FRED

Fred Samuel was born in Buenos Aires in 1908 to Alsatian parents and came to France at 16, training as a pearl and precious-stone trader with the Worms company, which marketed Mikimoto's cultured pearls in France. In 1936 he opened his own shop at 6 rue Royale in Paris, styling himself "le moderne joaillier créateur". He was among the first to import Japanese cultured pearls into France, upsetting a trade built on natural pearls; clients included Mary Pickford, Barbara Hutton and Marlene Dietrich.

During the Second World War Samuel, an Argentine citizen, fought with a foreign volunteers' regiment of the Foreign Legion, was captured on the Somme in 1940 and escaped. Under the occupation his shop was placed under the control of the Commissariat-General for Jewish Affairs, which forced the removal of his surname. He joined the Resistance in the Vercors. Back in Paris in 1944 he kept only his first name on the shop front, and the house has traded as FRED since.

His sons Henri and Jean joined in the 1960s and opened boutiques in France, Monaco and the United States, including Beverly Hills in 1977; a leather goods boutique, 6 Royale, opened in 1975, and the house worked with artists including Jean Cocteau and Bernard Buffet. In 1966 Fred Samuel created the first Force 10 bracelet, a braided steel sailing cable with a gold buckle. The collection launched in 1978 and remains FRED's emblem.

The house also built a name for large coloured diamonds, among them the 105.54-carat "Soleil d'Or", acquired in 1977, and Fred jewellery featured in films such as Pretty Woman (1990).

LVMH acquired FRED in 1995. The flagship moved to 14 rue de la Paix in 2015, and Valérie Samuel, the founder's granddaughter, has been artistic director since 2017. Under Charles Leung, chief executive from 2018 to 2024, the house opened in Ginza and launched the 32-facet Hero Cut diamond in 2022.

Vincent Reynes succeeded Leung in 2024, when FRED named the singer Jin of BTS its first global ambassador and presented the high jewellery collection Monsieur Fred Ideal Light.