A New Dawn

In Hong Kong for the Asian preview of Tiffany & Co.’s 2019 Blue Book Collection, Chief Gemologist Melvyn Kirtley tells us about the science behind the Tiffany magic.

- Charmaine Ho

With hair slicked back in a finger wave and lips painted a dark, sultry red, Lady Gaga looked every inch a silver screen goddess from a bygone age when she walked the Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet earlier this year. Yet, for all the Old Hollywood glamour that she channelled, it was her jewellery that truly shone: A diamond and gold frame choker that dripped with post-punk finesse, and hand-etched butterfly-like earrings from Tiffany & Co.’s 2019 Blue Book collection.

From a jewellery perspective, the myriad images of Gaga that flooded the Internet drove home the fact that Tiffany & Co. had entered a new era under the firm hands of Artistic Director Reed Krakoff—one in which the boundaries of high and fine jewellery were being experimented on, and where “casual” and “divine” reasserted themselves on the same playing field. Things have certainly taken an edgier, more industrial-inspired turn, and the American jeweller’s 2019 Blue Book collection has likewise followed suit.

Aptly called Tiffany Jewel Box, this year’s showcase was centred on seven main themes that range from the more traditional—like Flora and Ribbon—to the avant-garde, with Sculpture and Frame taking an unconventional approach to high jewellery. (The former sees a gold handkerchief floating within a glass box with a 5-carat diamond cradled in its midst; while the latter does the exact opposite of what has come to be expected of haute joaillerie, which is to push the jewellery’s metalwork to the forefront of design in an almost gleeful defiance.)