IS IT TIME...

...to reconsider what high jewelry should be? Or could be? A new collection answers with opals, tanzanite, and a history of the world.

- STELLENE VOLANDES

I was high above the Peloponnese, staring at a diamond bib with a 43-carat Australian opal, a 20-carat Paraíba tourmaline, and 91 carats of tanzanite, and all I could think of was Socrates. We were, admittedly, at the presentation of Francesca Amfitheatrof's Louis Vuitton High Jewelry collection at Amanzoe, a hotel complex on the east coast of the Greek peninsula, and the room was lit to resemble a cave (different Greek philosopher, I am aware, but let's free-associate). It suggested to me a Socratic-like method, which I could use to understand the immensity of the aquamarines and yellow sapphires and rubellites and emeralds I was surrounded by and connect them to the talk of tectonic shifts and volcanic eruptions and colossal waves that filled the room. "Beautiful things, Socrates concluded, around 390 BC, "are difficult. That evening in Athens, at the base of the Acropolis, choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou created a presentation of the collection. Models walked through the ancient theater Odeon of Herodes Atticus wearing the jewelry, followed by black-clad male dancers with ring lights in front of their faces. At the conclusion of the performance, accompanied by violinist Renaud Capuçon, a woman emerged from a shell, born and then adorned. It was a history of life, the earth, and jewelry, in under an hour.