Mischievous wildlife, spectacular architecture, stone waterfalls… In a whirlwind of creativity, the beautiful jewelry week delivered its breathtaking new pieces.
Animal kingdom
If nature has historically been the main inspiration for the jewelry world, there have never been so many animals to populate collections. At Cartier, a sapphire-flecked white gold panther set with more than 8 carats of Zambian emerald embraces a hand, while squirrels carved from soft green chrysoprase sit atop two Colombian emeralds at Dior Joaillerie. The fashion house chose to celebrate toile de Jouy, a fabric with bucolic patterns that adorned the walls of its first boutique on avenue Montaigne. Buccellati, for its part, signs a virtuoso butterfly-engraved gold set with 270 diamonds of various sizes, from brilliant to pear-shaped to shuttle, and De Beers continues its homage to the forces of nature with wilder diamonds than ever.
A thousand and one
Reinventing the timeless stone is a challenge that continues to fascinate jewelers. Messika sparkles you and me, set with two magnificent oval and emerald cut diamonds, part of the second part of her Midnight Sun collection. Showman, inspired by music, dance and magic, showcases exceptional carats and optical illusions, like this center stone that seems to float on the ring of the Voltige collection. Chopard’s beautiful earrings from the red carpet collection, like every year, are first presented at the Cannes Film Festival before heading to Paris for Couture Week. Also in the spotlight is Repossi’s Serti sur Vide collection, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with six new pieces.
fire stones
There’s nothing like pops of red and orange to warm up white gold. At Graff, inspired by the lights of Paris, an oval-shaped “pigeon’s blood” ruby from Mozambique accentuates the elegant cuff. Chanel Haute Joaillerie plays with a round shape that rotates in the center of the ring to reveal the diamond, one of the many transformative pieces in its first high-jewellery collection dedicated to sports. Pasquale Bruni, for his part, chose rubellites from responsible mines to bring to life his floral earrings, the main theme of his Heart to Earth collection. The house of Gucci evokes the beauty of Italian gardens with a bouquet of subtle colors such as green tourmaline and tangerine garnet.
Archi-city
Jewels are small buildings that, despite their scale, evoke the city’s aesthetics. Pomellato continues its precious dedication to the city of Milan where it was born with 51 new pieces. Louis Vuitton, in its homage to the industrial and inventive 19th century, specifically celebrates the Eiffel Tower in a V shape titled LV Monogram Flower cut diamond. In a completely different spirit, Fred comments on the sunny heat of Argentina, where the jeweler grew up, and the colorful houses of the La Boca district in Buenos Aires, with a high ring that combines the fiery glow of garnets with spinels. At Hermès, it’s also about colors and shaping them into organic curves or graphic constructions, recalling two major trends in architecture.
A wave of freshness
Water, a key issue for centuries to come, flows in collections of subtle shades of blue, like Tasaki’s Serenity, which mixes spinels, sapphires, tanzanites and aquamarines. The young Franco-Chinese house Serendipity paid particular homage to Hokusai’s wave during its first presentation in Paris, riding the waves set on South Sea pearls and diamond foam, rising over engraved gold enamelled in blue. Piaget celebrates its 150th anniversary in style with pieces inspired by its golden age in the 1960s and 1970s. Boucheron, in a manifesto dedicated to this “blue gold” whose preservation is vital, designed his collection as an ode to the memory of water, navigating between all its states, from the most liquid to the frozen, including Akoya pearls with stunning stalactites; A miracle.
The pin catches
Are brooches out of style? Not anymore, as we freely associate them with modern outfits, sewn into the pocket of a denim jacket or the pocket of a men’s blazer. Many homes have tried the exercise. Mikimoto chose a duo of sapphires and diamonds to create a rounded bow. Unlike Tiffany&Co, which chose the intricate aesthetic of designer Jean Schlumberger’s historical models, revisited by artistic director Nathalie Verdey in a collection beautifully titled Céleste. Bulgari, celebrating its 140th anniversary, calls it Aeterna and offers a luxurious brooch with a combination of diamonds and emeralds among its hundred and forty pieces. The prize for poetry goes to Anna Hu and her natural pearl flower, wrapped in a band of diamonds and colored sapphires.
Keeping to oneself
This season, Van Cleef & Arpels replaces its usual collection of fine jewelry with a treasure for both the curious and the connoisseur: the first volume of The Van Cleef & Arpels Collection (Edition: Xavier Barral), a creation that which combines half a century. Works from the house’s inception in 1906. The next volume, currently in preparation, will begin in 1954, the year the jeweler opened his first boutique on the Place Vendôme. “Our heritage collection currently includes over 2,700 pieces,” comments Director of Heritage Alexandrine Mavielle-Sonnet. It’s about time we offered a catalog raisonné. »
To celebrate its twenty years of success, the Stone brand is introducing emerald collections for the first time. Called Hope, the capsule offers a choice of nine designs in yellow or white gold: four earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and three rings. True to her style and her favorite stone, founder Marie Poniatowski illuminates each of her new creations with diamonds.
Source: Le Figaro
