Celestial Jewellery
This season, celestial skies and midnight galaxies blaze across high jewellery collections, with pieces from the top maisons showcasing everything from sparkling constellations to luminescent moons. Whether it’s Brooke Gregson’s gold and diamond astrology necklaces, Jessica McCormack’s statement star ring or Van Cleef & Arpels’ showstopping Planétarium watch, these pieces truly are out of this world. Here’s our edit of the best celestial jewellery collections that draw inspiration from the skies above.
Since the dawn of time, humans have looked to the skies for guidance and inspiration. The Babylonians divided the zodiac into 12 signs in the first millennium BC, crystallising the notion that our personalities and fate are written in the stars. Our fascination with the cosmos has influenced jewellers for millennia: ancient Greeks and Romans paid homage to gods and goddesses of the sun, moon and stars in their golden talismans. The Victorians were besotted with diamond-set crescent moons and stars, which represented wisdom and direction in jewels rife with symbolism.
Van Cleef & Arpels
18kt White & Yellow Gold, Sapphire, Spessartite Garnet, Spinel, Aventurine, Mother-Of-Pearl, Turquoise & Diamonds Planétarium Watch
POA
Modern science hasn’t quelled our desire to seek meaning in the stars. Astrologists report a boom in business since the pandemic and the politically tumultuous years that preceded it, as clients crave guidance from a higher power. And celestial motifs have infiltrated our wardrobes and jewellery boxes: online searches for ‘zodiac necklace’ have climbed over the last five years, peaking last December, with over double the number of searches compared to 2015.
Messika
18kt Yellow Gold & Diamond Lucky Move 3 Fingers Ring
£6,790
“Humankind has always been fascinated by the unreachable sky and what lies beyond. Stars guided explorers through the seas and offered direction when they were lost,” says Sabine Roemer, the London-based jeweller whose creations include a showstopping pair of chandelier earrings featuring sapphire-set exploding stars strung from a diamond and sapphire crescent moon. “In a way, hope is still written in the sky,” she continues. “Gazing at the stars and feeling connected to loved ones gives us a sense of closeness and belief. I believe in celestial symbols and that feeling of connection with our mysterious universe.”
Sabine Roemer
Blue Sapphire, Iolite & Diamond Mon Etoile Earrings
£12,500
Diamond-set stars appear on blackened-gold earrings, cocktail rings and hairpins at Jessica McCormack, recalling the oxidised silver stars of the Victorian era.
Jessica McCormack
18kt White & Yellow Gold & Diamond Star Ring
£4,600
An antique aesthetic also influences Parisian maison Chaumet. A diamond-set crescent moon aigrette from 1880 and a 1912 platinum and diamond star tiara are among the archival designs that inspired Les Ciels de Chaumet, a high jewellery tribute to all things celestial. The Étoiles Étoiles tiara uses fil-couteau settings so that shooting stars appear to soar above the wearer’s head, and chandelier earrings feature falling stars that trail brilliant-cut diamonds in their wake.
Chaumet
18kt White Gold & Diamond Étoile Étoile Earrings
POA
Stargazing also adds a divine dimension to Alessandro Michele’s latest high jewellery designs for Gucci. Exuberant coloured gemstone cocktail rings, brooches and earrings are finished with a smattering of eight-pointed shooting stars, undoubtedly influenced by the creative director’s love of antique jewellery.
Gucci
18kt White Gold, Purple Sapphire & Diamond Pendant
POA
The eight-pointed star is a signature motif for Dior, whose Rose des Vents collection was inspired by the founder’s lucky charm, a wind rose. The tiny talisman appears on hardstone medallions or against a background of pavé-set diamonds, each iteration more charming than the last.
Dior Fine Jewellery
18kt White Gold, Diamond & Onyx Rose Des Vents Earrings
£11,900
“I love all that is on high: the sky, the moon. I believe in the stars,” said Gabrielle Chanel; a belief that parlayed into her first and only high jewellery collection. The 1932 Bijoux de Diamants exhibition fulfilled her aim to “cover women in constellations”, with diamond-set stars and comets hurtling through hair, around necks and across fingers. The legacy of those designs lives on today: from Chanel’s white-diamond Comète earrings to the yellow sapphire five-pointed stars that twinkle within a lapis-lazuli sky in the Constellation Astrale high jewellery necklace.
Tasaki offers a contemporary take on the timeless motif: pearls are suspended within graphic stars in ear cuffs and asymmetric rings. Venyx studs an opulent opal sky with twinkling diamonds in the Milky Way pendant, while Noor Fares uses luminescent pearls to represent the moon at the centre of her blackened-gold spiral earrings. Ole Lynggaard Copenhagen’s shooting star designs range from simple stud earrings to an entire solar system of hardstone planets and diamond comets that skyrocket up the earlobe.
Ole Lynggaard Copenhagen
18kt Gold, Aquamarine, Moonstone, Lapis Lazuli, Rutile Quartz,
Tourmaline & Diamond Shooting Stars Earring
£5,370
Chanel
18kt White & Yellow Gold, Diamond, Yellow Sapphire &
Lapis Lazuli Constellation Astrale Necklace
POA
“The magic of the night sky has always captured my imagination,” says Dutch jeweller Bibi van der Velden, whose recent relocation to Portugal reignited her fascination with the solar system. “I live in a protected area of forest by the sea, with no light pollution; the night is so dark and the stars are so bright. I sit on my balcony, look upwards, and lose myself in the captivating beauty of the universe.” Her Galaxy collection features planets of Tahitian pearl, black opal or fossilised mammoth tusk studded with gemstones and orbited by bejewelled rings. A tactile cocktail ring sees a mesmerising boulder opal circled by tiny stars and planets: a miniature universe for the finger.
Bibi Van Der Velden
18kt Gold, Opal, Diamond, Blue Sapphire, Green
Tsavorite & Tahitian Pearl Galaxy Cocktail Ring
£19,517
“Writers, philosophers and poets have made us dream about the skies for centuries,” says Nicolas Bos, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels. “I’m fascinated by ancient depictions of solar phenomena – there is always some dreamlike dimension.” In the Sous Les Etoiles high jewellery collection, more than 120 fantastical pieces range from figurative depictions of heavenly bodies to more abstract designs that capture the otherworldly colours seen in high-definition astrological photography. “We didn’t want a black and white vision of the skies. Faraway galaxies are an incredible explosion of colour and shapes,” says Bos; the perfect excuse to showcase Fancy coloured diamonds, rich rubies and vibrant emeralds alongside ombrés of coloured sapphires, garnets and tourmalines.
Van Cleef & Arpels
18kt White & Yellow Gold, Sapphire, Lapis Lazuli & Diamond Galilée Lapis Between-The-Finger Ring
POA
Stellar colour play is also in evidence at Piaget, whose Extraordinary Lights collection explores celestial phenomena from dusk to dawn, via the glow of yellow diamonds, midnight-blue sapphires and no-oil Colombian emeralds, which represent the magical glow of the Aurora Borealis.
Zodiac-inspired jewellery is where our interest in all things astrological collides with our penchant for personalisation. Brooke Gregson’s matte-gold medallions, sprinkled with diamonds in the shape of constellations, are among her bestselling pieces, allowing wearers to express an aspect of what makes them unique. Van Cleef & Arpels recently launched a range of chunky gold and hardstone zodiac necklaces inspired by an archive design from the 1970s – another period of immense social upheaval when astrology was all the rage. In eras of uncertainty and amid a lack of control, we seek meaning, comfort and connection from the ethereal.
Brooke Gregson
14kt Gold & Diamond Astrology Necklace
£1,510
“We have all grown up with the notion of wishing on a star,” says Bibi Van der Velden. “Jewellery is a wonderful way of capturing a little piece of that magic. I believe that’s why humans will always be drawn to celestial jewels.”
