For me, High Jewellery Collection embodies style, flair, and a hint of drama. Chaumet’s Perspectives 2020 collection very clearly delivers on all three. The collection is very architectural in design and gives a nod to Chaumet’s 240 years of jewellery designs inspired by architectural magnificence.
The scope and breadth of this collection have been imagined in many skeins of architectural influences, from Renaissance to Beaux-Arts and Post-Modernism, all the way to Brutalist. Organized as chapters, the collection features jewellery pieces that are both very exquisite and a marvel of technical jewellery design and craftsmanship. In true Chaumet fashion, the collection is entirely handcrafted. Down to the cutting of gemstones and using only traditional techniques and tools, every piece has been meticulously crafted by skilled craftsmen at Chaumet’s Place Vendôme atelier.
Perspective de Chaumet Lux High jewellery pieces
The Lacis Chapter of the collection is very postmodern in design and silhouette. Thus, the use of fil couteau setting, with its lacy structure and air of fragility, may seem counter-intuitive and yet it is just what the pieces need. The illusion of floating gemstones created by fil couteau allows larger, hero gemstones in the Lacis jewels, mostly diamonds, to appear suspended mid-air, an incredible feat of design and craftsmanship! This is taken one step further in the rubellite and diamond Lacis pieces, where the rubellite seems to be caged behind a lacy screen of white gold and diamonds, set fil couteau. Absolutely breathtaking!
Lacis collection, Chaumet, Inspired by patterned iron railings that are part of a city's decor
The Skyline Chapter speaks to a very postmodern aesthetic. While the overall chapter does take its inspiration from post-modernism and sometimes even brutalist architecture, it is in the details that you can find a nuanced hint of Sterlé and his colossal creative genius. The most striking piece is the Skyline Necklace featuring a pear-shaped Colombian emerald which weighs more than 16 carats. There is a deconstructed feel to this necklace, as panels of hammered and pierced gold cascade in a waterfall of shimmer and glow, forming a deep v edged with baguettes of Colombian emeralds and white diamonds. This necklace is, in my opinion, the showstopper of this collection, and for very good reasons!
With the Skyline collection, Chaumet reconsiders the iconic architecture of modern cities, thinking of great buildings as objects of adoration and symbols of great power
Another important point to note is that, overall, the Perspectives 2020 Collection does not shy away from colour! Consider the Lux chapter which reimagines Italian Renaissance architecture in the form of jewelled pieces of wearable art. Just one look at the Lux Ring and you almost feel as if you are in Medici Florence. A dome of blue-green opal supported by barrels of diamonds, sapphires, tsavorite garnets and lapis lazuli, this ring is resplendent with colour, flash and scintillation. Suffice to say, the entire Lux chapter just cannot be ignored.
Perspective de Chaumet Lux High jewellery rings in white gold, set with a 6.33carat angle skin coral cabochon, aquamarines, orange topazes, diamonds and turquoise
Chaumet’s Perspectives 2020 collection is a profusion of colour, textures and aesthetic elements, all under the umbrella of an architecturally inclined selection of jewellery. As a high jewellery collection, it ticks all the boxes-craftsmanship, style and spectacle of the best type. Chaumet has once again shown us, in their very particular style, that high jewellery is very personal adornment. The House of Chaumet has taken this very abstract attribute and, inspired by the very non-abstract ideas of architecture, created the exquisite Perspective 2020 Collection.
The Labyrinth collection, the jewels feature a dramatic contrast of stones, including, onyx, jade, indicolites, tourmalines and rubellites.
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