Louis Vuitton Jewelry Blossoms Under Francesca Amfitheatrof

Francesca Amfitheatrof on Transforming Jewelry into Louis Vuitton’s Fastest Growing Category

Five years ago, Francesca Amfitheatrof began her role as the artistic director of watches and jewelry at Louis Vuitton. “B Blossom,” her first fine jewelry collection, included a selection of pieces that built from a traditional chevalier ring. Modernized and sleek, the motif was reimagined as a polished half-globe bauble topped with the brand’s iconic floral monogram. In tow were earrings, necklaces, and chunky bracelets adorned with diamonds, rose quartz, and black onyx.

Amfitheatrof’s first high jewelry collection for Louis Vuitton, “Riders of the Knights,” soon followed. The elegant presentation took materials and nuance up a notch, revealing a thematic line of 50 pieces inspired by medieval history. Filled with feminine pieces with strong energy and a whole lot of diamonds, it paid homage to heroines from the middle ages. Women like Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, and Eleanor of Aquitaine provided inspiration for Amfitheatrof, their spirit seen in innovative designs that echo architecture, armor, and weaponry of the time. One gorget-shaped necklace, Le Royaume, stunned the public for its marvelous shape, size, design, and weight. Replicating a knight’s throat protector worn during battle, the wide choker was constructed in fine mesh metal, dazzling in tiers of 1,600 diamonds and sapphires—topped with a singular 19.31-carat sapphire.

Amfitheatrof’s designs for Louis Vuitton have since continued to balance unquestionable beauty, technical execution, and personality with the brand’s iconic design DNA. Embedded in each collection is her ingenuity and expertise, alongside her interests in nature, art, travel, and time. Perhaps that is why in the years since her start, jewelry has also become Louis Vuitton’s fastest-growing category.

Over the summer in New York, Whitewall joined Amfitheatrof in a penthouse at the Aman Hotel to celebrate her latest line, “Silhouette Blossom.” Presented side by side with her first collection, it used “B Blossom” as a starting point, yet includes rings, earring, bracelets, necklaces, and more that embrace playfulness. They encourage wearers to mix and match pieces, stack them, and even wear them upside down—an intention that reflects who jewelry wearers are today. One month later, Amfitheatrof debuted her largest line to date in Greece, her fifth high jewelry collection for Louis Vuitton entitled “Deep Time.” Featuring 170 unique pieces, it was created within a home the designer built in a cave on an island in Italy.

Amfitheatrof shared with Whitewall how her relationship to time, place, and nature inspires her work, and why her gemstones connect our personal spirit to the earth.

“Stones have a power and an energy that go beyond anything that has been man-made.”—Francesca Amfitheatrof

Whitewall: You recently presented “Silhouette Blossom” in New York, seen in juxtaposition with the very first “B Blossom” collection you created for Louis Vuitton. How would you describe its evolution, building on previous designs?

FRANCESCA AMFITHEATROF: “Blossom” is a very important element in the history of the Louis Vuitton maison, and we have brought these various collections together. “B Blossom” was the first collection that I designed as soon as I arrived, and “Silhouette Blossom” being the latest launch. They all hold the same design ethos, even though their volumes are quite different.

WW: The new “Silhouette Blossom” collection is a young and fresh take, with stackable rings and earrings, encouraging the wearer to mix and match them. Do you feel this effortless approach matches the jewelry wearers of today?

FA: Yes, very much so. Jewelry has always been a very personal object, but “Silhouette Blossom” has added so much more playfulness—a fun characteristic.

WW: There, you said that in the past five years at Louis Vuitton, you’ve “accelerated the whole jewelry category into becoming a ‘grown-up’ category.” How so?

FA: We have focused on expanding from fine jewelry into high jewelry in a meaningful way. We have created our own cut of diamond; we have taken a position as being one of the most important brands of colored stones of a certain quality and exclusivity. We have expanded all of the fine jewelry lines and launched new ones. We have very visible advertising and we have launched a diamond collection around our Louis Vuitton Monogram Diamond cut. We are vertical in our diamond buying with a blockchain system to trace our diamonds from mine to finger, and we have launched an “Icons” collection for diamond pieces of a certain value. Things have evolved quite significantly.

WW: Does this impact what you’re considering designing next or in the future?

FA: We have a very clear idea of where we want to go at Louis Vuitton. From the very first “B Blossom” fine jewelry collection, from the very first “Riders of the Knights” high jewelry collection, it was very clear that our designs and our intentions from our business point of view were very clear, and we are building on this.

WW: This is your fifth year at Louis Vuitton. How has working with the brand’s heritage and unique DNA impacted your perspective of jewelry design? Your career?

FA: When you enter a maison as important as Louis Vuitton, it is imperative to wear the history of the brand like a beautiful coat that moves with you, that keeps you warm and protects you.

WW: In a recent video on your collections, you said, “I don’t think anything else has the power to hold the spirit of a person so much as jewelry does.” Why do you think that is?

FA: I think there is something so powerful about jewelry. Stones and diamonds were formed billions of years ago. They are the one object that transports us to the beginning of our planet to time-travel in such an elemental way. Stones have a power and an energy that go beyond anything that has been man-made. Stones absorb a person’s spirit. I really believe that they emanate frequency and energy.

Francesca Amfitheatrof’s Practice is Fueled by Nature

WW: You work from your studio in Connecticut. How does this setting fuel your creative process?

FA: Being in nature today is fundamental and even more important than ever. I have managed to create a space that is an old horse barn, and it is a place that I can get lost in. When you design jewelry, time does need to slow down. There are so many details and so much reflection that one needs to have a very particular atmosphere to really be able to have all of that moving within your own head. There is nothing that I enjoy more than to have the opportunity to create with such incredible materials, an incredibly talented team, and to not know where creativity will take me to. I dive into it, and I do so with no fear and total trust.

WW: In June in Greece, you presented your fifth high jewelry collection for Louis Vuitton, “Deep Time.” Why was the origin of geology and time the starting point? How was that illustrated through gemstones?

FA: Gemstones are the planet’s connecting tissue. I call them the true aristocracy of the earth. Gemstones and fossils have shown us that we were once all connected in one giant supercontinent called Pangea that separated in Gondwana and Laurasia, and then furthermore. This took place billions of years ago, and stones are the way to tell this story. It is also a way for us to go back through geological time to discover lines of the same quality stones that have not been marketed in the past by pure players. We are risk-takers and adventurers and therefore always stand alone, and yet again we have led the industry to buy from particular mines. The geological narrative was a beautiful and poetic way for us to talk about our passion for discovering the most beautiful and important stones.

WW: “Deep Time” was explored in two acts, focused on geology and life, and is Louis Vuitton’s largest high jewelry collection to date, encompassing a total of 16 themes and featuring over 170 unique pieces—including 95 in the first chapter alone—and a record number of precious stones. How did you approach designing something so large, and educationally deep?

FA: For all of the collections that I work on, and because this is a process that takes a number of years, I always start by organizing an inspiration trip. I built a house in a cave on a small island in Italy and invited the Louis Vuitton design team to come and to be in this extraordinary environment and start the research, learning, and experiences that lead us to design from a point of experience and emotion rather than from books or digital search engines. This inevitably leads to an originality and a modernity that is paramount to what we want to achieve and to our philosophy.

WW: The first grouping explores geological forms that have evolved to form earth as we know it. What are some examples of materials you worked with?

FA: Volcano is a really exciting necklace—this intoxicating mixture of tourmalines and garnets, the mixture of yellow gold and white gold, different diamonds. Its fluidity and suppleness is a perfect example of the drama, but also of wearability of the pieces in “Deep Time.” The stones in this necklace were formed in pegmatite rock, lava. This is the level of passion that we go to in our storytelling. We are not only creating the unique design, but we also source stones that reflect the theme of each piece.

WW: We noticed new monogram-cut diamonds, and wondered how those were physically made. Were there any nuanced design techniques used in the design or production stages of these latest pieces?

FA: Movement and the suppleness is present in all of our pieces, and is made with the extraordinary talent of our Place Vendôme ateliers and jewelers. This involves thousands of hours of work and exceptional materials, the best in the world. Our focus and passion is flexibility and protection, like chain mail in medieval times. Our jewelry is like a protective garment.

WW: Your collections have exemplified your talents of turning gemstones and precious metals into works of art, showing range and versatility with pieces that can be mixed and matched and worn in parts. How did you approach the materials, shapes, and silhouettes with this in mind? The wearers of today?

FA: We want our clients to have an opportunity to wear their pieces in different ways and on different occasions. Also, to share them with family members and loved ones. We have had clients that buy our pieces, wear them, swap them like teenage girls share their clothes. Jewelry should be loved, and I love that the jewelry we create has this quality. It should feel youthful and fun.

Francesca Amfitheatrof’s Favorite Jewelry Designs

WW: What is your personal favorite piece in the collection?

FA: Armed with daring and the flair to pair three of the oldest stone crystallizations in the world, zircons, orange sapphire, Mexican opals and diamonds, Rupture is a powerful statement. Not often do you get to describe a piece of high jewelry as being cool. Rupture is just that. It has a devil-may-care attitude.

WW: Jewelry and the wearer are inextricably linked. How are you personally attached to your jewelry? Is there something you wear every day?

FA: I wear three wedding bands—and not because I’ve married three times! They are family pieces going back to my grandmother, and I wear a tag bracelet from my own personal brand Pauer every day. I always wear LV Monogram Cut Diamond studs, an LV Volt Mesh bracelet, B Blossom signet pinkie ring, and an LV Volt Upside Down cuff.