It was 1971, at the Rothschilds« »Proust" ball at the Château de Ferrières outside Paris. Then Cecil Beaton took a famous photograph of Elizabeth Taylor. The star is shown with her cheek resting on her hand, dressed in a flared Valentino dress with a plunging neckline. The neckline reveals one of her famous diamonds, tied with a velvet ribbon around her neck.
It wasn't the only notable piece of jewelry worn by Hollywood's most famous «witch» that night. On her wrist she wore an elegant, gem-free, minimalist and modern bracelet. It was the Cartier Love bracelet, and her partner, Richard Burton, wore one just like it.
The simple gold bracelet, decorated with tiny screws, quickly became a typical symbol of devotion for elegant couples.
Like Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. With its introduction in 1969, designed by Aldo Cipullo, Cartier had created a new, modern and bisexual symbol of love. A symbol of love that endures to this day - and today the maison presents a new version: the Love Unlimited.
Cipullo had moved to New York a decade earlier and had become a fixture in the social scene. While trying to heal his broken heart, he was inspired to create the bracelet: a tangible - and enduring - symbol of love.
«It was very unique and bold for its time,» says Arnaud Carrez, Cartier's marketing director. «The success was immediate, not only because it was a beautiful design. But because it embodied an idea: the expression of modern love, stamped with a screwdriver. It became a cultural object.».
Within just a few years, the Cartier Love bracelet was available in Paris and London. Attracting a fanatical global audience. In the decades that followed, the bracelet adorned the wrists of Tina Turner, Angelina Jolie and Lewis Hamilton. As well as couples such as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet.
The Unlimited now becomes the latest chapter in the life of the most searched Cartier jewellery on Google. While retaining the minimalist design of the original model, the latest version introduces two key innovations: a fully flexible bracelet that hugs the wrist like a second skin and a screw system («patented») that secures it without the need for a screwdriver.
The elegant, polished links are decorated with hand-polished screws that glow as the bracelet moves. An invisible clasp works with a single screw, a subtle mechanism that adheres to the ritual of the original while making this version easier to wear and take off. The clever clasp also allows anyone wearing it to link one Love Unlimited to another, wearing them in pairs, or to wrap the bracelet around the wrist in multiple twists - a reference to love that deepens with time and experience.
«The Love collection is one of the most recognizable in the jewelry world,» says Carrez. «Love Unlimited brings a major innovation, a versatile «second skin» inspired by the classic model.».
Carrez also points to the technical jump. «This was a real challenge to build. We incorporated more than 200 components into the bracelet architecture and went through over 100 prototypes to achieve this level of flexibility. The final polishing is done by hand.».
The new Love Unlimited collection also includes rings - in yellow, white and rose gold - that reproduce, on a small scale, all the features of the bracelet.
Source: vogue.co.uk
