From 1975 to 1982 in New York on Park Avenue, Billy Boy created for his fashion house named Surreal Couture not only clothing and hats but many pieces of Pop, Baroque and Surrealist-inspired jewellery. 

Apart from the Constructivist line with semi-precious stones mounted in 24k gold or sterling silver, which are extremely rare to find today, for the most part the creations of this period present objects from Pop culture diverted from their first use, often with a connotation to the worlds of childhood, fantasy and Modernistic Wiccan Symbolism: Dinky Toys cars, airplanes and various toys like plastic animals or rubber dinosaurs, chameleons, crocodiles, ceramic figurines, keys, shells, crab or lobster claws. 

These poetic creations were quite far away from the tendencies in the world of fashion of the time. They seem even today to be totally bewitched as if caught in the spell of a mysterious magician: enchanting objects, they mutate into spectacular jewellery, trapped in some spider's web of sophisticated pearl and glass beads, with glass and pieces of coral, mother-of-pearl and semi-precious stones mounted on a single wire of gold-plated brass and enhanced with gold leaf. Diverted from their original purpose, these "recycled" objects (before the concept was really used), become numerous gri-gri and protective talismans, lush and iconoclast. These pieces of provocative jewellery, brought new blood to an old tradition, a whole vision of New York chic inspired by sources dating back as far as Surrealism, the 18th-century European Baroque period, and of course, of Elsa Schiaparelli. The inspirations, bubbling with vitality and youth creating Surreal Couture were above all and without a doubt a tribute to THE muse, Elsa Schiaparelli. Collector and passionate, Billy Boy was already her sort of spokesman. The "Pizza" or "Candy" necklaces made entirely by hand as in a children's workshop (Billy Boy was educated at the Ecole Montessori) and they evoke at once the candour of the creations of Paul Poiret's Atelier Martine workshop as well as the spirit of the "Aspirin" necklace created by Elsa Triolet for Schiaparelli in 1931.

Protégé of Diana Vreeland, who gathered a collection of his work for the permanent collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the creations of his Surreal Couture appeared regularly in the New York press, in Women's Wear Daily, Soho Weekly News, Details, Vogue, New York Times, The Village Voice and many others. Orson Welles commissioned one of his first creations, a large cape with a hood. Billy Boy realizes, at the invitation of his friend Calvin Churchman, then artistic director of Fiorucci in New York, his first exhibitions of paintings, then jewels and furniture, and even a performance piece completely filled with his own fashions on models called "A Christmas Ball With Billy Boy".  As Schiaparelli had made in 1935, and thirty years before John Galliano, he creates hats, dresses and gowns whose fabric was printed with reproductions of his own press clippings.

Both a dandy and inventor of a Neo-Futuristic character called Mister Modern, this avatar was creating experiences in a setting of artifacts from the 1950s and 1960s (Billy Boy was one of the very first of his generation to be interested in what is called now "vintage" with his first art and decoration galleries called FLY BY NITE in New York and Newport, Oregon). A contemporary artist, designer and creator of the most serious world of fashion for some "happy few" galleries, Billy Boy decided in 1979 to come to settle permanently in Paris, the source of all of his inspirations. Soon his work was sold at Henri Bendel's (prior to the Surreal Bijoux of Paris), Carol Rollo's famous shop called Riding High, Robert Lee Morris's gallery in Soho and a famous men's shop in the West Village.

The entire collection was sold in a few hours and launched the Surreal Bijoux in New York. It was followed by another successful show at Lou Lattimore in Dallas, Texas, who also was sold out in a very short time. The jewels were then available at Bloomingdale's and at other locations throughout the USA like I.Magnin, Bonwit Teller, Sak's and Nordstrom's amongst many others.

In Paris, BillyBoy*, who now by this time wrote his signature name with an asterisk, opened his workshop at 6 rue de la Paix , the prestigious street for haute joaillerie. Lala J.P Lestrade became director of Surreal Productions. Jeanne Gambert de Loche organized in 1984 the first exhibition of Surreal Bijoux: no less than 1000 pieces of Surreal Bijoux were shown at Jansen's, the prestigious decorator's gallery on rue Royale. It was named "GET GROOVY"  and Go-Go dancers performed the frug in the windows to 1960s music. Le Tout-Paris was there and the show was a huge success. Soon the jewellery was available at Le Printemps department store where they had their own window and corner shop, as well as at Utility Bibi shop on Boulevard Saint-Germain, which was always at the forefront of designer jewellery creations. The coverage was impressive and international throughout the decade, a point worthy of noticing especially since Surreal Productions did not have any Public Relations persons: the stylists and art directors from newspapers and magazines directly came to the atelier and the phone kept ringing with more and more people from the press demanding pieces for inclusion in articles and photo shots of celebrities  (see in  PRESS).

The Surreal Bijoux were quite successful and have been widely worn by celebrities and stars in the world: Bettina Graziani, Liz Taylor, Jackie Onassis, Lauren Bacall, Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, Marisa Berenson, Isabella Rosselini, Boy George, Madonna, Leigh Bowery, Arielle Dombasle, Lauren Hutton, Leonor Fini (Surrealist artist who designed the Shocking perfume bottle for Schiaparelli) Zizi Jeanmaire, Jeanne Moreau, Slash from Guns N 'Roses, Princess Maria de Savoie, Mme Marie-Hélène de Rothchild, Prince Mubarak de El-Sabat of Kuwait and even Ray Charles wore sunglasses designed by BillyBoy* and many other celebrities, socialites and famous people wore things BillyBoy* designed .... They were sold in France, England, the USA, Japan, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and other countries ... Pop singers of France, like Niagara and Rita Mitsuko wore the jewels and accessories in music videos and television appearances.

The essential particularity of Surreal Bijoux jewellery is to be made entirely by hand in the true spirit and tradition of haute couture. Whether they are in plaster, in paste, in hand-moulded resin, they are exclusively made and processed in Paris in the work rooms of BillyBoy* . Employees trained by Lala , were a range of people, from a student jewellery background or not, to simply friends needing a job, reproduced the designs (from BB*'s sketches) and ideas of  BillyBoy* which were materialized in prototypes by Lala, and sometimes directly created by him. This was already a work of osmosis, even if the signature would always be BillyBoy*.

Started as a game in the kitchen of their own apartment, the workshop of Surreal Bijoux at some point counted up to eight full-time employees. The plaster or resin pieces were all hand-made and hand-painted with a brush, the back itself often painted in fuchsia pink or black edged in gold paint. They are always signed: the ones of the first period by a dotted "Billy Boy" , made with a needle directly into the soft paste before it became dry or a brush and always done exclusively by Lala. An oval tag was then created,  marked " Surreal Bijoux - © BillyBoy* Paris, in gilt ot silvered metal, which would be glued on the back of them. Others metal pieces, which were moulded after an original BillyBoy* design made first as a prototype by Lala, were made in limited quantities the by suppliers of the Sentier in Paris. These pieces were all marked in the back, in this case with the date  and the mention always that they were Made in France .

Swarovski rhinestones were thoroughly used in many pieces. Some of the  necklaces and earrings were also using beads and stones for the supply which came from old stocks purchased at Clignancourt Flea market or brought back from New York by BillyBoy*. Many were pre and post war hand blown beads of a fabulous quality, same for the pearls. Chains, sometimes gilt of left "as is" in brass, came from Etablissements Janvier, a century old supplier (which notably provided all chains for Chanel jewellery) where amazing things which still could be found, though now long gone. For some collections, such as the Joan of Arc collection, the pieces are made from a steel mold by the same supplier making belt buckles for Hermes and for the jewellery and metal accessories from the highest echelons of haute couture. Very few estampés were used in the Surreal Bijoux lines, unlike most of the contemporary designers such as Patrick Retif and others at the time, who did not create their original forms like BillyBoy*. (The Surreal Couture pieces used some of it. Estampés are all kinds of highly detailed figural or geometric shapes and designs, made from stampings of thin brass or copper which could be found at suppliers then and some dating as far as the 1900s and the Belle Epoque). For some collections, such as ALI BABA, The MICROBES, HAPPY GERMS FROM SPACE, JOAN OF ARC, the glass paste beads are made exactly from the drawings of BillyBoy*, some hand-blown by an worker woman who was sorry to see that no young girls wanted to learn this métier. Some other stones were cast in a mould by a glass maker using the famous pâte de verre method, now also a forgotten and lost French technique. BillyBoy* was the only young designer taking the trouble to do such a thing, which was time consuming and quite expensive, something also which at the time was extremely rare in fashion jewellery, except in the conventional circuit of haute couture creations made in the workshops of Gripoix and the like.

BillyBoy* created jewellery for haute couture house such as Emanuel Ungaro, Hanaé Mori, for designers such as Francesco Smalto, Daniel Perris, Thierry Mugler, Charles Jourdan and the Swiss fashion designer Sandra Preisig in Zurich. He created a scarf (made by the makers of Hermès and Chanel scarves) and a brooch for Absolute Vodka, a limited edition of 1000 examples (that was a huge order!) with 5 in solid gold and ten in vermeil. He created jewels exclusively for the then recently opened Musée de la Mode in Marseilles, as BB* and Lala were friends with the Mayor's wife, the founder of this museum, Mme Madeleine Vigouroux.

The Surreal Bijoux had a considerable influence on the whimsical creations of the 1980s and 1990s jewellery and her style was widely copied or plagiarized, even in the circles of haute couture. Some designers like Patrick Rambaud openly claimed to "copy BillyBoy*". His production however was semi industrial : nothing hand-painted there! 

Self-proclamed with humour "Emperor of the New Baroque" one can say without risk that BillyBoy* anticipated with more than twenty five years the "bling bling" era (one more reason for him to claim "I have created a monster!"). Aside from Mr T and his long ropes of gold chain emulated by rappers, in quite another style, BillyBoy* was certainly at the time the only man in Paris and most probably in the world to wear eccentric designer clothes such as Galliano, Vivienne Westwood or slick Thierry Mugler suits with an authentic Chanel cross and pearl bead neckaces, gilt chains, mixed with his own "cartoon Chanel"  creations.

From 1989, when BillyBoy* created Mdvanii, the production of Surreal Bijoux decreased until the final closure of Surreal Productions in 1993. BillyBoy * and Lala wanted to devote all their time and energy on Mdvanii and the brand Surreal Bijoux ceased to be distributed, with the exception of Japan, where it kept being represented for her private clients by Sumiko Watanabe in Tokyo up until recently. BillyBoy*'s creations became exclusively made on order for specific customers and continue to be to this day, especially in the form of mdvaniiisms signed by BillyBoy* & Lala. Surreal Bijoux and Surreal Couture jewellery is now sought after by collectors of artists jewelers as well as couture and costume jewellery and by museums throughout the world.

It is impossible in a page to explore several decades of intense creativity and it is not the purpose of this article. This would be the subject of a book in itself. Nevertheless, it provides an overview of an intense creative journey that has an undeniable place in the history of fashion and costume jewellery .