Fred Joaillier, more commonly known as Fred, is a French jewellery and watch brand founded in 1936 by Fred Samuel in Paris and operated by the company "Fred Paris". The company has more than fifty of its own shops worldwide and various retail outlets in some thirty countries. The company has been owned by the LVMH Group since 1995. History Foundation and beginnings (1925-1944) The son of Alsatians who emigrated to Argentina fleeing the German annexation that followed the 1870 war, Fred Samuel was born in Buenos Aires in 1908. He arrived in France at the age of 16 and trained in the jewellery industry with the Worms company as a trader in precious stones and pearls. The Worms brothers, founders of the company, were contacted by Mikimoto Kōkichi to market cultured pearls in France. They decided to second Fred Samuel to their customs operations in 1925. After his national service at the age of 28, he set up his own business in 1936, opening a shop in his name in the eighth arrondissement of Paris, at number 6 Rue Royale. He chose to have printed in capital letters on his first business card: “Fred Samuel, the modern, jeweller, creator”; in . He was one of the first importers into France of the cultured pearl, a Japanese innovation that upset the French jewellery industry which had previously been devoted to fine pearls. The name of a particular shade of pearl, a light pinkish cream, dates from this period: the "Fred colour". His growing fame and creative daring for the time earned him recognition from Hollywood stars such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Barbara Hutton and Marlene Dietrich. As a citizen of Argentina, Samuel was ineligible to volunteer for the French army. Instead, in September 1939, he joined one of the Marching Regiments of Foreign Volunteers () set up by the French Foreign Legion, for foreign nationals or the stateless who wished to assist in France's defence in World War II. As a member of the 22nd Regiment of the RMVE, he saw heavy action during the Villers-Carbonnel offensive of the German Case Red campaign. At Marchélepot, one of the villages being defended in an attempt to secure the route to Paris, his regiment finally succumbed, after withstanding 48-hours of heavy aerial and artillery bombardment, followed by hand-to-hand combat once their ammunition ran out. Samuel was taken prisoner and sent to