When high jewellery calls the rendezvous is precious, like an appointment with a great love. You go, you meet and you’re moved just gazing into each other’s eyes, and when they’re the creative eyes of the great players in the world of luxury Force One Monaco cannot but gather and give you all the latest innovations in design, inspiration and fantasy dedicated to women. The trend of the moment: a special focus on the fascination of sertissage, or how the stones are set. Almost every Maison has a special favourite for exalting the gems or playing with their personality.
Left: In Chanel’s high jewellery the Camelia is declined in five themes, with transformability the keyword.
Mademoiselle Chanel loved freedom. In art, in her profession, in her life. Through her courageous, rebel spirit she not only changed fashion, freeing it from its old, clichéd ways; she transformed the way the woman and her personality are perceived.
Interpreting freedom in the medium of gold and jewellery she deciphers the transformability of a jewel, the capacity of a creation to be worn in different declinations. A quality we women cannot but love, reluctant as we are to close ourselves in the confines of an over-structured preconception. Of Chanel’s 50 examples of high jewellery, no less than 23 are indeed a triumphant ode to an aptitude for metamorphosis, the surprise of transformation, expressed in the form of the Camelia, studded with diamonds, sensational rubies, pink sapphires, and a moonstone that makes us dream for its quality and beauty.
Chanel – Collection 1.5 – Quintessence Brooches in white gold, moonstones and diamonds.
Right: Dreaming stars for Cartier’s Les Galaxies collection.
Destination: space, the night sky, the poetry of the infinite. Cartier ventures into the mystery of the universe with its celebrated expression of design and style. The tangible and intangible, the visible and the imaginary. Forget convention, the jewelled creatures of Cartier’s Les Galaxies rediscover the soul of some unusual but exceptional gemstones. The pinkish streaks of Labradorite, the romantic, milky pallor of quartz and moonstones, the sensuality of Tahitian black pearls. Little asteroids, tiny comets declined in jewels choosing the “serti vibrant”, a setting technique conceived, designed and realised exclusively by Cartier. Gold, diamonds and rock crystal move and animate rings and bracelets, and the jewel transforms into pure joy.
Cartier – Les Galaxies de Cartier Collection – Bracelet in rose gold, with diamonds, moonstones, milky quartz. Credit: © Cartier
Left: Chaumet – Empress Josephine, muse of the Parisian style.
Joséphine, Joséphine – Chaumet au Firmament encapsulates around a hundred pieces in the pure spirit of the Maison: jewellery sets exalting important stones (fancy yellow diamonds, Zambian emeralds, Madagascar sapphires and rubies), the return of Akoya pearls and the tiara, confirmed once again as the great icon of femininity.
The Empress, who continues to be the poetic muse of Chaumet’s creative excellence, could be the perfect heroin of a popular early nineteenth century soap opera. Born in Martinique, a lover of nature, botany and the most elegant forms of hedonism, she transferred her freedom-loving carefree attitude to Paris, and that same graceful sensuality is the star of the new collection, coupled with a mastery of the craft that sees “fil couteau”, a technique in which the stones are mounted on extremely fine, almost invisible white gold wire, as protagonist. Impalpable, the creations not only have admirable settings that favour the teardrop cut, preferred by the Empress above all others, but also intense colours with strong character, in both the fancy yellow diamonds and the Zambian emeralds.
Chaumet – Joséphine Aigrette Impériale – White gold necklace with a 3.28 carat pink teardrop cut Madagascar sapphire, teardrop EF VVS diamonds for a total of 10.87 carats and brilliant cut diamonds.
Right: Boucheron – The heritage of the origins and a winning spirit for the future.
Boucheron’s presentation at the Paris Fashion Week was truly exceptional. The Maison, held by the Kering group, reopened the doors of its historic seat at 26 Place Vendôme, where everything started back in 1893.
Designed and refurbished by two visionary architects, Michel Goutal and Pierre-Yves Rochon, the top floor of the Hôtel de Nocé welcomed us in a familiar, involving atmosphere. Not simply a press conference but so much more. Boucheron confirms its belief in a contemporary vision of communication, made of direct experience, emotions and expressive freedom. And we can only be happy. The creations range from collections designed for younger women, but always elegant and refined, to high jewellery, like the innovations in the Serpent Bohème line, so strong in tradition, surprising know-how and style that have made the brand into one of the excellences of Paris most loved throughout the world.
Boucheron – Lierre de Paris – Rose gold and diamond necklace.
Chopard’s Magical Setting – The classic floral cluster reworked in a top secret, patented setting.
The symbiosis of jewel and light. A fundamental relationship for a tiny work of art designed to transmit all the power and energy of a precious stone. A profound, unbreakable bond that the design has to extol through a setting that doesn’t veil but exalts the power of the gems, forever. Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s muse, succeeded in her intent to develop a special, top secret patented setting. The new Magical Setting line revisits a grand classic of jewellery, the floral cluster, in a contemporary vein, stylising the interpretation of the flower. The stones used are the “Fab Four”, that is to say, the four classic gems par excellence of high jewellery: diamonds, emeralds (Columbia), sapphires (Sri Lanka), and rubies (Mozambique). Important stones, protagonists of jewels with great personality expressed through colours and brilliance, and the skill of the Maison’s craftsmen.
Chopard – Magical setting – Rings with sapphires, rubies, emeralds and diamonds.
Cover Picture: Chanel – High Jewellery – Collection 1.5 – Red Incandescent – Transformable necklace in white gold with rubies and diamonds. The camellia motif is detachable and can be worn as a brooch, revealing another pattern of perforated camellias.