High Jewelry 2021: Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Van Cleef & Arpels, and More

Chanel’s latest high jewelry collection “Escale à Venise” features 70 pieces inspired by one of Gabrielle Chanel’s favorite destinations, the floating city of Venice. Through four series, the house explored the magical city with majestic designs that emulated famous features like its palace facades and churches in the La Sérénissime, or the Gran Canale pieces inspired by the well-known waterways, which employed warm gold and deep blue, black, and white stones to mimic imagery of the blue mooring poles used by the gondolas.

Imagined entirely in white gold, diamond, and onyx, Louis Vuitton’s “Pure V” pays tribute to the house with a contemporary gaze exploring its signature “V.” A sense of coherency throughout the collection presents eight pieces focused around the motif, executed with clean lines and stunning stones. We’re still thinking of the chic-yet-modern ring, made up of multiple bands of different shaped diamonds, featuring a shadowy sliver of onyx peeking from under a tiny “V.”

Van Cleef & Arpels’s “Sous les Étoiles” (or “Heavenly Dreams”) is comprised of 150 designs—a wearable vision of a dreamy universe, completed with imagery of celestial figures and astronomical bodies. Otherworldly creations we’re still thinking of include a clip fashioned after the planet Saturn imagined in gold and diamonds; the Céphéide necklace that reimagines giant stars in pastel-hued gems like sapphires, diamonds, and tsavorite garnet; and a glittering Halley necklace, making a statement as bright as the comet through a radiant selection of white and yellow diamonds.

The house of Dior dedicated its 54-piece collection “RoseDior” to Christian Dior’s favorite flower. The elegant bloom came to life in a series of pieces like necklaces, brooches, rings, earrings, and bracelets, made with a kaleidoscope of gems including emeralds, pink spinel, briolette diamonds, Paraïba tourmaline, sapphires, rubies, and more. Created with finesse and poetry, our favorite designs included a y-shaped necklace with a flared cut rose sprinkled with diamond dewdrops and a pair of drop earrings with yellow diamond roses dangling from dainty stems.

Entitled “Histoire de Style, Art Deco,” Boucheron created a mirror effect between the fashion of today and the vibrance of the Art Deco style prominent a century ago. Detailed geometric patterns and decadent statement pieces echoing flapper styles were the staples of the collection, imagined primarily in diamonds, onyx, and brilliant green emeralds. Presented via video, the collection included pieces like the Diamants, which can be worn multiple ways including a belt with a tuxedo, a headband, and a choker; and the Bouton Emeraude ring, which features a central cushion-cut stone set into a bubbled body, which has been decked in tiny diamonds and detailing taken from Art Deco architecture.

Outside of a traditional presentation, Cartier debuted new additions to its “[Sur]Naturel” high jewelry collection. Taking cues from the framework of nature, the house has turned to imagery from the flora and fauna of the world, including elements like the stripes of an animal’s coat, the shimmer of plant leaves, the break of waves, and the silhouette of a flower. These influences shine through in unique designs true to the house’s codes, including a Zebra-patterned necklace and earrings set with smooth purple stones, pieces featuring a series of green gems and diamonds reminding us of an elegant imagining of microscopic plant cells, and a necklace and earrings in pale aquamarine embodying the reflective qualities of water.