Haute Ambitions

Chopard’s first-ever high jewellery collaboration with Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei shows why the exclusive worlds of haute couture and haute joaillerie are a perfect pairing, says Y-JEAN MUN-DELSALLE

- Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle

IT SEEMED LIKE a match made in luxury heaven: For the first time, Caroline Scheufele, co-president and artistic director of Chopard, decided to join forces with Beijingborn couturier Guo Pei in a fourhand collaboration to present their ideal vision of high jewellery and haute couture. Guo is best known for making Rihanna’s 2015 Met Gala outfit, a glorious yellow gown trimmed with fur and hand embroidered with silver floral patterns, which took some 50,000 man-hours to complete.

“Through a joint runway show with Guo Pei, an innovative and promising form of feminine solidarity is expressed: Women are never as strong as when they combine their talents,” says Scheufele. The stunning collaboration was unveiled when Guo presented her Autumn/Winter 2017 couture collection for the fourth time in Paris. Accompanying her rich and elaborate outfits were pieces from Chopard’s Asian inspired Silk Road Collection.

Scheufele and Guo’s common pursuit of beauty, excellence, considered design and painstaking craftsmanship led them to this partnership. It all began during their fateful first meeting at Guo’s solo fashion exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 2015, where both struck up a conversation around the customisation demands of a mutual Chinese client. It turned out that Scheufele was tasked to create jewellery to match a wedding gown that Guo had designed. Recognising in one another the insatiable quest for perfection, an immediate friendship was born. They subsequently met during Guo’s trips to Paris or Switzerland.