I visited several jewellery collections and events during haute couture. I’m not an expert, but fortunately I am often alongside Carol Woolton or Avril Groom to check things out, and of course the people who PR these products have both the expertise and the facts. It is a perfect complement to couture craft, and the time, detail, focus and creativity that go into each piece are brilliant. We can go from the tiniest pinhead-sized earring to the grandest statement necklace, and it’s fascinating how, just like fashion, trends and threads emerge. Each house also has its own identity, heritage and personality, from young and quirky to establishment stately.
Boucheron
At its headquarters and boutique on the corner of Place Vendôme and rue de la Paix, the lift takes us up to the presentation. Each season is different, and Creative Director Claire Choisne presents eloquently and with a deep commitment to the house, its history and its crafts. Yet her approach to creating the collection is one hundred percent modern. It surprises, it delights and, through its story, draws us into Boucheron and the collection.
This season, five necklaces were shown first in a static display while Claire explained each piece and showed us the extraordinary skills involved in creating what we were staring at, followed by five models wearing them with the rings that accompany each one. It was, as always, staggeringly beautiful. It’s also always about the passion of the designer and her team, the love for the work and the way that love is communicated that lifts the heart.
I won’t go into every detail, but my favourite necklace was made from rose quartz, inspired by flowers and petals.
“So, for the savoir-faire to bring this botanical design to life, Boucheron called on the skills of a painter of micro-miniatures. This extremely intricate art is executed on a tiny scale. Each rose quartz that makes up the set was painted individually under magnification. The artist applied the paint in delicate strokes, one after another, to perfectly reproduce the different shades of colour. Painting in such microscopic detail posed a real challenge for the artist, as the floral motif had to be precisely replicated on every stone, entirely by hand. An equally critical and delicate stage was the application of the protective finishing varnish: achieving a flawlessly smooth surface, without a single air bubble, called for absolute technical mastery. Every stone took around ten hours on average to complete, from layers of micro-painting through to the matte-finish varnish, in order to achieve the desired delicacy, depth and shades. This represents more than 1,200 hours of micro-painting work across the entire set. Added to this feat was the challenge of sourcing the rose quartz, ensuring a uniform colour across the various sizes and shapes of stones. The textures were also subject to special treatment, alternating between polished and softly frosted surfaces to bring out the chromatic nuances of the micro-painting with even greater subtlety. The stones were individually pierced and mounted on a finely engineered pin framework, without visible claws or collets, to maintain the purity of the design. This metal structure was coated with a ceramic finish to match the colour of the stones and ensure a harmonious overall effect.”
I think that’s enough to explain why I was literally staggered by the beauty of the piece.
Chaumet
Chaumet is entered through a huge door and archway on Place Vendôme. The salons on the first floor of the building are spectacular in their period details. You are standing in history and surrounded by magic, with an archive and stories that fascinate.
Several pieces were no longer on display, since their buyers had already whisked them away. But, as always with Chaumet, the beauty and craft within every piece are breathtaking.
Drawing on the narrative of Empress Joséphine and her love of botany, the collection looked to the flowers and plants of Malmaison. Intense colours and, of course, bees, fragile petal-like constructions and asymmetric shapes linked us to flowers and how they grow. The tendrils of a plant or the layering of petals can inspire jewels that become, indeed, flowers of the jeweller’s art.
Anna Hu
Anna Hu shows in her own apartment on Place Vendôme, and the pieces look obviously right at home in their display cases. However, I was also lucky enough to see an extraordinary emerald and diamond necklace being photographed and modelled.
The secret to the designs is their lightness and a quality I associate with flowers and petals, whether roses or orchids. There’s strength but fragility; there’s a softness to the colour but huge depth, even in the palest of tones. The jewels are also like flowers in that, up close, the intensity of the workmanship is revealed.
Lily Gabriella
Lily Gabriella was showing at The Ritz, so I was lucky enough to run across and see the collection. Delicate and eminently wearable, the pieces sat sparkling in their cases, ready to be worn and layered. They are delicate enough to wear in multiples, but not so delicate that they become fragile showpieces.
It is a modern approach to jewels: pieces to buy, make personal and wear with pleasure.
Messika
Messika showed its collection at Hôtel de Crillon. It was inspired by Botswana and the nature of the land, with the designs feasting on the opportunities this story offered.
Discreet images linking to each piece were displayed, but what I loved was that, with or without the narrative, every piece was extraordinary and every piece required investigation to fully appreciate its strength.
Valérie Messika, the artistic director and founder, explored shapes in astonishing variety, with soft, cascading forms ending in tassels, hard, rounded, constructed lines reminiscent of ritual or ceremonial pieces. Each time I moved to the next display, I needed to pause, focus and absorb the design and its impact.
I think what’s so brilliant is how the designs of the entire collection achieve a balance between creativity, wearability and timelessness, yet remain modern. The stones and workmanship are not simply on display but centred and celebrated within their settings and designs.
This is jewellery that demands to be worn, to be seen moving, living and reflecting the light. An emerald set in a beautiful necklace should be flashing that extraordinary colour, cut, depth and beauty, and be admired.
There was also a central piece to the collection, and I cannot do better than quote from the press release, with the title and facts regarding this stone and its diamond setting:
“Le Okavango Blue necklace celebrates a landmark partnership between Messika and the Government of Botswana. Discovered in 2018 at the Orapa Mine, it is the largest and rarest blue diamond ever to emerge from Botswana: 41.11 carats in its rough state, polished to 20.46 carats, classified Fancy Deep Blue. The stone reveals a shade of austral blue; water, light and earth held in perfect accord.”
It looks like a slice of blue water, a piece of sky; it looks truly extraordinary. Approaching the case where it sat, I knew no picture would do it justice. This stone is a living entity, so I will just leave you to try and imagine its visual power and impact.
Dior
This season, Dior showed its high jewellery on the Sunday before couture. An earlier viewing for clients had taken place, so we wondered what opportunities might still be offered.
The collection was shown alongside the haute couture, accessories and interiors on rue de l’Université. The theme of flowers was not just lovely but resulted in two key design elements: brilliant colour and exquisite detailing.
The display is always amazing, and this season the maquettes were arranged in serried ranks around the finished, real pieces. It was fascinating to see how close the final pieces were to the original ideas, with the extraordinary layering of colour and fragile craftsmanship glittering before our eyes.
These were exquisite, timeless pieces to cherish and treasure, if you are lucky enough to be in that category of shopper.
Victoire de Castellane brings a true vision to each season’s collection, yet this season it also linked strongly to Jonathan Anderson’s inspirations from nature: blossoms, leaves and the beauty of the natural world.
From the bell of a lily of the valley to the fluttering leaves of a plant, from the rich shades of a rose, much loved by both Monsieur Dior and his sister, to the white delicacy of a water lily, nature was everywhere.
The jewellery collection had been shown with Dior gowns at the Venice Lido, and the one hundred and forty-one pieces drew on lush garden, aquatic and sky-inspired themes. In the past, the jewellery has usually been shown to clients after the couture show.
Hermès
Hermès jewels were presented in an amazing installation at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre. It reminded me of a Greek seaside village, with white plaster decoration, curving lines and archways through which we strolled to see each case and have the collection explained to us.
In keeping with the heritage and narrative of the house, Pierre Hardy, creative director of the jewellery collections since 2001, entitled it Into the Horsescape, featuring ninety unique pieces.
The collection is not directly horse-inspired but instead draws on the paraphernalia of riding, from horseshoes to bridles. It is impossible to convey the brilliance of the collection in just a few words.
The ideas of saddlery, stirrups, the neat fastenings of bridles, the geometry of chains, leather straps and metalwork were subtly conveyed in pieces that led us from stupendous, larger, one-off extravagances to seemingly simple chains or necklaces.
A cuff inspired by an archival saddle was shown to us next to the original saddle itself, showing how Monsieur Hardy whisks and spins ideas from fantasy into reality.
I personally felt that many of the pieces could be worn by men or women, during the daytime or at cocktail hour, while the glittering diamond pieces could obviously move on to gala events or nights at a château.
I will also mention that literally everyone I was with or spoke to was raving about the collection. The unanimous verdict was, in racing terms, a thoroughbred winner!
Nikos Koulis
I was invited to visit the new boutique of Greek jewellery designer Nikos Koulis. I ran across Paris to the location on rue Boissy d’Anglas, just between Lanvin and Hermès.
The shop has been imagined and created by Nikos in partnership with Bureau de Change, who designed his other standalone boutique, and it’s fabulous.
The décor is like a gallery in one way and an installation in itself in another. Spaces created for the pièces uniques, for example, have the feeling of a Hercule Poirot setting. White exterior doors, enfolding metal and mirrored forms create a folding, screened box that one enters, yet it also reminded me of the movie Now You See Me.
There are cases holding white plaster domes like the roofs of old Greek churches, and even giant white eggs, alongside metal circles and banding. Objects d’art are scattered across the spaces.
It balances high style with beauty and grandeur, but also with a relaxed atmosphere. It’s all stunningly beautiful, but it’s welcoming too, a very difficult balancing act to pull off.
There are curved shapes and warm, polished wood. There is a flash of brilliant red with a Carlo Scarpa desk, and a feeling of hospitality and welcome alongside the beauty.
I welcome the opportunity to return and see how the space evolves, because it is not a static showroom. It’s a labour of love that will shift and change with Nikos as he uses it to show and talk about his work, with an eye towards a timeless future.
I would highlight 77, a collection using tortoiseshell acetate, gold and diamonds. It is a capsule of statement necklaces, hoop earrings and band rings. The collection is exclusively available at Nikos Koulis in the Athens and Paris flagships, and at the resort boutiques in Mykonos and Paros.
I’d recommend that you run to purchase, since it’s witty, desirable, gorgeous and timeless, yet with a hint of Marisa Berenson and Diana Vreeland. After all, it’s named after the year of the designer’s birth.
Repossi
Repossi held a delicious drinks launch at The Ritz, where Repossi fans were a welcome gift and the cooling drinks made wandering around the display a real pleasure.
Each story or group was clearly told through a key piece. The triple filigree gold chains, scattered with diamonds, were so clever. Slightly off-kilter, slightly random, they made gold and diamonds feel nonchalant.
The circle-loop necklace with an emerald drop was like a drawing or an idea literally coming into reality: so bold and simple, yet so beautiful.
The necklace resembling a ridged roll, set with a canary-yellow diamond, had the feeling of a portrait from Medici or Bourbon heritage. Its spectacular weight and power denoted a regal splendour, perhaps to be worn at court or to appear as an element in a dramatic plot.
