The Way of CHAUMET

BAZAAR talks exclusively to Chaumet CEO, Charles Leung, about the brand's new high jewellery collection, its ambassadors and his new plans for the brand.

- ABDUL AZIZ DRAIM

BAZAAR: How would you describe the Chaumet en Scène high jewellery collection?

Charles Leung: For this collection, we try two different things. First, we want to pay tribute to the performing arts. Because we believe that making high jewellery is also a performance. It’s a very important human heritage that we continue to make high jewellery, but it’s also important that music exists, dance exists, and magic exists. Also, we try to remind ourselves that there has to be movement. There has to be a bit of illusion in how we do things, a little bit of magic, especially with the artistic sense in our craftsmanship. So we try to combine all these together in jewellery, and the result is stunning.

Secondly, we would like to pay tribute to all the important signatures of the Chaumet style, and glorify them with some beautiful coloured stones and diamonds. So this (collection) is quite interesting because we’ve split it into thematic storytelling and the very wearable, timeless, instantly recognisable Chaumet style, inspired directly by our Josephine tiaras. I would say (that this collection) is perfect for a stage performance, to be under the spotlight.

What is your personal favourite piece from the collection?

CL: The Harmony necklace. I find the colour very daring, and it’s very well made. It is a tribute to music, but not music that is static and mechanical. From the perspective of a jewellery expert, the choice of the stones is stunning. The blue sapphire, all of the same colour, same intensity, which is very difficult to achieve because they are of different sizes. Normally the size of the stone can (affect) the intensity of the colour as well, but our stone purchaser and our workshop made sure that everything is of the same colour and intensity. Of course, not to mention the big diamond. So it’s a really stunning piece.