ILIAS LALAOUNIS (1923-2013)

LALAoUNIS is a Greek jewelry company known for making ancient Greek revival jewelry. Ilias Lalaounis, born in the heart of Athens, was an internationally renowned artist and jeweler. After working in the family business, he founded his own company in 1969 called Greek Gold-Ilias Lalaounis S.A. Initially having branches on several Greek islands, the company soon expanded to Paris, Zurich, Geneva, and London. Later, it opened stores in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Lalaounis received many prizes for his jewelry art and became an associate member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France in 1990, the only jeweler ever to be elected.

His career began in the 1940s when he started working for his uncle Xenofon Zolotas and his renowned Greek jewelry company. During those very difficult years in Greece, Lalaounis sought innovative ways of promoting the business by supporting traditional Grecian craft. He introduced new machinery and techniques for the manufacturing of chains, studied ancient goldsmithing techniques like granulation, filigree, handweaving, and hand-hammering, which he used in his designs, and brought back engraving on 18 karat and 22 karat gold jewelry as well as micro sculpture. In the 1950s, his ingenious idea of reviving Greek jewelry was hugely successful and without doubt changed the trajectory of his career.

Following the death of his uncle, he opened his own company, which allowed for even more creative freedom. Ancient artifacts sparked his imagination and inspired thousands of jewelry designs. Lalaounis’s knowledge and grasp of the art and history of early civilizations led to a number of “archaeological” collections based on various cultures in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In the 1970s, these collections demonstrated his inexhaustible ability to create and search for new ideas with some spectacular designs based on modern technology, astronomy, nature, and medicine, to mention a few. His interest in pure gold never wavered. He impressed his clientele with the sheer diversity of his jewelry and the richness of the gold for which he became well-known. He was also a genius at marketing and thought of new and innovative ways to capture the attention of his celebrity clients and the press.

The Ilias LALAoUNIS Jewelry Museum opened in 1993, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of contemporary Greek jewelry through promotion, display, and academic research.

Today, LALAoUNIS produces the designs sold in the company’s boutiques in Greece and abroad. In line with the family tradition, Lalaounis’s four daughters, Katerini, Demetra, Maria, and Ioanna, direct both the company and the museum.