High Jewelry 2023: Chopard, Boucheron, Cindy Chao, and More

Remembering a Boucheron aquamarine and diamond double clip brooch gifted to Princess Elizabeth on her eighteenth birthday in 1944, the maison’s collection “Like a Queen” expands on the Art Deco marvel with a suite of pieces inspired by Queen Elizabeth II. The geometric rendition of the original brooch (a rounded arching shape holding rows of baguette-cut stones) has been recontextualized and imagined as earrings, rings, brooches, pendants on necklaces, and a stunning cuff bracelet where the hypnotic blue of aquamarine is accented by the use of blue lacquer and baguette-cut diamonds.

Chopard debuted a special selection of precious colorful stones like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and tourmalines—including rarities like a 30.63-carat yellow diamond, a 26.7-carat sapphire, a 10.06-carat ruby, and a trio of pink diamonds sourced in South Africa. Each crafted from marvels more beautiful than the last, the pieces we loved included an ornate necklace and matching earrings made of shimmering pink and white stones with rose gold details near the neck, and the aforementioned yellow cushion-cut stone that is the focal point on a necklace of white pear- and princess-cut diamonds.

Of the debuts from Cindy Chao, the designer’s two Black Label Masterpieces still gleam in our minds. Conceived to embody the hope and vitality of spring, the two brooches take the form of budding cardamom pods, where tiny stones—brown diamonds, alexandrites, yellow diamonds, green sapphires, garnets, and demantoids—cover the entirety of the twisting vines and pods, opening to reveal an oval-shaped Colombian emerald that weighs over 80 carats. 

The ongoing metamorphosis of nature informed the latest High Jewelry debuts from De Beers. With nine pieces in total, the maison employed an intermingling of metals (white, yellow, and rose gold), shapes, and textures that represent all four seasons, including a suite of designs with transformational features allowing them to be worn in multiple ways. Of the beautiful pieces, our favorites included a solitaire diamond ring with a removable ring jacket that can be worn as one piece or as multiple, and an ear cuff, where four dangling strands of diamonds each end in a colored titanium chrysalis, which can be removed and worn as a bracelet charm.

Repossi’s “La Ligne” collection, meaning “The Line,” found beauty in the simplest of forms. Included was a collection of 15 line-based designs in white gold and a selection of diamonds that collided to create contemporary, elegant wearables. Nearly abstract in their forms, all pieces employ clean lines of pave diamonds forming cuffs with parallel structural lines, modern art-mimicking necklaces with asymmetry, and unexpected finger-encompassing rings almost like cages, with each piece showcasing a single (or in some instances two) pear-shaped diamond.