Dior to Cartier: Paris's Best Jewelry Collections
As Paris' prestigious maisons present their latest high jewelry offerings in January, despite steely skies and icy winds. It was the geometric restraint of this year's designs that allowed the mind-bogglingly precious materials to shine: from gargantuan diamonds to mouthwatering rubies and rare gemstones that were snapped up by collectors like hotcakes. From the City of Light, these were the highlights.
Rich Report describes the Place Vendôme as a treasure trove of masterpieces, serious stones, and vibrant colors.
Graff High Jewelry
Graff unveiled its latest humdinger at Paris Haute Couture Week: a 50-carat, D-Flawless oval diamond. Within a jaw-dropping necklace, a 100-carat pool of pure brilliance floats in a pool of pure brilliance. The stones were cut and polished to fit perfectly into the tribal-inspired design. Also on display were chandelier earrings, sumptuous bib necklaces and cocktail rings adorned with yellow diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, indicative of the one-of-a-kind treasures that are produced in the Mayfair workshop and disappear into collectors' hands almost immediately.
De Beers Metamorphosis
With Metamorphosis, De Beers revealed the first chapter of expert goldsmithing. A medley of diamond colors and setting techniques is used to represent the four seasons through nine pieces of yellow, white, and rose gold. With a variety of styling options to choose from, the hero piece is a swaggering necklace featuring four diamond-set strands suspended between two intricate clips. The collection has a youthful, almost casual feel, with a ring jacket surrounding a 3.06ct diamond, and an earcuff with removable titanium chrysalises: a hint at the metamorphosis to come.
Chaumet Liens Inséparables
In 2023, Chaumet added nine new high jewelry pieces to its minimalistic Liens collection. A diamond-set white gold necklace, earring, and cocktail ring are part of the Liens Inséparables collection. Another parure features a ribbon of pavé-set blue sapphires weaving gracefully around the white diamonds, emphasizing the fluidity of the designs. A simple silhouette melds into the body with expertly articulated lines. Among the collection's highlights is a delicate diamond headpiece: a modern, minimalistic take on the house's tiaras.
Dior Dearest Dior
With Dearest Dior, a 77-piece collection inspired by the delicate beauty of lace, Victoire de Castellane revisits the theme ten years after Dear Dior, a high jewelry collection inspired by Dior's lace archives. A profusion of diamonds and gemstones is placed as close to the skin as possible in fantastically intricate, openwork designs that turn gold almost unrecognizable. Hot pink or yellow sapphires are suspended from petticoats of diamonds, and a necklace of diamond-set mesh features an 11-carat blue sapphire. In his bejeweled floral bouquets, De Castellane's riotous use of color appears fresh from an avant-garde florist's hands.
David Morris Skylines
In his Amunet choker, David Morris pays tribute to the symbolism of the stars in Ancient Egypt with a 43-carat Australian black opal. Featuring white diamonds, pink spinels, emeralds, and Paraiba tourmaline on a lapis lazuli necklace, it is the highlight of a 20-piece collection inspired by the night sky and London's changing skyline. A love of geometry is evident in Jeremy Morris' architecturally conceived designs such as the Capola necklace, featuring diamond and rock-crystal chevrons, and the angular Glaziale necklace, which features over 55 carats of diamonds. Along with rare pink and blue diamonds, Paraiba tourmalines, velvety Sri Lankan sapphires, and sunset-hued tourmalines appear in gorgeous designs.
Cindy Chao Black Label
The Taiwanese jewelry artist Cindy Chao follows Gaudi's maxim that nature has no straight lines. With hundreds of carats of precious gems, her three-dimensional, organic sculptures capture fleeting moments in nature. In Paris, she presented two new Black Label Masterpieces: a pair of sprouted cardamom pods, their titanium bodies sparkled with yellow and brown diamonds, garnets, alexandrites and sapphires, and revealed cabochon Colombian emerald seeds with rose-cut diamonds. A dragonfly with diamond and sapphire wings and an ox-horn body, as well as brooches and earrings incorporating gemstones as petals, stamens, and leaves, with each joint delicately articulated so they quiver with life, continue to celebrate nature's imperfections.
Louis Vuitton Spirit
In its second chapter of Spirit, Louis Vuitton continues its abstract themes of liberty, destiny, fantasy and radiance, combining rare gemstones with recognizable LV house codes. This versatile necklace is adorned with two diamonds cut into the shape of the house's Monogram Star, set in yellow gold and diamonds. An extraordinary arrangement of 37 color-matched rubies is centered at the center of the Destiny bib. In addition, a new version of the Radiance necklace with its armor-like glossy gold scales includes a pair of earcuffs with diamond-set Vs emanating from fiery Spessartite garnets like dragon scales.
Boucheron Like a Queen
According to Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne, the Like a Queen collection pays homage to the 1937 aquamarine and diamond clips that Queen Elizabeth II received on her 18th birthday. As Choisne encourages clients to wear their high jewelry in evermore daring ways, its designs include brooches, cocktail rings, bracelets, earrings, and transformable necklaces. Electric-blue lacquer modernizes an aquamarine and diamond bracelet, while emerald-cut pear-shaped gems adorn the Winter Green earrings. To pay homage to the Queen's signature style, Snow White's brooches can be worn classically on the lapel, pinned in the hair, or fastened to a necklace of Akoya pearls.
Chopard High Jewelry
Until the Cannes Film Festival in May, Chopard saves its high jewelry collection - but here is a preview of what will be on display. A pair of stunning oval yellow sapphires from Sri Lanka; a 26.70-carat royal blue sapphire; a 10-carat ruby and pink and green diamonds were on display, along with a preview of recently completed high jewelry designs, including a necklace set with a whopping 100-carat fancy intense yellow diamond, accompanied by a matching yellow diamond ring.
Cartier Beautés du Monde
It doesn't take long to discover the beauty in Cartier's third and final chapter of its Beautés du Monde collection. An exotic, unmistakably Cartier flavor is imparted to geometric motifs inspired by flora and fauna. There is no shortage of show-stopping necklaces, whether they are decorated with 42.44 carats of cabochon emeralds to evoke the undulating fins of Siamese fighting fish. A kimono-inspired Obi necklace showcases Cartier's signature green, black, and red colors, while other designs explore muted tones. In the Panthere Exotique earrings, the house's panther appears in abstract form as onyx spots. In the Panthere Urbaine necklace, a wild cat in an urban landscape, the panther lurks amid lavender jade and yellow sapphires.
Gucci Hortus Deliciarum
Hortus Deliciarum, Gucci's new high jewelry collection, continues to meld antique inspirations with a fantastical, futuristic aesthetic with 42 new pieces. In their Seventies style, long pendants feature gobstopper-sized cabochon gems strung with fairytale-like cascades of white diamonds. A yellow sapphire and a chimeric tiger-snake wrap around the wrist, and the chain is adorned with Gucci's signature tiger head. A series of signet rings features heart-shaped and hexagonal colored gemstones and opals, their fiery brilliance tempered by diamond baguette crystals.
Repossi La Ligne
LVMH now owns Repossi in majority, and La Ligne is the house's first high jewelry collection in years. With typical restraint, the pieces play with the house's signature use of negative space, based on the simple concept of a plumb line. Pavé-set diamonds or mirror-polished white gold appear to float alongside pear-cut diamonds. In an architectural cuff, diamonds drip vertically between the collarbones, while a torque-style collar necklace extends the length of the upper arm. Gaia Repossi, the queen of understated rebellion, returns to high jewelry with white cold wrought into every piece.
