At just 22 years old, aspiring Tunisian artist Jacline Nataf Mazard followed the lead of her father-in-law, Jean Marie Mazard, and began to sculpt in gold. The collaborators formerly established Jean Mahie in 1969, naming it for Jacline's young son Cyril’s pronunciation of his grandfather’s name. Jacline and Jean Marie worked side-by-side and usually in silence, shaping 22-karat gold into one-of-a-kind pieces that were sensuous and sculptural, warm and powerful — just like their chosen material.
Almost immediately after they launched the Jean Mahie line, Jacline and Jean Marie were courted by top luxury retailers: Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, and Nieman Marcus all carried Jean Mahie by the end of 1970. Their designs spoke to the changing winds of the era, a cultural moment when women were claiming social independence and the counter-culture was looking to earlier civilizations for political and aesthetic cues. Jacline was strongly influenced by both Hellenistic and Pre-Columbian motifs, which she channeled into her fearless works of wearable art.
I try to express in my work the reality of my time.
Jacline Natif Mazard, co-founder of Jean Mahie
Rago is delighted to offer property from the estate of American fashion designer and couturier James Galanos (1924 - 2016) who dressed America’s elite for decades, perhaps most notably Nancy Reagan. Over the course of his long career he was the recipient of many accolades including several Coty Awards, a lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and a bronze plaque on Seventh Avenue’s Fashion Walk of Fame. The Los Angeles Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work in 1997 and, after his retirement the following year, he stated: “The most important thing I have done is to maintain what I started out to do. I never deviated from what was most important, which was quality.”
