Most of the jewelry brands present their premieres during the July Couture Week. Only a few follow the fashion calendar and release two complete collections a year. This primarily applies to the respective divisions of the fashion houses Chanel and Dior. Chanel masters have tamed the tweed that the Great Mademoiselle loved so much. Victoire de Castellane for Dior has played on the classic sentimental symbol Toi & Moi. Boucheron has updated the format: from now on, the brand will show the Haute Joaillerie Signature capsule collection dedicated to archives in winter (this time the iconic question mark necklace has been chosen), and in the summer it will present a large thematic collection.
Chanel Fine Jewelry: interpretation of texture
For the first time, a high-jewelery collection was dedicated to a tweed, one of the iconic elements of the Gabrielle Chanel universe. She fell in love with this woolen fabric in the 1920s, when she met the Duke of Westminster, and was the first designer to borrow it from the men's wardrobe. Chanel preferred an unkempt, barely washed fabric that retained its natural unevenness and roughness. It is this texture of tweed, as well as the flexibility and pliability of Scottish fabric, that the director of the creative studio Patrice Legero wanted to convey in jewelry.
This is most accurate in the items from the Tweed Graphique set. Fragments of onyx of a special convex cut are intertwined with "fibers" of diamonds of different thickness. This effect is created by diamonds of different calibers, round, baguette, oval and other types of cut. Embossed weaving visible to the eye, for example, in a cuff bracelet, turns out to be a flat surface of the frame elements from the inside. Strands of diamonds and onyx create a jagged outer edge, like the chunky fringe in the Tweed Graphique necklace. The rarer weave at Tweed Brode is made up of thin diamond ribbons and chains - like knots of yarn, rolled round diamonds and small camellia buds are noticeable.
“Until 10 years ago, we could not have thought of such a technically complex idea,” says the head of marketing for Chanel Watches and Fine Jewelery. “But over the years, our skill has grown significantly.” The collection includes 45 pieces of jewelry, of which 38 have been created so far. Several sets are intended for the Asian market.
1 of 7 Tweed Cordage Ring © Press Service Tweed Graphique Bracelet © Press Service Tweed Graphique Earrings © Press Service Tweed Graphique Necklace © Press Service Tweed Contraste Earrings © Press Service Tweed Cordage Necklace © Press Service Seth Tweed d'Or © press service
Boucheron: historical technique
The open question mark necklace is perhaps the most important invention of Frédéric Bouchron. His first sketches for an extraordinary decoration date back to 1879 (even before moving to Place Vendome). Outwardly, a simple silhouette, which looks like a single metal ribbon, in fact turns out to be a flexible structure: inside there is a flat spring made of special hardened gold, on which, like pearls, the details of the future necklace are tightly threaded.
“Surprisingly, this is exactly how Frederic Boucheron conceived this thing 140 years ago, and since then nothing has changed in technical terms,” admires the creative director of the house Claire Chuan. We add that in aesthetic terms, nothing had to be changed: the precious idea turned out to be extremely relevant in our time, when you want simple but effective things that are easy and pleasant to wear every day. Claire has created eight new question mark necklaces. Fern, ivy and acanthus were introduced in new versions (fern in full emerald pavé), and several variations on the theme of feather appeared. Finally, the most laconic variant is with 11 different-sized pearls. But the most difficult to make was a necklace with flower buds, their natural shape petals less than 1 mm thick were cut from a single piece of mother-of-pearl and polished.
Claire regrets that only photographs and drawings are kept in the Boucheron archives: not a single authentic historical necklace has yet been obtained in the archive. However, it is known for certain that one of the first copies of gold and silver with a pair of diamond buds and leaves (dated as 1880-1890) is kept in the private collection of Thomas Farber.
1 of 3 Question Mark Lierre de Paris Necklace © Press Service Question Mark Perles Necklace © Press Service Question Mark Plume de Paon Necklace © Press Service
Dior Joaillerie: a game of symbols
The classic sentimental motif of Toi & Moi in the hands of the permanent creative director of the brand Victoire de Castellane has turned into a captivating Dior et Moi story with 39 jewelery characters (of which 17 will never be repeated). The antagonism in the title is realized in the opposition of a precious and semiprecious mineral, a combination of a cut stone and a cabochon, and in the very architecture of jewelry: almost every piece of jewelry is open and has two equal central elements. In a ring for the entire phalanx, chains connect a turquoise cabochon and a faceted rubellite framed with emeralds. An oval faceted sapphire and a smooth convex lapis lazuli in a two-finger ring, emerald and malachite, paraiba tourmaline and turquoise with a tiny opal in a ring on the back of the hand go well with each other.
Another striking touch is the colored varnish, with which de Castellane first experimented back in 2006. A large diamond in a ring or a drop-shaped opal in a pendant is outlined with a bright edging, sometimes with a rainbow overflow or transition to degradation, the base of open chokers, bracelets and the side surface of the frame are painted with colored varnish (varnish is sprayed by hand onto a matte gold surface). Among a dozen pairs of earrings, none are regular and symmetrical, on the contrary, each one is distinguished by the maximum variety of shapes, cuts, shades and combinations. And from this they become even more fashionable and seductive.
1 of 8 Ring from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Earrings from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Ring from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Earrings from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Pendant from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Palm bracelet from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Earrings from the Dior et Moi collection © press service Ring from the Dior et Moi collection © press service
Louis Vuitton and Chopard: only stones
Louis Vuitton delivered to the Place Vendome the largest diamond in existence and the second largest diamond ever found, weighing 1,758 carats, acquired in mid-January from the Lucara Diamond mining company. The rare find will soon be sent to Antwerp to the HB Company cutters. The first step will be the so-called "window", which will allow you to see the internal structure of the stone and evaluate its characteristics. The size of the valuable object is said to allow the Sewelo diamond to be crafted into sophisticated Louis Vuitton Monogram cut diamonds with rounded or pointed petals.
The Sewelo diamond, acquired by Louis Vuitton © press office
Chopard is housed in one of the Ritz's large halls to present eight unique colored stones to the public. Next to each exhibit was a sketch of the future jewelry made by Caroline Scheufele. In the trio of round Colombian emeralds, a stone (61.79 carats) is soloed as the centerpiece of the diamond necklace. A pair of stones (32.16 and 39.8 carats) will turn into earrings. A huge yellow diamond (33.26 carats, fancy vivid yellow, clarity VS1) will shine in the necklace just like the Paraiba tourmaline from Mozambique - the stone is almost 35 carats triangular cut.
Chopard Colored Stones © Press Office
Chopard jewelery designs © press service
The rest of the specimens claim the title role in the rings. This large cabochon of Australian opal (26.44 carats) will receive a titanium setting and a floral frame. In future rings with an unheated blue sapphire from Sri Lanka (21 carats) and a pink 13.5-carat sapphire from Madagascar, colored stones will be sandwiched between colorless heart-cut diamonds. A drop of unheated ruby from Mozambique in the shade of pigeon's blood will adorn the ring with a lacy diamond decor.
Perhaps soon we will see these decorations on the red carpet of international film festivals.
In addition, Chopard showed several ready-made jewelry: a ring with a rare purple spinel (12.6 carats) and a pure marquise-cut diamond (14 carats), as well as earrings with four emeralds (two octagonal stones weigh more than 25 carats each) in a titanium frame completely encrusted with emeralds.
Chopard emerald earrings © press service