At Paris Haute Couture Week 2024, the high jewellery collections were undoubtedly one of the highlights. Expressed in precious metals and adorned with extraordinary gemstones, the theme of heritage currently looms large over the couture world. This season, the storied maisons of Paris’ Place Vendôme (and also New York) found inspiration in the past, mining their archives for codes and motifs to make new. The resulting pieces feel at once timeless and yet totally contemporary.
Lighting up the dull, grey January weather were plenty of sparkling pieces that channelled the beauty of nature – a perennial high jewellery theme. David Morris was inspired by the ever-changing hues of the heavens while at Louis Vuitton, Francesca Amfitheatrof drew inspiration from the myriad palettes and forms of flora and fauna that were created at the dawn of time. De Beers, meanwhile, looked to the fabulous beasts that currently live on the southern African plains, with chunky rings honouring rhinos, lions and giraffes.
For Chaumet – which thrilled guests by presenting its glittering jewellery among the ornately painted ceilings of its historic home at 12 Place Vendôme – it was all about capturing the graceful swoops of a flight of swallows. As ever, each maison also crafted their jewels with modern multi functionality in mind – cue an assortment of pieces that can adorn your hands, clothing or hair. Here, we bring you the high jewellery moments of Paris Haute Couture Week 2024.
Paris Haute Couture Week 2024
David Morris
During Paris Haute Couture Week 2024, a glut of extraordinary, pastel-tinted gemstones was cast into show stopping statement jewels at David Morris. Each one was created in homage to the ethereal colours of the Northern Lights. A giant Starburst bangle gleams with oval-cut Paraiba tourmalines, while the Arctic Dance choker suspends pink and blue spinel drops from a band of shimmering white diamonds. “When the sky comes alive with the sublime dance of the Aurora Borealis, it is as if you are looking through a window into another world. This transient beauty is endlessly inspiring to me,” says creative director Jeremy Morris.
Boucheron
Prince Phillip as a jewellery pin-up? In the mind of Boucheron’s creative director Claire Choisne, the answer is a resounding yes. Inspired by the formal military regalia of the late Duke of Edinburgh’s naval career, as well as couture embellishments worn at other royal courts, Choisne has conjured an elegant high jewellery collection of rock crystal and diamonds that resembles ribbons, frogging, epaulettes and braiding. Rather than uniforms, these glamorous pieces are destined to adorn elegant gowns, with transformable jewels that can be slipped onto shoulders, cuffs and buttonholes, and necklaces that can become tiaras or brooches.
Chaumet
Birds were a beloved motif of Chaumet’s most famous client, the Empress Josephine, and today, the house pays tribute with graceful jewels inspired by the movement of a flock of swallows. One clever headpiece features a group of nine little birds, three of which can fly free as a detachable pin. Another sparkles with a delicate fan of their carved rose gold and diamond-set ‘feathers’, arranged around a central pear-cut diamond. These, too, can be removed and worn as lapel brooches. Meanwhile, the birds’ aerial trails have been captured in gold and diamonds, with asymmetric earrings and ear cuffs featuring diving swallows and swooping arcs of white gold and diamonds that gently curve around the ear and into your hair.
Dior
Heritage and horticulture come together in divine form with Victoire de Castellane’s latest high jewellery collection at Dior. Delicat is entirely devoted to the couture decorations of Monsieur Dior’s atelier, with sparkling diamond collars resembling lines of intricate stitching, earrings that look like tiny floral applique patches and rings of carved rose gold that mimic lacy lattices of daisy chains.
Louis Vuitton
For Louis Vuitton’s Francesca Amfitheatrof, the past is endlessly fascinating. In particular, the earth’s primordial past, when monumental tectonic shifts split continents and created precious gemstones. With the 50 one-of-a-kind pieces in the new Deep Time Chapter II collection, she pays homage to these forces of nature. The Drift collar, for instance, was inspired by the supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana and bears a magnificent 30.47 octagonal yellow sapphire. Meanwhile, the Symbiosis necklace – which took 1,381 hours to produce – glows with multiple clusters of pink, purple and blue spinels, as a tribute to the fleshy colours of early life forms. Running throughout the collection are familiar motifs, such as LV initials, florals and rope ties, which link to the house’s historic design codes.
De Beers
It’s all about the savannah at De Beers this season. Southern Africa is vital to the company’s diamond operations and the brand is now honouring eight of its most iconic creatures (the rhino, giraffe, buffalo, lion, leopard, Kudu antelope, elephant and zebra) with eye-catching statement rings. Each one is crafted around a standout diamond – such as a 3.09 carat Asscher-cut stone, a 5.78 carat round brilliant or a 3.2 carat heart-shaped gem – and features a wildly beautiful jacket, which can also be removed.
Graff
When you have access to some of the world’s most exquisite gemstones, why set them in overly fussy or ornate arrangements? Graff has taken a more linear and graphic approach with its latest couture jewellery collection, which sees incredible rubies, sapphires, yellow diamonds (a house speciality) and emeralds simply framed with various cuts of white diamonds. Indeed, even the white gold and platinum settings have been kept to a minimum, with the effect that the brilliant gemstones seem to float over the skin. No mean feat, when the stones in question include a Burmese ruby weighing almost 10 carats, a 17.29-carat old mine Columbian emerald, or a showstopping 118-carat cushion cut Sri Lankan sapphire.
Cartier
Drawing upon its considerable archives, Cartier has created a collection that nods to the bold colour combinations and architectural-inspired forms of the 1920s and 30s, while still remaining resolutely modern. One set shimmers with carved emeralds, sapphires and rubies akin to the legendary ‘Tutti Frutti’ pieces worn by the heiress Daisy Fellowes, but in delicate, contemporary arrangements. In another necklace, the house’s signature panther – which first appeared as a smattering of spots on a watch in 1914 – watches over geometric rows of bright coral, peridot and onyx beads, its lithe body looking perfectly life-like.
