HARPO, BRINGING THE FAR WEST TO PARIS
This story began back in 1971, in a modest garage at 46, rue de René-Boulanger, near Paris’s Place de la République. In those days, when the neighborhood was a hub of garment manufacturing, Gérard Nadaud worked there making clothes. Then one day, a friend showed up by chance, wearing lots of Native American jewelry she had brought back from her travels. He was instantly smitten.
The 25-year-old Parisian threw himself into the world of turquoise and headed for America’s Far West. He returned from his first journeys through New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona with a few “liquid silver” necklaces, made up of an infinity of tiny silver beads. The next step was to choose a name under which to sell these rare pieces. He decided on Harpo, after Harpo Marx of the Marx Brothers.
Things really took off a few
years later, in the late 1970s. “Ethnic” jewelry was becoming trendy, and Harpo was in the vanguard. Harpo soon needed to expand, and the business moved to Rue Michel-le-Comte in the Marais before eventually settling at 19, rue de Turbigo, in the Châtelet area. Nadaud’s pieces were featured in
magazines, and customers included famed French musicians like Johnny Hallyday, Eddy Mitchell and Renaud.
Over three decades later, Harpo is still there, an unsinkable institution in a neighborhood that’s in constant flux. The ground floor serves loyal customers and curious passerby alike, people of all kinds who – after browsing the array of silver jewelry and utterly irresistible gemstones – can treat themselves to a piece of America at a price to suit their pocket.
Upstairs, a succession of wholesalers from all over the world passes through to buy pieces they can’t source directly. There is no competing with Gérard’s longstanding networks among Native American jewelers, who continued to be nurtured by his three daughters, Valentine, Ella and Dorothée. Anyone who’s looking for Native American jewelry has to go to Harpo. And that’s not about to change any time soon. In recent years, Dorothée, who now runs the business, has expanded the range with even more spectacular pieces. She’s also began to design jewelry herself.