of the jewels and "cascades" of gemstones worn by the heroine inspired her to imagine the adornments she would have designed for the character herself. Naturally, she named the piece Salammbô. It was her very first creation—and the beginning of a creative process.
Soon, friends began placing orders. Louise started selling her creations at makers' markets, launched an Instagram account, and then set up a first, makeshift website with the help of a friend. By the time she finished her degree, the orders had grown enough to justify taking a gap year before starting her master's. In the end, she never went back to university.
Literature, however, never faded. Phèdre, Paquita, Lolita, and the heroines of Stefan Zweig became, in turn, the starting points for her collections. Some customers even wrote to her after purchasing a piece, sharing that they had gone on to read the novel that gave their jewelry its name.
More than a decade later, the jewelry is still crafted in her Parisian atelier, and the brand continues to embrace this hand-hewn irregularity as a core part of its identity.
Taste
La Sorbonne · Flaubert · Salammbô · Audiobooks · Literary heroines · Parisian ateliers · Sculpted jewelry · Happy accidents · French savoir-faire
