History of Coeur de Lion

Innovative style. Handmade in Germany. 

In 1987, the same year the company was founded, Carola Eckrodt presented her first creations using industrial parts at the Avantgarde exhibition in Munich, the then main trade fair for innovative fashion jewellery. 

 

   

The Dusseldorf-based couturier Hanns Friedrichs, who became a style icon as outfitter to Joan Collins, took an interest in the fledgling company and bought the complete first collection, which in addition to gearbox parts also incorporated rubber, petrol hoses and alloy steel!

The designs became more refined but still based around a slightly industrial look.

 

In 2014 COEUR DE LION has been selected as the “Best Jewellery Brand 2014” at the UK Watch and Jewellery Awards 2014, the most prestigious distinction in this sector in Great Britain. According to the jury, the deciding factors for this were a “primarily colourful and especially vivid brand” and the “impressive product variety”. Then again COEUR DE LION was a finalist for 2015. 

     

COEUR DE LION has been awarded numerous prestigious German Design and Brand Awards over the years  -  the jury praising the “uniquely beautiful, timeless designs full of strength and joie de vivre” 

Carola continued to design this stunning and innovative jewellery, with around 140 people working in the Stuttgart studios creating and distributing COEUR DE LION. 

     

June 2017 marked a key milestone for Coeur de Lion – the 30-year anniversary. Naturally there was much celebrating with a Gala Dinner in Stuttgart at the famous Alte Reithalle building with 300 distributors agents and staff from around the world plus the release of a very special ‘limited edition collection’ to mark the occasion. The limited releases elegantly sum up the Coeur De Lion 30-year history of design.  

    

This was a fantastic event with a journey of images presented by Carola and Nils Eckrodt and information about the huge rise in popularity of COEUR DE LION over the years and the personal introduction of their daughter Greta who was the  campaign model for the AU/NZ Spring Summer 2017/18 collection.

   

2018 heralded another award, this time a German Design Award in the Luxury Goods and Excellent Product Design categories.

2019 saw the celebration of 20 years of the iconic GEOCUBE® with a release of a very special limited edition as a tribute to the first GEOCUBE® model from 1999. Originally featuring semi matt cubes the anniversary update featured sparkling vibrant multicoloured Swarovski® Crystals highlighted by rose gold plating. 

 2019 and 2020 were proudly celebrated with another 2 German Brand Awards.

  

We celebrated an amazing 35 years of Handmade Design in 2022 and released a special edition Multi Wear GEOCube® set to mark this milestone.

Then again Coeur de Lion won another German Brand Award in 2022.