Founder’s note
If you need loud logos to signify luxury, Tamara de Launay is not for you.
I grew up surrounded by luxury. Designer pieces were part of the landscape of my childhood home, and what my family wore was often a gift from someone we loved. Before I understood labels, I understood the pleasure of wearing something beautiful and the affection behind a gift chosen just for me.
Over time, I began to question what luxury was becoming. Signature motifs and logos grew louder with each year that passed, turning their wearers into walking billboards. Prices climbed beyond what the pieces themselves could justify.
In a single year, we saw natural diamond prices fall 24%.¹ Yet designer brands raised prices for their diamond-set jewelry by almost 15% in that same year.² Gold prices did rise sharply, but analysts estimate that gold can represent as little as 5% of the price of designer high jewelry.³
The disillusionment deepens when supply chains are laid bare. As investigations into luxury houses show that assembling a €2,600 bag costs a mere €53 in outsourced labor, the question becomes unavoidable: how much of that premium pays for artistry, and how much for the name alone?⁴
Design, heritage, and fine craftsmanship command real value. Unchecked brand vanity does not.
I remain a lifelong lover of diamonds and a collector of luxury pieces. The beauty, imagination, and artistry of the great houses still move me. But so does the belief that we can expect more from the things we choose to treasure. Admiration and discernment belong together.
I founded Tamara de Launay for those who share that conviction: people of unmistakable presence, assured in their taste, independent in their judgment, and exacting in what they choose. A discerning few who expect extraordinary beauty, uncompromising craftsmanship, and integrity in equal measure.
True luxury does not rely on a logo to command a room. It is felt in the character of a hand-selected stone, the graceful balance of a setting, and the quiet assurance of a piece made to be worn for generations.
From the character of a stone to the beginning of your legacy.
Here, your vision is the starting point. We work with natural and lab-grown diamonds and colored gemstones, considering every detail from the proportions of your piece to the way it sits against your skin. Our care extends through its design, its making, and the service that accompanies it. Every stone is selected with intention. Every price is one we can explain with confidence.
The piece you have long imagined may become your signature—the beginning of a collection that could only be yours. A bracelet to mark a promotion, a necklace for a new beginning, a ring to celebrate an ambition fulfilled. Over the years, these pieces become part of how you are remembered. One day, someone you love may wear them, carrying something of you wherever life takes them.
This is the world I invite you into. A place to give your taste its fullest expression, and your own heritage its beginning.
From Paris to Seoul, made just for you.
Thank you for being here,
Tamara
¹ Rapaport reported a 24.1% decline during 2025 for round, one-carat, D–H color, SI-clarity natural diamonds. This figure concerns a specific segment of the polished-diamond trade market. Source: Rapaport.
² Selected diamond-set pieces at Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels saw U.S. retail-price increases within the 12–15% range during 2025. Examples include Cartier’s small rose-gold LOVE pavé ring (12.4%, cumulatively across the May and September adjustments), its small rose-gold Clash pavé ring (13.6%), and Van Cleef & Arpels’ three-motif Magic Alhambra earrings with malachite and diamonds (14.4%). Percentages are calculated from published before-and-after prices. Sources: Cartier—May 2025, Cartier—September 2025, Van Cleef & Arpels—April 2025.
³ Bernstein analyst Luca Solca estimated gold costs at approximately 5–8% of sales for very high-end designer brands. Source: Reuters.
⁴ The €53 figure reported from the 2024 Milan proceedings concerned a supplier’s assembly charge for a Dior handbag retailing at €2,600. Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Reuters’ February 2025 update.
Creative Direction
Two perspectives, one shared standard for exceptional materials and intentional craftsmanship.
Tamara T. H. Kim
A collector’s eye. A lawyer’s rigor.
The year was 2002. Tamara was watching Sweet Home Alabama with her mother when a man on screen had Tiffany’s opened in the middle of the night solely for the woman he loved, and invited her to choose any ring she wanted. The whole store, just for her.
“Someday, I hope a man will do that for you,” her mother said.
10-year-old Tamara turned to her, smiled, and said: “Someday, I hope to be able to do that for you.”
Her mother still tells the story today.
By then, Tamara had already bought her mother a gold necklace with money she had earned herself. She had started her tutoring business at seven, negotiating bonuses with her classmates’ parents for agreed test-score milestones.
Admitted to Georgetown University at 15, Tamara completed her B.A. at 19 and later returned to earn her J.D. and LL.M. She is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Her decade-long legal career took her from private practice in Washington and Tokyo to in-house counsel and executive roles in Seoul. She became Chief Legal Officer at 29 and later served as Head of Global Legal and Branding. She is fluent in Korean, English, and French.
Throughout that career, one passion remained constant. Asked about her interests beyond her work, Tamara had a one-word answer: “Diamonds.”
Years spent traveling, collecting fine jewelry, attending private high jewelry presentations, and studying auction pieces refined her eye and sharpened her expectations: distinctive stones, considered design, and craftsmanship that rewards a closer look.
After leaving her executive role, she founded Tamara de Launay to create jewelry that met those expectations. She sourced stones for her opening collection and worked with artisans she trusted to make her designs. She wanted to be as confident in the details of a piece as she was captivated by its beauty.
Today, her approach unites a collector’s passion with a lawyer’s scrutiny. Why this stone? Why this setting? What makes the craftsmanship worthy of the design, and what justifies the price? Her standard is personal: jewelry she would be proud to wear herself or give to someone she loves, with choices she can explain and stand behind.
The girl who wanted to offer her mother that choice now has a jewelry brand of her own—and an invitation for you.
Imagine choosing a stone you cannot stop looking at, shaping the details of its setting, and finally seeing it catch the light as you put it on. Or imagine opening that box for someone you love, knowing the piece inside was made with them in mind.
Your dream jewelry is within reach.
Lionel Philippe Delaunay
Parisian discernment. An exacting eye.
For Lionel, grandeur is not the opposite of elegance. It simply asks more of every detail.
With family roots in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, Lionel brings to Tamara de Launay a distinctly Parisian sensibility: an appreciation for fine materials and quality that rewards attention rather than demands recognition. He is not easily impressed. A prominent logo or an extravagant price is no substitute for beautiful proportions, thoughtful design, and impeccable finishing.
It takes more than diamonds to impress this rather judgmental Frenchman. It takes craftsmanship.
His taste leaves ample room for romance, glamour, and magnificent jewels. What it does not accommodate is excess without intention. A commanding center stone, a lavish arrangement of diamonds, an unexpected combination of colors—each can be extraordinary when the composition is right. But exceptional stones are only the beginning. His admiration depends on what skilled hands have made of them: the precision of the setting, the harmony of the proportions, and the attention paid even to details that are not immediately visible.
« Ce n’est pas assez travaillé », he is often heard criticizing a piece that relies on spectacle alone. Quite literally: it needs more work. For Lionel, the distinction between regal extravagance and mere excess lies not in how many diamonds a piece contains, but in how thoughtfully they have been brought together.
His years as a chef in kitchens around the world and as a menu consultant sharpened his attention to provenance, composition, and execution. They reinforced a principle that continues to guide his judgment: exceptional ingredients deserve equally considered treatment. His work as a model and developer broadened that perspective, combining an awareness of visual presence with an interest in the details that make something work.
As Buyer and CFO, Lionel draws on relationships built across countries to help source gemstones, weighing quality, value, and the client’s vision. He helps keep Tamara de Launay’s creative ambition grounded in thoughtful purchasing and financial discipline.
Tamara brings a collector’s passion and a lawyer’s rigor. Lionel offers a discerning counterpoint: where she is captivated by the possibilities of a jewel, he asks what will make the finished piece worthy of that enthusiasm. A beautiful stone may catch his attention. The design and craftsmanship must earn the rest.
Their partnership brings two distinct perspectives to a shared standard. Tamara imagines the jewelry she has always wanted to find; Lionel contributes an exacting second eye, questioning whether each element serves the beauty of the whole. His role is not to make her vision quieter. It is to help ensure that even its most extravagant expressions retain their elegance.
Regal in presence. Refined in every detail.
That is the spirit of Tamara de Launay.