“I was completely unhappy with the offer of jewelers from Place Vendôme,” Victoire recalls the jewelry in the windows of the late 1990s. - They looked too familiar and boring. This lacked the femininity and magic of jewelry art. " The meeting with Bernard Arnault was short in a businesslike manner, and the appointment was swift.
De Castellane was well aware from the start that a great fashion house was worthy of its own distinct style, which she, as creative director, had to create from scratch. So Dior had its own jewelry ateliers, craftsmen, gemologists, designers and jewelry collections, which had their own specific author, and a woman. Therefore, the Dior Joaillerie jewelry style is above all incredible femininity. And in the second place - a bold volume, a heap of details, daunting designs, unusual cuts and unexpected stones: it was Victoire that brought back the fashion for black Australian opal.
Victoire da Castellane © press service
And now, in the Museum of Modern Art in the city of Paris, a retrospective of de Castellane's work is solemnly opened (she herself chose the site for the exhibition). The collection of more than 220 pieces by Dior Joaillerie is divided into the themes "Garden", "Ball", "Couture". Each is taken to a sensual limit: the flower petals of Milly Carnivora are invariably bright and open, fruits from lacquer and bright stones almost emit juice, diamond folds and Archi Dior flounces flutter, and the precious ribbons of Soie Dior jewelry just want to untie to see what they are made of. woven.
Dentelle Satin Rubis earrings © press service
The latest high collection Dior Dior Dior develops the "couture" direction of the designer's creativity - these are 65 precious variations on the theme of fragile, delicate lace. Of the 37 rings, several are double, braiding the hand with a wide precious ribbon, there are also rings for different phalanges of the fingers. For the first time, Victoire offers original bracelets for the back of the hand. One of the precious chokers is made in the style of velvet, and none of the 17 pairs of earrings are symmetrical.
Dentelle Guipure Saphir Rose Double Ring © press service
Lace was widely used in the masterpieces of Christian Dior, but it was important for Victoire not only to repeat the graceful intricacies of threads, but to add volume to the flat openwork fabric. Each piece is based on a three-dimensional honeycomb-like structure. The technique for jewelry is not new: the Italian masters Buccellati and the Frenchwoman Aurelie Biedermann use honeycombs. But Victoire did her own thing here too.
Unlike standard cells of the same shape and size, cut out in metal, polished over the entire surface, like those of other jewelers, she ordered to make the cells irregular, polish their outer surface to a shine, and leave the inner ends matte. She embeds diamonds and large colored stones into the gold "grid" using nine setting methods. For the first time, Dior Dior Dior uses rare blue spinel from Vietnam ("almost electric shade") and pink, "like crushed raspberry" spinel from Tanzania.
Dentelle Tulle necklace © press service
Diamond sequins are another sparkle: the flat, round rose-cut diamonds with a hole in the middle are sewn onto the lower hem of the Dentelle Guipure Saphir Rose choker and Dentelle Velours Émeraude earrings. Jewelry sets got their names by types of fabric: tulle, organza, poplin. The Dentelle Tulle Saphir necklace with blue sapphire took over a thousand hours of work. During this time, 14 golden moving parts were created (totaling more than 120 elements), which were subsequently connected together to give the product flexibility and enhance the effect of the lace fabric.
The Dentelle Satin Rubis bracelet is composed of 150 individual pieces that take the shape of the wrist. In addition to the initial wax prototype, a silver model was created, on which the physical properties of the future jewelry were tested. Not surprisingly, the bracelet took 1200 hours to complete. But that's exactly what Victoire had in mind. This is how her method of perfection works.>