A First Look at Harry Winston’s New Majestic Escapes Collection
"Sure, I’m fiery,” Maria Callas told T&C back in 1959. “And I’ll stick up every minute of the day and night for art!” The jewels on this page would certainly fall into the category of things worth fighting for. After all, the soprano, who was as legendary for her bel canto as for her temper (Leonard Bernstein called her “pure electricity”), had quite the appetite for magnificent gems. (In 2004 a sale of 11 pieces from her collection netted $1.86 million at Sotheby’s Geneva.)
Some were the fruits of her labor, others spoils from her affairs, including a particularly stormy one with Aristotle Onassis. Theirs was a decade-long union of high society glamour and epic discord, which might have had some advantages: Nothing says “Forgive me” quite like the diamonds proffered by a man so rich they called him the Golden Greek.
Harry Winston’s latest high jewelry collection, Majestic Escapes, inspired by sun-kissed oases around the world, would have been a fine addition to Ari’s arsenal—especially the suite seen here, an iridescent ode to Santorini, crown jewel of the Cyclades. The island’s signature colors are translated into a one-of-a-kind necklace and earrings: the lapis-blue of its Byzantine domes and glistening white cave houses spun in sapphires and diamonds, with step-cut aquamarines laced throughout to evoke the turquoise sea.
There may be much debate about what constitutes appropriate jewels to wear to the beach—or even poolside—but these make a strong case for a little adventure, don’t they? Callas would have agreed, no doubt. “Destiny is destiny,” she once said. “And there’s no way out.”
This story appears in the Summer 2022 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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