Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

Imagination and Innovation in High

Jewelry
March 22, 2019

From Bulgari’s Fiorever collection, this 56.13-carat necklace was designed as a kind of glistening poncho. The
four-petal flowers are a repeated motif in the collection.

PARIS — Rather than relying primarily on their striking stones, the jewelry
houses unveiling collections during the spring couture shows last month
in Paris emphasized imaginative designs as well as innovative techniques
in handling precious materials and setting gems.

Cartier
Faithful to the wanderlust spirit of the three Cartier brothers who
established the French house as a global name in the early 1900s, the

brand embarked on a very contemporary voyage this season with Les

Galaxies de Cartier, a 14-piece limited-edition collection.

The Earth’s Lights bracelet from Cartier, with yellow and blue sapphires, opals and diamonds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 1 of 6
Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

The Earth’s Lights bracelet from Cartier, with yellow and blue sapphires, opals and diamonds.

It was all about movement: The Alignment of the Planets white-gold cuff
bracelet caged a series of bronze-green Tahitian pearls so they could roll
with the wearer’s gestures, while the Earth’s Lights ring, bracelet and
pendant allowed similar movement of its yellow and blue sapphires, fiery
opals and diamonds. And the Trembling Stars ring and bracelet used the
house’s “serti vibrant,” or trembling setting, so myriad white diamonds
could vibrate across a base of metaquartzite, a metamorphic rock with
golden inclusions of pyrite (making its house jewelry debut).

It was not, however, the first time Cartier had ventured into the cosmos.
“In the ’50s,” said Arnaud Carrez, the house’s international marketing and
communications director, “Cartier created a few pieces — earrings and
brooches — that were inspired by Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.”

Chanel
Coco Chanel used to wear a white camellia in her hair or, rendered in
gems, on a little black dress. The versatility of the flower, now a signature
house motif, was celebrated in the collection 1.5 1 Camélia 5 Allures, with
23 of its 50 pieces designed to transform for multiple uses.

For example, the diamond-defined camellia (with a flawless 2.15-carat

center stone) on the Contraste Blanc necklace can be used as a brooch;
its removal revealed an openwork camellia that continued to accent the
necklace’s combination of five stands of pearls on one side and two
strands of diamonds on the other. And the Cristal Illusion necklace, which
also had a removable diamond-set camellia highlighting its quartz stones
and round-cut diamonds, can be arranged as a double-row choker, a
sautoir or in a kind of tie style. One particularly striking piece was the

diamond camellia with a 7.61-carat cushion-cut Mozambican ruby, which

could be removed from the nine-row diamond Rouge Incandescent
necklace and worn as a hair clip.

The Chanel Rose Tendre ring, part of the 1.5 1 Camélia 5 Allures collection. Pink quartz was carved into a
camellia and then surrounded by cultured pearls and diamonds.

In addition to the engineering expertise reflected in these versatile pieces,

Chanel showed its mastery of glyptic skills with the Rose Tendre ring: Pink
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 2 of 6
Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

Chanel showed its mastery of glyptic skills with the Rose Tendre ring: Pink
quartz was carved into a camellia and surrounded by cultured pearls and
diamonds.

Chaumet
Chaumet was jeweler to Empress Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, so it
was natural for the house’s new 100-piece collection to be named for her.
And it was natural for tiaras, the house’s signature creation, to take center
stage, as in the Diadème Aigrette Impériale Émeraude with its 3.05-carat
Zambian emerald.

The Chaumet Joséphine Aigrette Impériale ring. The pear-shaped Fancy Intense Yellow VVS1 diamond weighs
2.2 carats.

The same dainty silhouette was echoed in earrings, necklaces and rings,
like the Joséphine Aigrette Impériale, set with a 2.2-carat pear-shaped
fancy intense yellow diamond — a design that took special advantage of
the house’s traditional fil couteau, or knife edge, setting technique.

Among the flamboyance of the colored stones, the pieces showcasing

natural pearls commanded special attention. The pearls, which had been
part of a parure owned by the same family since the 19th century and
reset by Chaumet for generations, were purchased by the jeweler and
used for variations of the Joséphine creations.

Chopard
For the aptly named Magical Setting collection, Caroline Scheufele,
Chopard’s co-president and creative director, worked with its Geneva-
based artisans to modernized the traditional cluster setting, a technique
dating from the 14th century.

Chopard has introduced its Magical Setting, an adaptation of the traditional cluster setting technique.

The new clawed mount fixes stones like Sri Lankan sapphires or
Colombian emeralds at only four points, allowing the stone to look as if it
is floating amid a cloud of diamonds.

Piaget
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 3 of 6
Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

Piaget
The second chapter of Piaget’s Sunlight Escape collection offered 17
pieces, all inspired by snowy landscapes shimmering in wintry light, not
quite matching the elusive nature of Paris’ single snowy morning in
January.

The house’s renowned gold engraving techniques were showcased in the

Frosted Star Manchette, an 18-karat white gold cuff in which abstract
snowflake patterns were painstakingly carved and then highlighted with a
5.12-carat cushion-cut blue sapphire from Madagascar, eight square-cut
opals and an ensemble of brilliant-, marquise-, baguette-cut diamonds
totaling about 5.86 carats.

The marquetry artist Rose Saneuil collaborated on the Green Aurora, a cuff featuring slivers of straw, sycamore
and common hornbeam.

The marquetry artist Rose Saneuil collaborated on the Green Aurora,

another cuff in which slivers of straw, sycamore and hornbeam in
turquoise and bottle green were dominated by a 14.53-carat green-blue
tourmaline and 152 brilliant-cut diamonds forming a star. The design was
replicated on a smaller scale in matching earrings.

David Morris
Chromatophore was the latest opus that the London jeweler David Morris
presented in his boutique on the Rue St.-Honoré. Focused on stones of
sensational color and size, the collection, Mr. Morris said, was named for
the “pigment-containing and light reflective cell” found in some animals.

Neptune earrings in titanium with opals, tourmalines and blue sapphires by David Morris.

The Neptune earrings were the only pieces to have their own name: Two
iridescent black opals totaling 85.99 carats were mounted with Pariba
tourmalines and deep blue sapphires on light blue titanium. Other pieces
included an 18-karat white gold wrap-style bangle pavéd with diamonds
and the two ends tipped with rose conch pearls totaling 72.52 carats and
a contemporary take on the “toi et moi” ring with two 7.75-carat pear-
shaped translucent Paraiba tourmalines.

Tatiana Verstraeten
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 4 of 6
Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

Tatiana Verstraeten
The Belgian designer Tatiana Verstraeten took advantage of the couture
shows to open her showroom at 24 Place Vendôme (where customers are
served by appointment only).

Tatiana Verstraeten’s signature earrings feature clusters of diamonds or pearls in cascades of white gold fringe.

Having honed her skills designing costume jewelry for Chanel, Ms.
Verstraeten is refreshing the high jewelry narrative with airy, design-led
pieces that can easily be worn on a daily basis. Her signature earrings
feature jagged clusters of diamonds or pearls with cascades of white gold
fringe punctuated by diamonds or seed pearls that can move along the
strands or hang from the sides. Certainly fit for special occasions,
however, is the Barbara, a voluminous winged collar named for a famous
French singer of the 1950s and ’60s whose name actually was Monique
Serf. The piece, fully pavéd with diamonds, was designed to rest around
the back of the neck and shoulders, something like a frozen feather boa.

And …
Olivier Reza, the precious stone collector and jeweler, introduced a new
series of high jewelry double-stone rings with impressive colored gems
and internally flawless diamonds of the rare IIA type. And, in her boudoir-
style boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré, the artist-jeweler Lydia Courteille
was inspired by Marie Antoinette to craft a collection in pastel tones
dominated by sapphires, topaz and aquamarines — including a 55-carat
aquamarine radiating from a titanium cuff.

Boucheron’s new Jack collection includes a flexible gold strand with magnetized connectors accented with
pavé diamonds. It can be worn around the wrist or the neck.

Rather than presenting a new collection, Boucheron unveiled its 26 Place

Vendôme renovation, which includes an apartment for the use of its most
important clients. But, in case visitors insisted on something new, it
offered the Jack, a flexible golden strand that could be swirled around the
wrist or the neck and then safely closed with its magnetized ends.

Away from the Parisian winter, Bulgari chose Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 5 of 6
Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times 27/02/2024, 17:07

Away from the Parisian winter, Bulgari chose Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
to present two new high jewelry pieces that are part of its larger fine
jewelry collection Fiorever. Particularly impressive was a résille, or lace
style, necklace studded with a total of 56.13 carats of diamonds that
would sit on the wearer like a kind of glistening poncho.

The Amour Sacré brooch from Van Cleef & Arpels uses the Mystery Set technique, in which no prongs are
visible.

A destination debut
Van Cleef & Arpels took to the road, introducing the new Treasure of
Rubies high jewelry collection on March 13 in Bangkok. The Mystery Set
technique, a method of setting stones so no prongs are visible (patented
by the jewelry house in 1933), brought to life three heart-shaped flowers

rimmed by diamonds in the Amour Sacré brooch and a lush frond

encircling one cushion-cut internally flawless type 2A diamond of 9.05
carats in the Feuille de Rubis ring. In other pieces from the collection, a
rare 25.76-carat deep red ruby radiates from a halo of diamonds on the
Rubis Flamboyant transformable necklace, while another necklace, the
Élixir de Rubis, wearable in eight different ways, features a pear-shaped
ruby of 8.04 carats suspended from a garland of diamond flowers.

“One of the main challenges we’ve encountered was to gather 3,000

carats of rubies selected according to our high standard criteria but also
rubies that could be paired together,” said Nicolas Bos, chief executive of
Van Cleef & Arpels. “It took several years to assemble the stones that
have inspired the 60 unique pieces of the collection, and which reflect all
the maison’s high jewelry expertise.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/fashion/high-jewelry-couture-paris.html Page 6 of 6