This week and next, jewelry houses are presenting their 2021 High Jewelry collections, online and in-person—at a distance—in Paris. Below, we’re sharing the dazzling debuts from brands like Cartier, Bvlgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, and more.
Juxtaposing components of balance, imbalance, symmetry, and asymmetry, Messika opted for a lightened approach to High Jewelry in its “Voltige” collection. Inspired by the movements of trapeze artists, acrobats, and illusionists, the house’s newest designs took an unconventional approach to jewelry styles, seen in pieces like single earrings, mismatched sets, and rings combining sharp, straight details with rounded stones. Our favorites included the ring with two pear-shaped diamonds and the asymmetrical earrings with crossbars of smaller diamonds and a dangling teardrop stone, all featuring the brand’s classic (white or yellow) gold-and-diamond pairing.
Courtesy of Uchi
For its 2021 High Jewelry debuts, Neha Dani introduced the “Kephi” collection comprised of a series of one-of-a-kind rings, earrings, and a pendant. Its name comes from the Greek word “kefi,” an experience of joyfulness and lightness of spirit. The collection features a curved, contoured motif orbiting a single center stone, including unexpected combinations of gems like blue zircon, demantoid garnet, and blue, pink, purple, yellow, and orange sapphires. And for the first time ever, the house is offering a bespoke service, inviting clients to personalize a made-to-order ring in their favorite color combination.
Cartier’s new collection found inspiration in the supernatural qualities that can be found in nature, exploring a space where figuration evolves to abstraction. With water, flora, and fauna as starting points, each of the six new designs was created from a metamorphosis of the original figures. The resulting collection features five necklaces and a wristwatch in hues of green, blue, and red—including the white gold, diamond, and sapphire Sinopé necklace, which reminds us of waves curling and crashing on the horizon; and a yellow gold Panthére Tropicale timepiece, set with brilliant aquamarine, blue tourmaline, coral, onyx, and diamonds.
Bvlgari High Jewelry 2021, courtesy of Bvlgari.
Bvlgari channeled the magnificence of the city of Rome in its new “Barocko” collection, inspired by the art and architecture of the Baroque period. A suite of daring and audacious designs offers vibrant stones set into intricate curls of platinum or gold, including a kaleidoscopic range of emeralds, diamonds, rubies, and other gems. Reminding us of royal heirlooms passed down for centuries, highlights included diamond-covered serpent pieces that coil around the body and a necklace set with seven cushion-cut stones spanning the hues of the rainbow.
Van Cleef & Arpels looked to its traditions of savoir-faire for the creation of three High Jewelry pieces. Including earrings, a necklace, and a cuff, each one draws on a past design, highlighting either diamonds, emeralds, or rubies. The Merveille d’émeraudes references the 1929 Collaret necklace and features five pear-shaped emeralds dripping from a luminous collar of white gold set with diamonds. Inspired by a design worn by Marlene Dietrich at the 1951 Oscars, the house debuted a magnificent bracelet in white gold, rose gold, and platinum, set with 72 cushion-cut Burma rubies. And the Tendresse étincelante earrings—a pair of white gold and diamond flower-shaped earrings with detachable pear diamond pendants—are fashioned after a pair of earrings given to Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis in 1968.
Photo by David Marlow and Jeremy Swanson, courtesy of Limelight Hotel and Aspen Skiing Company.
Lydia Courteille took us on a journey through time and civilizations for its High Jewelry collection “Caravan.” Traveling from the Great Silk Road to locations like Little Armenia, Mesopotamia, Lydia, and Persia, the new designs drew inspiration from the geography, legends, and artifacts, found in a caravanner’s travels. Taking the form of wearable sculptures, the collection features intricate jewel-encrusted pieces like a ring-shaped like a ceramic urn, cracked to reveal a pair of skulls inside; earrings fashioned after the Saxaul plant in its desert habitat; and a ring topped with a miniature oil lamp that opens and closes.
