Enchanted Lacquer

Nature, art and architecture found their way into jewellers’ moodboard, who spilled it on to the collection on display at Paris Haute Couture Week.

- Hervé Dewintre​​​​​​​

Lofty and affected is what high jewellery is, right? Not quite. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Especially, when you are looking at the collections unveiled during the week dedicated to haute couture at Place Vendôme and of Rue de la Paix in Paris.

An enthusiasm characterised through a rich palette, a reverberation of the diversity that exists across continents and horizons. Cartier, Chaumet, Bulgari, Mellerio seemed to have taken it upon themselves to study and express the creative diversity of the world. The notes of Africa vibrated in Chaumet, the powerful colours of electrifying Italian nights exploded in Bulgari, the fresh tones of the Borromean islands intoxicated the jewellery by Mellerio known as Meller. And then there was Piaget having carved out a generous arctic luminosity. Cartier took charge of a vibrant, and exhaustive, ode to the colours of the globe, bringing together jewellery reflecting different parts, in one place the delicate hues of Japan and in the other contrasts characteristic of Asia, of the Orient. In every direction this very same exaltation of la joie de vivre was seen.

While looking over all these creations, it was evident that the same enthusiasm was expressed technically through chromatic combinations that have never been seen before: a clever way of enhancing the prestige of gemstones — tourmalines, morganites, garnets — alongside more traditional precious stones like the ruby, sapphire, emerald and diamond.

An inspiring landscape