These Show-Stopping High Jewelry Debuts Are Top Contenders for the Emmys Red Carpet
Balenciaga, Schiaparelli and other legendary Parisian houses may draw the lion’s share of attention during July’s Paris Fashion Week, but for gasp-inducing moments, there’s nothing quite like a fancy intense yellow diamond that tops 30 carats.
While the biannual haute-couture presentations attract star-filled front rows and the accompanying headlines, haute joaillerie debuts unveiled during the same week are typically more discreet affairs, rife with security measures and decidedly more intimate — all the better to unveil pricey, one-of-a-kind gems that blend spectacular stones with exquisite handcraft, woven through the thread of a jewelry house’s DNA.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Prime Day's Top Deals Include Stick-On Bras and Nipple Covers Loved by Hollywood Stylists and Stars
The Best '70s-Inspired Looks for Channeling 'Daisy Jones & the Six' All Summer
High jewelry’s role on red carpets has become more prominent in recent years, especially with male stars increasingly joining women to embellish their awards-night looks with diamonds and pearls. Harry Styles, Michael B. Jordan, Rami Malek and Ke Huy Quan, 2023’s Oscar winner for best supporting actor, are just a few of the A-listers who are choosing upscale jewels for high-wattage moments. When combined with forward-thinking concepts and traditional, albeit dazzling, designs alike — as well as a luxury sector that remains simply bulletproof — the result in Paris last week was a span of high-jewelry presentations that far exceeded press and client expectations alike. For proof of the latter, consider a comment made by a representative of one house: “We should have more here, but we’ve sold so many pieces already.”
With the 75th Emmy Awards roughly 10 weeks away, it’s a sure bet many newly debuted high-jewelry designs will find their way onto the red carpet at L.A.’s Peacock Theater on Sept. 18. Here’s a look at 15 stunning pieces from revered houses, any of which easily could make the cut.
Boucheron
High-jewelry designs can require up to three years from concept to completion, so creative director Claire Choisne’s inspiration for her latest collection is instantly relatable: “We had just entered our second lockdown in Paris [in October 2020], so I was in the mood to design something that felt completely joyful,” she explained during her presentation at Boucheron’s Place Vendôme boutique. “This time I did not want to work under any constraints.”
When combined with Choisne’s always-inventive aesthetic, the resulting Boucheron Carte Blanche “More is More” collection indeed puts a decidedly modernist spin on high jewelry. Choisne loves adding unexpected materials — from wood and rock crystal to genuine butterfly wings in past designs — and this time around that included magnesium and HyCeram, a hybrid ceramic/polymer compound that results in intense colors.
Among the collection’s most-discussed designs is this Just An Illusion necklace, an oversized piece worn by a male model during the presentation. HyCeram in blue, white and black was applied via laser on links of titanium and white gold to create a trompe l’oeil effect that also evokes thoughts of comic-book illustrations; the HyCeram links are joined by links set paved with diamonds, spessartite mandarin garnets and rock crystal. Price upon request, at boucheron.com
Graff
London-based Laurence Graff loves yellow diamonds, and this season he made them the stars of the house’s latest high-jewelry collection, aptly named Sunrise. From line necklaces of beautifully matched yellow diamonds to a waterfall design featuring a cascade of sizeable pear-shaped stones, this showcase ranged from pale to intense hues. The hero of the collection is this pendant necklace crafted to frame an exceptional 30.28-carat pear-shaped fancy intense yellow diamond, surrounded by an additional 167.85 carats of yellow and white diamonds. Price upon request, at graff.com
Chanel
Patrice Leguéreau, director of Chanel’s Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, mined one of the house’s most beloved elements — bouclé tweed — to create its latest high-jewelry collection, with the weave of the highly textural fabric reinterpreted in diamonds, gold and gemstones.
This Tweed Royal Necklace indeed conveys thoughts of a Chanel jacket — not only in the weave-like setting of 18-karat yellow gold, embellished with diamonds and rubies, but also the diamond-embellished yellow-gold links that call to mind the chain famously added to lend weight around the hemline of Chanel jackets. Another iconic house symbol, the lion, sits atop the necklace in diamond-embellished 18-karat white gold, while the piece is finished with a pear-shaped diamond totaling 10.17 carats. Price upon request, at chanel.com
Buccellati
Mario Buccellati founded his eponymous house in 1919, and more than a century later, the brand continues to celebrate its Italian heritage with Buccellati Mosaico, designed by the current creative director and Mario’s grandson, Andrea Buccellati. “I thought of resuming the exercise that was my father’s, and before that my grandfather’s, of looking at the great works of the past that could provide a strong inspiration,” Buccellati explained in a press statement. “Byzantine mosaics have been a great help to me: the golden backgrounds, the geometric decorations that are never taken for granted, the stylization, the colors, and that particular light that permeates the surface and abstracts it. It is a continuous magic.”
Buccellati Mosaico blends 18-karat white and yellow gold in an exceptionally intricate handcraft set with diamonds and gemstones. Inspired by a 1970s piece designed by Andrea’s father, Gianmaria Buccellati, this Flexible bracelet is crafted of white gold embellished with brilliant- and oval-cut diamonds, surrounded by yellow gold set with round faceted emeralds and sapphires. Price upon request, at buccellati.com
Cartier
In late May in Florence, Cartier unveiled Le Voyage Recommencé, a 90-piece high-jewelry collection that puts a spotlight on the house’s iconic design codes, with pieces further revealed to editors in Paris during an intimate presentation at the Ritz hotel on Place Vendôme. As the title of the collection implies, this journey through Cartier’s legendary design elements ranges from accents on architecture and artwork to showcases of singular stones. This graphic Voltea necklace highlights coral, onyx and diamonds in a setting of 18-karat rose gold, designed to evoke thoughts of kinetic movement. Price upon request, at cartier.com
Gemfields
The London-based gemstone house collaborates with a variety of jewelry designers to showcase its Zambian emeralds and Mozambique rubies. This season’s Journées de la Haute Joaillerie included a collection of one-of-a-kind rings, such as this Fabergé design inspired by Game of Thrones. The Dragon Skeleton ring is crafted in 18-karat white and rose gold, embellished with a pair of round and pear-shaped Mozambique rubies totaling 1.05 carats, surrounded by round and pear-cut diamonds totaling 3.74 carats. Price upon request, at gemfields.com
Mikimoto
As Mikimoto celebrates its 130th anniversary throughout 2023, the house’s latest high-jewelry collection pays tribute to the ocean, the birthplace of its iconic pearls. The Praise to the Sea collection includes a variety of statement necklaces and other designs, while a selection of brooches has also been crafted with unisex wear in mind, with several seemingly perfect to adorn a tuxedo lapel on an awards night.
That includes this Spotted Eagle Ray brooch, featuring a South Sea pearl that’s meant to evoke the sun as it might look to a pair of spotted rays from beneath the ocean’s surface. The rhodium-coated rays are surrounded by a splash of pear-cut and round sapphires, tourmalines, tanzanites and diamonds, all to mimic the varying hues of the sea and set in 18-karat white gold. Price upon request, at mikimotoamerica.com
Piaget
From Piaget’s Metamorphia high-jewelry collection, these Alata earrings blend the beauty of two pear-shaped diamonds with exquisite handwork that creates the effect of feathered wings. White mother of pearl has been paired with diamond-embellished 18-karat white gold and 18-karat yellow gold, the latter featuring Piaget’s Palace Décor engraving, a hand technique the house has employed since the 1960s. Price upon request, at piaget.com
Van Cleef & Arpels
From the 17th through early 19th centuries, upper-class men from the United Kingdom and Europe would celebrate their 21st birthdays by embarking on a trip known as “the grand tour,” considered a completion of their education as they explored the famed museums of London, Paris, Rome and other art-centric cities. (Women were included in the latter part of this time span, a storyline made famous by E.M. Forster in A Room with a View.)
Van Cleef & Arpels has embraced the theme with Le Grand Tour, the house’s latest high-jewelry collection. Presented at L’Ecole des Arts Joailliers, the school of jewelry arts sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels and located just steps away from Place Vendôme, the Le Grand Tour collection showcased pieces that paid tribute to respective cities via their craft. This Chant des Gondoliers necklace takes its cue from Venice and features beautifully matched turquoise stones paired with sapphires and diamonds, all set in 18-karat white and yellow gold. Price upon request, at vancleefarpels.com
Roger Vivier
While not technically high jewelry, the collection of one-of-a-kind evening bags designed by Roger Vivier creative director Gherardo Felloni goes a long way toward qualifying in terms of both handwork and materials. This Caterina De’Medici bag is hand-embroidered with roughly 7,000 natural freshwater pearls in varying sizes and required 10 days to craft; at the center of the bag’s front flap, Vivier’s iconic buckle is hand-set with 350 micro-crystals to finish the piece. Price upon request, at rogervivier.com
Tasaki
Prabal Gurung continues to design imaginative pieces for pearl house Tasaki, each blending tradition with a decided sense of modernity and the unexpected. The latest collection, dubbed Tasaki Atelier 6, includes this Flourish Necklace, a statement piece that required 1,123 hours to craft and combines Akoya pearls with diamonds, morganite, fancy-colored sapphires, pink and Paraiba tourmalines, topaz and spinels. Price upon request, at tasaki-global.com
Pomellato
Creative director Vincenzo Castaldo is marking 20 years at Pomellato and is celebrating with “Ode to Milan,” a collection which he says “shakes up the codes of traditional high jewelry with contemporary yet elegant designs.” The 33-piece high-jewelry collection is divided into four chapters, each a tribute to the city Pomellato calls home; as their name implies, these Giardini Verticali earrings are inspired by Milan’s pair of sustainable residential buildings known for their lushly planted “vertical forest” exteriors. Crafted of green titanium and 18-karat rose gold, the earrings highlight 52 green tourmalines totaling 79.56 carats, six tanzanites totaling 9.96 carats, and 106 diamonds totaling 1.86 carats. Price upon request, at pomellato.com
Messika
Also among the week’s most impressive stones were the pair of heart-shaped diamonds in this ring from Messika’s Midnight Sun high-jewelry collection. The Joy Coeur Toi & Moi Ring features a heart-shaped yellow diamond totaling 16.18 carats, paired with a heart-shaped pink diamond totaling 7.06 carats, surrounded by 113 brilliant-cut diamonds totaling 1.83 carats and set in 18-karat white gold. Price upon request, at messika.com
David Yurman
At the jeweler’s boutique on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the latest high-jewelry pieces by Evan Yurman took their cue from extraordinary shapes and colors found in nature. These DY Genesis Dianthus Earrings showcase a pair of rubellites totaling 14.68 carats, surrounded by diamond-set “petals” crafted of 18-karat gold and copper. Price upon request, at davidyurman.com
De Beers Jewellers
Metamorphosis is the latest high-jewelry collection from De Beers, designs that explore the impact of the four seasons on nature. This Winter Tiara is crafted of platinum and titanium and has been conceptualized to create a halo effect while symbolizing the journey of ice amid a winter sky, from ice crystals, glaciers and icicles to snowfall as it descends to the ground. The base of chocolate-hued titanium set with rough and polished diamonds, meanwhile, represents the origins of the stones within the earth. At the tiara’s center, an 8.49-carat pear-shaped diamond is flanked by six additional fancy-cut diamonds. Price upon request, at debeers.com
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
