PARIS — This week’s couture calendar is filled with shows from big names and newcomers, but there’s less evidence for the jewelery presentations that traditionally round out this semi-annual showcase of sumptuous savoir-faire. is not.
Several high-profile fashion houses, including Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget, are absent this season, and Bvlgari will present in Italy in May to mark the 75th anniversary of Serpenti Design.
Industry observers say the brand’s decision to make it temporary could be a strategic play given the current global geopolitical and financial uncertainty. “I think it’s reasonable to expect U.S. demand to slow,” Luca Solca, a senior analyst at research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, said in an email. “In contrast, my understanding is that the Chinese market is recovering very quickly.”
But this season, fashion houses such as Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton have taken the opportunity to bring couture’s materials and techniques to life in the form of jewels.
The embroidery techniques used by Chanel’s Métiers d’Art subsidiary have inspired five unique jewelery watches in the Mademoiselle Privé collection. Named Pique-Aiguilles (English: pincushion), the watch has needles shaped like sewing needles. Oversized 55mm dial adorned with Maison hallmarks. For example, the classic bouclé his jacket outlined in diamonds with small gold scissors at 9 o’clock. It is covered by a sapphire crystal dome.
At Dior, Jewelery Creative Director Victoire de Castellane honors the Maison’s roots by reinterpreting lace, introduced ten years ago in the Dior Dior collection and revived in Dior Dior Dior in 2018. Did. Her latest collection, called Dearest Dior, consists of 75 jewels and her two unique timepieces. A lace-like lattice pattern of an alloy of rose gold and platinum gave her a vintage her gold look accented with diamonds accenting her large rose cut her.
The elegance of lace and the transparency of mesh are also present in the second chapter of the Spirit collection by Francesca Amfitheatroff, Artistic Director of Watches and Jewelry at Louis Vuitton. For example, the Lattice Destiny bracelet contains over 100 bezel-set diamonds, two new LV monogram cuts, a 4.05 carat emerald cut from Mozambique flanked by star and flower diamonds. Pigeon’s Blood Ruby. According to Brand, it took him 650 hours to create the piece.
Like a Queen, Boucheron’s latest Histoworld style collection, is also inspired by fashion. It consists of her 18 variations of the aquamarine and diamond art deco her brooch designed by the Maison in 1937 and given to Princess Elizabeth on her 18th birthday in 1944.
Claire Choine, Creative Director of Boucheron, said, “This is the first time I’ve started with a single motif and revisited it in different ways like an obsession. A rolling ring set with 1,027 diamonds and 17 Mozambique rubies. The Red Pendant Necklace can also be worn as a brooch.
For the third chapter of Cartier’s Beauté du Monde collection, the supple bib necklace, which abstracts the fins of a fighting fish, is a new addition to the Maison’s animal collection. Made of diamonds and red spinels, each bead is fitted with a small peg, designed to mimic the shimmering effect of fish scales moving through water.
indies
For an individual designer, breaking into the world of high jewelery is notoriously difficult. Still, some attract wealthy customers looking for something a little different.
“It’s clear that niche brands aren’t the ‘first purchase’ for consumers, but they’re consumers who already have a lot and are hitting the market for something very special,” Bernstein’s Sorka said. It could be the nth purchase for some,” he wrote. For such designers, “it is essential to be original and have a clear ‘why’.”
Here we look at four such independents.
mark auclair
For Marc Auclair, modernity is inextricably linked to the past. Twelve years ago, armed with his 15 years of experience in Chanel’s jewelery department, and stints in the jewelery departments of De Beers in Tokyo and Sotheby’s in Paris, he loved antique curios, ancient coins, Prehistoric beads and delicate intaglios make one-of-a-kind jewelry.
In his small and orderly boutique on Via Castiglione, a ring dating from the 3rd century B.C., set with a broken coin bearing the profile of the Macedonian general Lysimachus, successor to Alexander the Great, was recently added. restocked. Own Jewelry Working with his atelier, Aucler uses the traditional Japanese technique of kintsugi to highlight the cracks in cracked pottery with gold dust and other precious metals, and replace the missing parts of the coin. Filled with white gold and diamonds.
His biggest challenge, he said, is finding artifacts that are “beautiful, authentic, and jewel-like.” But he also designs antiquities-free pieces, such as his Double His Spiral His earrings set with four oval gemstones (sapphire, citrine, tourmaline and spinel) and diamonds.
Charlotte Shene
In 2016, a year after introducing her namesake fashion jewelry brand, Charlotte Chesnais received her first request for a custom piece.
Chesnais designed this gem into a High Jewelery variation of her Ellipse design. When it was completed, the craftsman who completed it asked me to come pick it up immediately because it was a precious diamond.
“Neither my client nor I knew that this stone was worth €300,000,” she said. “I discovered High Jewelery when I was sitting on my bike in the middle of Paris with this ring and was told to come see me at once.”
She now creates about 20 pieces of bespoke jewelry a year, including a double-finger heart ring that looks like a 2.5 carat diamond floating in the middle. Earlier this month, Chéné opened her second boutique in Paris on Boulevard Saint-Germain. It is a private salon where you can consult.
emmanuel turpin
Emmanuelle Turpin, who entered the Parisian jewelery scene at the age of 25 in late 2017, now dedicates around 30 unique pieces per year. Two of his recent designs use precious materials for camouflage. A Winter Acorn brooch in woody patina, white gold and black gold with small diamonds and his Black Ant pin in matte black gold set with diamonds that can also be worn as an earring. .
“The world of high jewelry often takes itself too seriously, so I like to add some humor to certain pieces,” Turpin said. I think I can handle the material and finish it perfectly.”
The designer said he is now focused on learning about the gem trade. In November he visited an opal mine in Mexico for 10 days and will visit an emerald mine in Colombia this summer.
Cindy Chao
Although she’s not based in Paris, Taiwanese designer Cindy Chao says she considers herself a bit French. She has been presenting jewelery in her couture collection since 2015. She was named a Chevalier (Knight) at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 2021. She plans to open a showroom in Paris in the next year or so.
This season in Paris, Chao presents a selection of 12 jewels created between 2015 and 2022. Among them are his Mystère de la Nuit rose his earrings from the Black Label Masterpiece collection. Its structure was made of titanium and silver oxide, paved all over with emeralds and sapphires, and each stamen was made of 18-carat gold coated with French his lacquer.
Perhaps best known for her annual butterfly brooch, a unique piece of titanium and gemstones… it’s strong and lightweight,” Zhao wrote in an email, adding that she’s on the waiting list for the annual brooch. is currently growing to 2027.
