This season's jewellery houses sought the experience of travel, literally and figuratively. So to find inspiration for their most ambitious (and expensive) collections yet.
Travel is at the heart of jewellery. Diamonds and coloured gemstones are the result of mysterious journeys to the deepest layers of the earth. Once in human hands, they travel the globe among cutters, polishers and dealers. Until they nest in jewellery and then travel in search of their future owner.
Bulgari
Bulgari's latest high jewellery collection, Mediterranea, is a passionate love letter to the Mediterranean Sea. Embraced by different cultures, each with a distinct visual identity. The Mediterranean has always given Bulgari a mosaic of influences to translate into jewellery that touches the soul.
The necklaces are inspired by Byzantine architecture. They are illuminated with warm garnets and tourmalines that evoke African spice markets. Elsewhere, the austere geometry of classical Roman design is juxtaposed with bright turquoise and lush emeralds. They are reminiscent of the fabrics traded on the ancient Silk Road.
The coloured gemstones are as large as the Mediterranean Sea itself. Like the Southern Sapphire necklace with a stunning 66.88 carat sapphire from Ceylon. Also the Muse of Rome with a dazzling 218.53 carat emerald is one of the boldest creations.
Van Cleef & Arpels
As early as the 16th and 17th centuries, the wealthy elites were embarking on the Grand Tour. That is, a journey across Europe to complete their education and broaden their cultural horizons. Van Cleef & Arpels chose Paris, the Alps, Rome, Venice, Naples and Baden-Baden as key destinations to inspire the jewels that make up the collection called Le Grand Tour.
The unique architectural character of each city acts as a muse. This gives rise to motifs and patterns that define the various chapters of the collection. But the rarer pigeon blood rubies and pendant fringes highlight Van Cleef & Arpels' distinctive signature. But there are also some surprises. The figure of Venice, for example, is depicted through a series of fluid cuffs made with a mosaic of gemstones. Meanwhile, Rome's rich cultural heritage finds expression in a collection. It consists of three pins with an ancient inlay, a carved citrine and a sapphire carved with the face of Emperor Caracalla.
The result is a fantastic, bejeweled Grand Tour.
Chaumet
Over two centuries ago, Marie-Étienne Nitot, founder of the French jewellery house Chaumet, described herself as a “naturalist jeweller”. So to convey how deeply her love of plants influenced her work.
Since then, Mother Nature has served as Chaumet's faithful muse, allowing her creativity to reach far and deep. From the lush, tropical vegetation beloved by Empress Josephine to the mystical underwater world.
This year, the new high jewellery collection Le Jardin de Chaumet is a walk through the plants and flowers the house loves. There are classic motifs from the house, such as the parure set of pansies reminiscent of an 1850s tiara. Or even the straw necklace worn by Jessica Alba at the launch event, referencing the iconic straw tiara worn by Empress Josephine. But there are also some surprising new renditions of the natural world. Like the Vine Leaf parure set with rubies and onyx and the intriguing Gui flower necklace. Even the jeweled reinterpretation of raw bark in the Ecorce necklace with a majestic 10.13 carat black opal.
Pomellato
Ode to Milan, Pomellato's latest collection of fine jewellery, is a journey to her homeland. The industrial capital of Northern Italy, where the jeweller's story began in the 1960s.
So it refers to a city famous for fashion and design. So the collection includes Pomellato's classic oversized chain chain necklaces. They are also characterised by elegant, utilitarian style and interspersed with geometric-shaped coloured gemstones. There is also an innovative body chain pendant that makes a strong statement.
Boucheron
Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne loves to travel where no one else would dare to venture.
The result is More is More. An impressive collection of surreal pieces that boldly showcase exaggerated dimensions and intensely saturated colours.
Simple shapes, such as cubes and spheres, and sharp lines are transformed into extra-long head ornaments mounted on light magnesium. Even bracelets that also function as home accessories. Also a diamond pocket that can be added to a dress or jacket a T-shirt. You will not believe your eyes.
Louis Vuitton
A brand that became famous thanks to its durable suitcases for the harshest climates and the most uneven journeys. So travel is in the DNA of Louis Vuitton. In the latest 170-piece high jewellery collection entitled “Deep Time”, Creative Director Francesca Amfitheatrof takes us on a spectacular journey through the wonders of geology and natural phenomena.
A diamond choker in the shape of a terrible tsunami wave embodies a 40-carat sapphire from Sri Lanka. Another set depicts a flaming volcanic eruption through tangerine garnets and pink raspberry tourmalines formed in the lava. “At Louis Vuitton, we are, as always, adventurers, travelling to extraordinary, unexpected places,” says Amfitheatrof.
De Beers
De Beers' transformational journey from diamond supplier to design-driven jewellery house continues with the second and most ambitious chapter of Metamorphosis. With a collection first presented in January. Colour and volume are achieved thanks to the use of Grand Feu enamel. Thus representing the maroon hues of autumn in a series of earrings and rings in the shape of a wedding band. While polished white gold mimics the chill of winter in a striking collar set with stunning white and blue diamonds.
Messika
Paris, New York, the 1970s and the irresistible energy emanating from Studio 54, the Mudd Club, the Palace and Chez Régine, which turned the world upside down, are celebrated in Messika's 10th collection of high jewellery, Midnight Sun. It is therefore an irrepressible ode to freedom of self-expression. It is rendered with larger-than-life diamonds and geometric, shimmering designs that capture the spirit of this exciting era.
The strong characters of Liza Minelli and Diana Ross - two monumental women of the era - are embodied by a show that plays with two contrasting diamonds. A 20.04-carat yellow diamond in a pear cut and a 9.07-carat diamond in a cushion cut. The two diamonds are set in an armor-like choker, exuding the dynamic energy of the 1970s.
Gucci
Gucci's new jewellery creation Allegoria is a metaphorical journey through changing times. The collection also draws on the rich tradition of artistic production of the Italian territory. Inspired by the four seasons, it underpins it with the dazzling beauty of unusual stones in imaginative settings.
Just like the series of Four Seasons paintings by the late Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo depicting amusing profile portraits of flowers, fruits and shrubs in all their different stages. But they are accompanied by the allegorical poems of Giovanni Battista Fonteo. So too Gucci invites us to open our senses to detect and decipher the nuances of the natural world in a jeweled mural of the four seasons.
One of the most striking pieces is a geometric diamond necklace that evokes the pattern of a snowflake in a propitious Narnia-like setting and even has a 92.85 carat opal in the shape of a pillow from Ethiopia.
Chopard
Chopard's travelling co-president and creative director Caroline Scheufele always travels with a notebook. Her faithful companion in which she jots down ideas and sketches inspired by everything that catches her attention.
Chopard's fine jewellery collections are often born when Ms Scheufele sits, flipping through the pages of her travel journals. So that's when she begins to translate this jumbled set of quick notes and drawings into precise lines of wearable jewelry.
The collection features a ring illuminated by a vibrant yellow sapphire and a group of antique-style sculptures decorated with diamonds carved in gold. Still another choker of diamond feathers interspersed with sapphires, reminiscent of the cylinder-like decorative elements often found in architectural design.
Buccellati
Byzantine mosaics, which are intertwined with Italian architectural identity, provided ample inspiration for Andrea Buccellati, creative director of the Milanese house, to create the more than fifty pieces that form part of the new collection of high jewellery aptly named Mosaico (Italian for mosaic).
The velvety blue sapphires nestled in the house's distinctive honeycomb reproduce the nighttime atmosphere of the sacred Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna with its deep blue domed ceiling. In other sets, dazzling diamonds recall the decorative motifs from the church of Santa Maria della Croce in Casaranello, Puglia.
Cartier
“This sea, this sea that begins again forever”, wrote the French writer Paul Valéry in a poem that encapsulates Cartier's creative process based on the constant reinterpretation of favourite themes, while remaining receptive to new ideas incorporated through the brand's distinctive style and exceptional craftsmanship.
The newly released Unda set plays with the Art Deco grammar that underpins Cartier's creations, but introduces unexpected twists through wave-shaped lines running through geometric patterns interspersed with emerald beads.
Tasaki
The aquatic world is a constant source of inspiration for a brand founded to elevate the beauty of pearls from the depths of the ocean. So for this year's collection, Atelier 6 Nature Spectacle, Tasaki focuses on the mesmerizing beauty created by sunlight and moonlight on the sea.
One of the most striking creations is the Cascade necklace, a three-dimensional rendition of a waterfall that juts boldly from the chest with dangling strings of pearls that elegantly mimic the sinuous current of water shaped gracefully by vivid blue Paraiba tourmalines sparkling under a hot tropical sun.
Chanel
Its roots are found in the wild landscapes of Scotland and Ireland. But the rugged and durable tweed is the epitome of elegance thanks to Mademoiselle Gabrielle Chanel, who made the fabric a cornerstone of her distinctive style.
This year Chanel pays tribute to tweed by rendering its unique texture and aesthetic through precious metals, coloured gemstones and diamonds. But Chanel's favourite iconic motifs - the white ribbon, pink camellia, the comet on a blue background, the yellow sun and the lion accented by flashes of red - define five chapters within the collection, which is as multifaceted as it is resolutely Chanel.
Dior
Through an ongoing imaginary correspondence with Dior's founder, creative director Victoire de Castellane translates Christian Dior's ideas of style into jewellery. But it helps that Victoire and Christian seem to have a lot in common. Let's start with a deep love of flowers, whose sensual yet austere lines at the core of the New Look will define Dior's aesthetic.
Expanding on previous creations, Les Jardins de la Couture unfolds with a mosaic of 170 exceptional pieces. But each is a testament to the eternal romance between jewellery and the realm of Nature.
Source: somethingaboutrocks.com
