Elie Top, Lanvin’s jewelry designer extraordinaire, has announced he’s starting a line of his own. Calling it Joaillerie de Haute Fantaisie, he seems to be going a step beyond the baroque eclecticism that has brought him accolade after accolade at Lanvin, where he’ll remain.

Top began his career in jewelry design in 1997, working with Loulou de la Falaise at Yves Saint Laurent and collaborating closely with Alber Elbaz, the house’s creative director before Tom Ford arrived. It was Elbaz who pushed Top, an illustrator at the time, to start thinking about jewelry. When Elbaz became creative director of Lanvin, he asked Top to head up jewelry design at the maison.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the design itself and forget reality,” Top once told us in an interview. “There’s a lot of economy in getting just the right line.” How he’ll reconcile that sense of minimalism with his gift for eccentricity will be closely watched at the Paris couture collections in January, when the line will be unveiled.