Among the luxury sectors that showed greater resourcefulness in 2021, despite the complicated situation created by the pandemic, high jewellery has shone with enthusiasm and resilience.
In the name of creative passion and the jeweller’s art, the great international fashion houses have presented their new collections, in which important masterpieces and exceptional sets have appeared to indicate the personal philosophy to follow in the future. In some areas, the protagonist was a search for innovation. In others, the study
and reinterpretation of historical codes and stylistic features, or the celebration of important anniversaries seemed to take the lead.
Not many people actually know that it takes at least two years to create a high jewellery collection, from project inception to final result. In this long, passionate creative process, the foundations for creating true masterpieces lie in the procurement and selection of the gems. Essential phases that have presented an even greater challenge this year than ever before, in terms of time and resources, due to restrictions on travel and the closure of the workshops, which however, the sector appears to have overcome thanks to its incredible tenacity.
So what are the aesthetic icons of this precious universe in 2021? We’ve brought together ten jewellery houses in a Grand Tour from Paris via the Italian peninsula to the Principality of Monaco, then from the coasts of southern France to London and across the ocean to the States to get all the news from New York.
A veritable odyssey in contemporary taste and style, sanctioned by the jeweller’s art and that essential creative flair capable of making dreams come true. One of the most beautiful expressions of human emotion.
Gateway set consisting of earrings with round cut diamonds (10.40 cts), bracelet with round
and emerald cut diamonds (29.10 cts). Matching necklace.
GRAFF
If watchmaking and astronomy have been linked in close symbiosis for centuries, jewellery likewise confirms its seduction by the celestial vault. “We all live under one sky, and the sunrise, sunset and phases of the moon are all witnessed with unerring regularity, wherever we are in the world.” – comments Anne-Eva Geffroy, design director of Graff talking about the new Graff Tribal collection. Made up highfalutin specimens in which the purity and brilliance of diamonds is sovereign, the ensemble revisits universally understood codes. Symbols and patterns known as elementary forms in all cultures and civilizations that now offer an unprecedented stylistic language.
Right: FLORILEGE DE VIE Jardin Secret Collection.
The Rabbit and the Butterfly reversible earring in titanium and gold with blue, purple, green and orange baguette, drop and brilliant cut sapphires (12.20 cts)
and round blue diamonds (0.75 cts).
CHOPARD
Caroline Scheufele, Co-President and Artistic Director of Chopard, aims at the dream, at the joie-de-vivre, in a rediscovered emotion of dreamlike escapism that warms the soul. The 74 pieces of the Chopard Red Carpet Collection, as many as there are editions of the Cannes Film Festival (of which the Maison has been an official partner since 1998), tell of a dream destination, a paradise where inspiration and imagination converge.
Flanked by traditional gems (rubies, sapphires, diamonds and emeralds) emerge magnetic opals, lively garnets and Paraiba tourmalines. A kaleidoscopic palette magnified by ethical gold and combined with innovative, extremely light titanium. For comfortable portability in the bosom of the most refined aesthetic.
FLORILEGE DE VIE
The collection from Florilège de Vie jewellery,a contemporary Milanese brand, draws inspiration from nature and its stars. Alongside gold, titanium is a favoured metal, making the jewels extremely light and easy to wear.
Photo: Julien Vallon © Cartier
CARTIER
This year Cartier chose Lake Como to present Sixième Sens high jewellery with a special ambassador, Golshifteh Farahani, musician, singer and film star. In a tribute to the magnetism of gems, sublimated through the jeweller’s art and mastery, the collection is a riot of sapphires, emeralds and diamonds with chromatic touches that turn to the warmest and most persuasive shades of topaz and tourmaline.
Right: CHANEL High Jewellery, Collection N ° 5. Ribboned N ° 5 brooch in yellow gold, platinum, diamonds, imperial topaz and orange sapphire.
One 30.97 cts imperial topaz 30.97 cts. One 4.09 cts oval cut orange sapphire.
PASQUALE BRUNI
Not everyone knows that Milan, fashion and design capital and business and finance hub, also has hidden away corners, springs of eternal beauty where history and tradition meet. Like the hidden gardens, scattered along the 5 Vie, or hidden in the alleys of Brera.
Pasquale Bruni’s collection is dedicated to these timeless corners, so loved by the Milanese, where peace and quiet reign. Artfully crafted in the Vicenza atelier, it comes in a delicate pink gold paired with diamonds. To interpret the most intimate beauty that knows not the passage of time.
CHANEL
In 1921 Gabrielle Chanel was the first couturière to venture into the world of perfumery. Her Chanel N ° 5 met with overwhelming success, subverting the rules of the sector linked to the tradition of mono floral perfumes.
Today, a century later, the maison is celebrating its anniversary with an entire collection of high jewellery. In five chapters divided into 123 pieces, Chanel Collection N° 5 interprets the compelling dialogue between the minimalism, mystery, graphism and sensuality of the most famous fragrance in the world.
Protagonists: the design of the bottle and cap, the silhouette of the number 5, the flowers and the sillage of the fragrance. In homage to the revolutionary spirit of an icon that once again demonstrates its eternal perfection.
Harry Winston, Cathedral necklace in platinum and yellow gold with 5 Colombian teardrop emeralds (65.63 cts), 122 pear, baguette and marquise diamonds (46.83 cts).
HARRY WINSTON
From the very beginning, love and friendship have been dear to Harry Winston. For the Christmas holidays, among its wonders the maison is also offering a line dedicated to the city of New York, with which it has particularly close ties.
The charm of the cosmopolitan metropolis is encapsulated in the purity of large-carat precious stones, like the Colombian emeralds dominating the Cathedral necklace, combined with the transparency of fancy-cut diamonds. A homage to the city of dreams, where everything is possible.
BVLGARI
350 masterpieces, entirely handmade, which together represent the most precious collection of high jewellery presented by Bvlgari in its 137 year history.
These are the numbers of Magnifica, presented in Milan by the Roman brand, the result of a reflection on the artistic professions of Italy and on cultural influence of the female universe over the centuries.
From painter Artemisia Gentileschi to Zaha Hadid, the architect who revolutionized the contemporary era with her avant-garde vision. Gems wisely played and balanced in the design by the creative director Lucia Silvestri certainly come to the aid in transmitting inspiration and magic.
MAISON VITALE 1913
Coherent with the trends but independent in aesthetic, the high jewellery of Maison Vitale 1913, a brand closely linked with the Principality of Monaco, combines tradition and refinement.
An alchemy characterized by a select search for the stones and a touch of Italian style. Because the history of the brand began over a century ago in Vicenza, a Northern Italian city with a rich jewelling tradition, in the early 1900s.
BOUCHERON
Inspired by the work of artist Olafur Eliasson, Claire Choisne, creative director of Boucheron, continues an intense search for innovation. For Holographie she chose to work with unprecedented techniques, hitherto never used in the high jewellery sector. Spraying precious metals at high temperatures onto ceramic or rock crystal, the Maison has recreated the natural magic of a rainbow of colours. A revolutionary philosophy that doesn’t betray the historical values of the brand, highest of which the natural beauty of precious stones.