PARIS — What’s the primary phrase that involves thoughts when taking a look at a miniature tableau depicting a moonlit backyard with bushes of gold, diamond stars and an evening sky minimize from a lacquered mother-of-pearl?
If “beautiful” is what you’d go for, that’s in a nutshell the throughline of the Diorexquis excessive jewellery assortment unveiled at Friday on the Château de La Colle Noire, Christian Dior‘s house within the south of France.
The 163 jewels imagined by Victoire de Castellane, inventive director of Dior Joaillerie, have been so many home windows providing glimpses of valuable gardens, zoomed in on opulent bouquets or captured robes lined up for a ball.
Diorexquis Forêt Nacrée set being assembled.
Courtesy of Dior
“I fairly like enjoying with qualifiers that talk of the marvelous, of the charming, of ravishing [things] — about need and pleasure,” she instructed WWD at fittings in Paris within the run-up to the occasion, which noticed her creations paired with 25 couture attire imagined by Maria Grazia Chiuri, the home’s inventive director of womenswear.
Whereas distinctive stones equivalent to a 13-carat oval-cut diamond, greater than 45 carats of yellow ones or a 10-carat Colombian emerald made for memorable designs, it’s delight that de Castellane was pursuing with fervor.
Therefore the charming dioramas in addition to a gem-encrusted lipstick case necklace, but additionally the way in which jewels have been dispatched throughout completely different elements of the physique, enjoying peekaboo on the waist or dangling on the nape of the neck.
Diorexquis Forêt Nacrée necklace.
Courtesy of Dior
However the viewer wasn’t the one one the jewellery designer sought to please.
“I discover that creation is about having enjoyable, discovering one thing that makes you dream,” she stated. “It’s in search of pleasure in any respect prices in creation and pushing it towards goals.”
What thrilled de Castellane and Dior’s jewellery artisans right here was harnessing historic strategies to nice impact.
Changeant skies or shifting water have been executed utilizing the opal doublet approach, which sees a layer of opal paired with one other stone to create new depths.
“There was additionally [something about] enjoying with new gem supplies,” she continued. “I performed with layers of valuable and semiprecious stones to search out new orients, new iridescences [which] lend themselves as backdrops for tales round nature and tender, joyful emotions.”
Diamond raindrops fall on the Diorexquis Pluie d’été design.
Courtesy of Dior
Working example: the Diorexquis Pluie d’été set, which features a necklace, a hoop, a brooch, earrings and a fragile earcuff. The opal doublet figures a stormy summer season sky, the changeant nuances of the dear stone made all of the extra dramatic by a black onyx layer beneath.
An opal and mother-of-pearl mixture introduced out the rosy fires of a 12.57-carat cushion-cut pink sapphire that’s the middle stone of the Diorexquis Bouquet des Roses set.
The play of sunshine and transparencies in every design telegraphed the delight that de Castellane spoke about.
Diorexquis Nature Précieuse brooch.
Courtesy of Dior
One other star approach on this excessive jewellery assortment is plique-à-jour, which sees enamel utilized and not using a backing. The result’s akin to stained glass home windows, with the gold define delicately holding translucent coloured components.
It was employed to nice impact within the Diorexquis Jardin du Cygne design.
Diorexquis Pluie d’été central motif being assembled.
Courtesy of Dior
Foliage figured in inexperienced and blue translucent enamel caught the sunshine and gave the impression to be mirrored within the flashes operating within the cabochon black Australian opal of practically 4 carats on the coronary heart of the set’s necklace.
Elsewhere, gradient enameling expanded on the coloured claws that de Castellane favors, enhancing the playful delicacy of the Bouquet Milly Paraiba jewels, all that includes intense blue-green tourmalines and a palette that went from delicate pinks to purples — in stones in addition to enamel.
If pleasant landscapes and delicate bouquets weren’t sufficient, a 3rd chapter within the assortment explored one other ardour of Monsieur Dior: fabulous balls.
Diorexquis Opale Fleurie
Courtesy of Dior
Diamond-framed home windows and curtains figured in sweeping traces of pink rubies provided glimpses of opulent robes, every completely different from the subsequent. As a backdrop, doublets of aventurine glass over mother-of-pearl telegraphed the impression of a fascinating occasion.
It prefigured the finale of the evening at La Colle Noire, which included a efficiency by South African soprano Fairly Yende and ended with a tableau of fashions of their couture finery posing by the basin of the property in Provence as fireworks lit up the evening sky.
