The purity of a pearl breaks its predefined concepts with the pearls coming from the depths of Tahiti that Turia resurfaces to the surface of Saint Michael with its brand “Turia My Pearl”.
These “accidents” of nature never cease to captivate our hearts or adorn our necks when we present ourselves to the public. But this formality that comes implicitly with pearls is something that Turia seeks to break and transmute them into fun pieces with their own life and illumination.
Find out why you can ask Turia for the Virgin's pearls with the following interview.
L: Tell us about your origins and how Tahitian pearls have been present in your life.
T: I am from Tahiti but I had a Russian-American father and my mom is from French Polynesia. I lived half of my life here in Mexico with my dad, traveling between Mexico and Tahiti 4 times a year spending my holidays in French Polynesia practically playing with Tahitian pearls because it is the most important industry after tourism.
I think having a foreign father and a Tahitian mother is very important. A woman here in Mexico influenced my life a lot. So I think the combination of culture and travel has been a blessing. And the fact of living in Tahiti the second part of my life and being present with pearls made me dedicate myself to that.
I was also lucky and blessed to have met Robert Wan, known as the Emperor of Pearls, the visionary, the number one in the world. I worked for him for 15 years and he taught me everything. I fell in love with his beautiful pearl and it became my passion and I dedicate my life to it.
L: What is the difference between one of these pearls and a normal one?
T: There is a lot of confusion between artificial pearls, cultured pearls and what many people call natural pearls, which are those that grew naturally, but in reality a pearl that grew through an accident is not called a natural pearl, it is called a fine pearl.
These pearls no longer exist; they existed since years before Christ, so the first person who started cultivating pearls was Mr. Mikimoto, who is very famous worldwide because he caused the accident in an oyster and caused the pearl to grow naturally.
There are also Chinese pearls that grow in oysters that grow 30 pearls and are called “freshwater pearls” but they are not of the same quality as, for example, those from Australia, which are white and large, very similar to those from Tahiti.
What makes Tahitian oysters so unique is that they have a natural colour. The French Polynesian oyster produces a pearl with a pigment. The mollusk secretes nacre and the shells overlap one another and grow by one millimetre each year.
So a 16 millimetre pearl is 16 years old. So another particularity of Tahitian pearls is that they are very large and of better quality. We have different sizes, colours and shapes. Quality is measured by the orient, by the brightness and by the purity of the skin.
L: What inspires you to create your collections?
T: I have been working with pearls for 30 years and when I started, everything was very classic because you can never go wrong with that. Only the 5% in production is round, and only the 2.5% reach a top gem quality. With Mr. Robert Wan, all the big brands bought from him, so I was the first person to put a pearl on leather and we decided to participate in a big event by having for the first time a whole line with Baroque Pearls that nobody was buying.
I used leather, silk and organic materials to create this new way of wearing pearls because that was the way I felt about wearing pearls. I was very young and I wanted to wear fun things. Going to the beach with your pearls, wearing jeans with your pearls, so we broke that vision.
To this day, with my brand Turia My Pearl, I have a whole line of very bohemian jewelry and accessories combining pearls with rubies, sapphires and diamonds. It is a very valuable piece, but one that modern women like to wear because it refreshes them. I also have my classic line, which are chokers, and I use purer pearls and I don't combine them because the pearl is the queen of the piece and I give it its space.
L: How was the arrival of the pearls in San Miguel and how have they been received?
T: When I decided to create my own brand Turia My Pearl with the support of Robert Wan, I wanted to come to Mexico because I live in French Polynesia and I wanted to come to Mexico often, so I decided to bring my brand here. I started very small and it was just me with 20 pearls and I started seeing private clients and at first with 20 pearls you can only do classic things.
In Mexico I was welcomed with a lot of love and so I grew up and now I come every month. Seven years ago I came to San Miguel and I fell in love and at first I came on vacation and they told me about a project to create Sally's Casa Doce18 and she showed me the whole project out of nowhere and I had just bought a little house.
When she showed me the Concept Store and invited me to be there, I chose my place and to this day I am still there. San Miguel has been incredible and has multiplied my Mexican clients because they like my beautiful pieces and my divine pearls. I work with artisans and single mothers, it is something very important to me because life has been so good to me that I cannot just receive and not be able to help. The more I can help, the happier I am.
Watch the full interview and learn more about the wonderful designer Turia and her brand Turia My Pearl
