Paris sparkled with the latest haute joaillerie collections delighting in themes as varied as architecture, wildlife, rouleau collars and big gemstones.
Explore our curated selection of the latest high jewellery trends for 2024, featuring exquisite collections from renowned brands. Soon to be cherished by their fortunate owners, these pieces offer a glimpse into a world of beauty and craftsmanship. Click the links below to visit the brands' websites and take a closer look at these impressive jewels.
Beasts
The call of the wild was heard by Cartier and De Beers who rounded up diamond and black lacquer zebras and golden lions at De Beers and a diamond panther bracelet from Cartier that stretched from wrist to finger. There were snakes, leopards, kudu and giraffes from the plains of Africa and forests of the Amazon. Chanel’s emblematic lion roared as a diamond coat of arms brooch. Yet there was joyful whimsy amongst the wildlife with Chopard and Dior offering scampering bunnies, deer, swans and frogs. Dior’s fox, deer and squirrel were carved in chrysoprase and an enchanting ring with emerald-set titanium frogs supporting a gold crown appeared in Chopard’s Fairy Tales collection.
Architecture
From the skyscrapers and brownstones of New York to the palaces of the Silk Road and the steel girders of the Eiffel Tower architectural forms and structures were redrawn in diamonds and precious-coloured stones. Vuitton discovered a rare and mesmerising 56.23ct fancy deep orangy-pink square emerald-cut diamond for its Coeur de Paris pendant inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Boghossian drew exotic motifs from the palaces of Qianlong, Jaipur and Persepolis to create mosaic settings of turquoise, lapis and coloured gemstones. A contrast to the modernist constructions of New York architecture sparkling in diamonds with sapphire windows from Harry Winston, or Pomellato’s monochromatic treasures inspired by its home city, Milan.
Graphic
Designers drew straight lines, crossbars and circles to produce graphic geometric patterns to encircle necks and wrists. Chanel’s sporty collection while coinciding with the Paris Olympics this summer toyed with stars, squares and circles in primary colour gemstones and playfully rearranged Chanel’s typography. It’s equally delightful to get lost in Gucci’s Labrinati (Labyrinth) collection with linear pathways connecting emeralds with opals, and aquamarines with Paraiba tourmalines on cuffs and bracelets. Chaumet ’s rhythmical collection had jazzy, graphic onyx and diamond bracelet reminiscent of a keyboard. Elsewhere, Hermes drew rainbows of wavy lines for necklaces and rings that explore the colour spectrum and amorphous forms, and Linkage, one of Tasaki’s three 70th anniversary high jewellery sets, was inspired by the pearl oyster baskets - square outlines set in diamonds and highlighted with tanzanite, aquamarine and grossularite garnet.
Bi-colour precious metal
We’ve seen this trend of mixing white and yellow gold in the watch world and now it’s inspiring jewellery designers with Tiffany & Co, Piaget and Louis Vuitton experimenting with a platinum and yellow combination. Tiffany & Co’s celestial theme paired platinum with yellow gold for starburst pendants and constellation earrings. Vuitton uses bi-colour platinum and gold for rounded collars. Amongst all the colourful gemstones at Piaget is a collar in yellow and white gold combining engraving, rope twists and diamond setting, although yellow gold generally predominates their Extraleganza collection.
Fancy cuts
Aside from the artistry in the designs and settings of high jewellery there is an opportunity for Maisons to present magical gemstones, like Vuitton’s spectacular large, coloured diamond (Ed: the Eiffel Tower one). Graff secured two rare Colombian emeralds, one in a kite shape for a bracelet and the other, an elongated lozenge for a ring. Their eye-catching cuts make them a focal point, like Gucci’s kite shaped yellow diamond earrings and ravishing 62.58ct octagonal-cut Santa Maria aquamarine necklace centrepiece. The Mimosa collection at Damiani features necklaces and bracelets in a mosaic of precious stones in various cuts and shapes artfully arranged that highlights a trend for fancy cuts in several collections.
Rouleau collars
Smooth, voluminous rolls or cord-twisted torques present a refined modern look to grace the neckline. These collars, like padded Renaissance-style rouleaux, are appearing more frequently in collections from Messika, Bvlgari and Louis Vuitton, with Messika’s snow-set diamond collar featuring a yellow diamond centrepiece and their pavé-set diamond torques dangling interchangeable diamond pendants. De Beers’ bold interpretation in gold and diamonds is fringed with tiny gold beads while Bvlgari’s Terra Mater Serpenti coiled collar interpretation draws on it Tubogas bracelet technique and dangles an enormous emerald cabochon.
XXL stones
High jewellery is a Maison’s showcase for rare and impressive precious gemstones like the enormous cabochon emeralds, rubellites and tourmalines for which Bvlgari is famed and Dolce & Gabbana’s super-sized amethysts, kunzite, green beryls, and aquamarines in their lavish baroque-style gold filigree settings. However, the collections are now presenting large colourful ornamental hardstones as well including coral, opal, carnelian and turquoise, notably at Buccellati, Damiani and Piaget. One standout piece was Boucheron’s Iceberg necklace with enormous drops of frosted white quartz and diamond.
Gardens/floral
Nature has always offered designers an abundance of inspiration with flowers adorning women since ancient times. There is something fascinating about reproducing a subject as fragile and transient as a flower in a material as hard and enduring as a gemstone. This is why gardens and prettily coloured blooms have been a recurring theme in jewellery over the centuries. Anna Hu has long been drawn to flowers with orchids and roses a current favourite shaped in coloured titanium with a ceramic finish and coloured gemstones. Chopard’s fairytale flowers feature oak leaves, a rose trapped in crystal and lots of tiny pavé-set blooms and Christian Dior’s jewels are a bucolic setting of shrubbery and trees with fauna hopping through its midst.
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