The planets of Satellite

From primitive art to successful jewelry, a recipe with ethnic ingredients for Satellite ♦

Sandrine Dulon is an ethnologist, Daniel Ouaki a photographer. But 30 years ago, in 1987, instead of a photo shoot on an Amazon tribe, the couple founded Satellite, a French jewelery brand. From Paris, the French company has expanded in Italy and China, from Milan and Rome to Shanghai and Xiamen.

Naturally for sale there are the same jewels designed in the Parisian atelier. Of the original interests of the founders, the jewels take on a generically ethnic style: natural stones, pearls, silk, but also feathers are used. The elements are not combined according to a particular tribal style, yet they eclectically recall the jewels of some ancient population. “The base is solidly anchored in cultural wealth, but the head is in the world of dreams,” confirms Sandrine. In short, a sort of revisited anthropology. It is no coincidence that the founder’s father was a collector of primitive art, while his mother designed jewelry. Everything in the family, in short. And the new collections all have names of places in Southern Italy, such as Avola, Salina, Panarea, Masseria, Noto, Alicudi.