Too often, high jewelry – that elitist, hand-crafted, European discipline – likes to measure itself in high carat weights. For the industry's main players in Paris' Place Vendôme, which unveil their collections twice a year, if summer is a time for fireworks, bling and excess, winter is its quieter counterpart. The latest creations, unveiled in Paris from January 27 to 30, confirm this division and outline a phase which, if not modest (for six-figure price tags), is at least less showy. This season's gemstones are more refined, speckling or studding compositions in a more subtle, impressionistic fashion.
Ivy, reed, fuchsia, oats, thistle ... Boucheron Creative Director Claire Choisne presents a collection of monochrome plants, like a delicate reinterpretation of the archives of founder Frédéric Boucheron (1830-1902). No bulky central stone, but a constellation of small diamonds set in white gold that are reminiscent of dewdrops or imitate the veins of leaves, the textures of stems or the bouquet of miniature wild carrot flowers on earrings, hair jewelry, brooches or necklaces.
An entire ecosystem surrounds this figurative nature: mother-of-pearl marquetry moths, rock crystal flies or ladybugs, and onyx-striped bumblebees. One omnipresent technique is snow setting, characterized by a decoration composed of tiny diamonds of varying diameters set against a white gold background to create what looks like a ground covered with scattered snowflakes.
This technique can be seen both in Pomellato's and Piaget's creations. The Italian company, founded in 1967, uses it on discs that contrast with a chain of rectangular, stick-shaped diamonds. The Swiss manufacturer founded in 1874 makes it a recurring theme. After a few years of conventional creations, Piaget is now refocusing on 70s-era jet-set hedonism, with graphic cuffs in malachite and turquoise, sparkling "Toi et Moi" rings (featuring two face-to-face center stones) or a mojito-style cocktail ring (ebony body, mint-green tourmalines and diamonds as angular as ice cubes), but also buckles in chrysoprase discs or a watch in which oval opals are alternatively layered with snow-set diamond elements.
Cartier's trademark "fur" setting is not far removed from this technique. It consists of framing small gems with very fine metal wires to make it look even more like fleece. This season, the Maison located on Rue de la Paix in Paris used it to assemble yellow, orange, brown and white diamonds into the shape of a tiger, which is available as a necklace, brooch or ring. With its onyx stripes and emerald eyes, Cartier is proud to point out that its paw is slightly moving. Other pieces use more pointillist effects, like a bee necklace with cells studded with yellow diamond beads.
Van Cleef & Arpels' compositions of speckled rubies, emeralds or sapphires also have their own distinctive shape: a "Mystery" set patented in 1936. This stylistic code enables it to set stones like pixelated mosaics to draw flowers and ballerinas. The latest crop, unveiled in Miami, U.S., in November 2024, uses it to create odd clips shaped like shells, palm trees, pirates or fish with iridescent scales. Taking as its theme Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson's (1850-1894) adventure novel, the design studio also came up with mermaid and frigate brooches, as well as mooring-knot-style necklaces.
Louis Vuitton and Chanel did not present their new models to the press but made sure to show them to their collectors. They must be quite different, given that the two houses' styles are currently at opposite ends of the spectrum. For the former, Artistic Director Francesca Amfitheatrof imagined rigid, graphic torques that evoke train tracks or Belle Epoque-era metal monuments, diamond mesh-like tiara or hand jewel, or a surprising fully-paved compass. As for Chanel, it unveiled a capsule of lightness and asymmetry supervised by jewelry studio director Patrice Leguéreau, who died in November 2024. White or pink feathers – a recurring motif since Chanel's first jewelry collection in 1932 – seem to blow by the wind on earrings, rings, brooches, or falling onto a pearl necklace.
Lastly, Chaumet and Dior explore two contrasting types of vegetation. Chaumet opted to focus on bamboo, a vertical and resistant material that is tricky to use harmoniously and seldom found in the archives, except for a vague sketch from 1840. While this choice deserves to be praised for its unexpected nature, the end result itself is rather busy. On a breastplate, diamond-paved lines intersect with leaves of chased yellow gold or set with tsavorites and black Australian opals with green and bluish veins. The set is completed by more abstract, asymmetrical rings.
Victoire de Castellane, the imaginative designer responsible for Dior's jewelry collections since 1998, has long been obsessed with the estate of Milly-la-Forêt (Essonne department), where Christian Dior owned the Moulin de Coudret, his second home. By returning to it this season, she dared to make more boldly impressionistic choices than ever: Tiaras, asymmetrical earrings, double rings and chokers are clustered with stars paved with tiny diamonds and mini pearls, leaves peppered with fine emeralds and tsavorites, precious little flowers with pink sapphire petals ... an intricate embroidery.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.