Cuba, India, Paris: My Travel Journal by a Borderless Creator
My journey: a life built between two hemispheres
Some people choose their lives. Others let life build itself, journey after journey, encounter after encounter. I belong to this second category: those for whom every country crossed leaves a lasting impression, which ultimately finds its way into what they do and what they create.
The first escapades: Nouvelles Frontières and the Caribbean
Love takes me to Cuba. The island is still very isolated from the rest of the world. No internet, few tourists, a rich culture, and a population of rare warmth. I stay there for two years, absorbing the vivid colors of Havana's colonial facades, immersing myself in the rhythms of salsa and Afro-Cuban ceremonies. Cuba teaches me something essential: wealth is not in objects, but in the stories they carry.
South America: learning the art of slow travel
After Cuba, I don't return directly to France. I travel across South America: six months in Chile, weeks in Argentina, Peru, Colombia. I hunt for local handicrafts, learning to distinguish authentic items from those produced for tourists, developing an eye for material and craftsmanship.
I bring this taste for local craftsmanship back to Paris, where I open a jewelry shop on rue de Charonne. The shop does well.
India: the big turning point
At 32, I make a decision that changes the course of my life: I go to India. The initial idea is simple: to find antique objects for the shop, to discover the country. But India is not a country you simply pass through. It is a country that absorbs you.
I set up an agent office there in 2004 and begin manufacturing fashion accessories for international luxury brands. I learn the ropes of Indian artisanal production, build a network of trusted artisans, and understand the local culture from within. New Delhi becomes my base. Jaipur, my city of creation.
2018: the birth of the eponymous brand
After more than a decade of working for others, the frantic pace of fashion felt meaningless to me. Too fast. Too bland. Too far from what I sought to convey. I decided it was time to create for myself. In 2018, I launched my own brand: Dorothée Sausset. The first collection is called "Holistic Story." The name says it all: each piece of jewelry is a story, built through travels, encounters, and cultural inspirations accumulated over two decades.
The subsequent Orishas collection pays homage to Afro-Cuban deities: a direct nod to that formative first journey. The multi-colored beads, geometric patterns, and symbols borrowed from different cultures: everything in this collection speaks of Cuba, India, and South America.
A designer rooted in two worlds
Today, I still live between Paris and New Delhi. I make regular trips back and forth, between the world of Parisian fashion and the workshops of Jaipur. My dual cultural belonging is precisely what gives my jewelry its unique character: neither entirely European, nor exotic in the tourist sense of the term, but something in between, a synthesis of two aesthetics.
My story is that of many creators who have made travel not a leisure activity, but a way of life and a working method. A way of never settling into the comfort of what is already known.
