“Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times” plus 1 more

Imagination and Innovation in High Jewelry - The New York Times

Posted: 22 Mar 2019 12:00 AM PDT

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.

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.

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

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

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, 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.

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

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).

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.

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, 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.

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."

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Posted: 17 Jul 2019 12:00 AM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]STYLE Edit: Chanel's ode to Coco's Russian love affair South China Morning Post