PARIS – What’s a milestone celebration with out some jewellery?
After watches, Piaget is bringing out its finest jewels with the “Essence of Extraleganza” excessive jewellery assortment, which would be the spotlight of a week-long exhibition at Palais Brogniart beginning Tuesday.
Open to the general public by appointment from Thursday to Sunday, the exhibition will head to Shanghai in September and Seoul in November.
For Piaget’s inventive director Stéphanie Sivrière, imagining a group for the home’s a hundred and fiftieth anniversary was about diving into its patrimony to get a way of the strongest currents that underpinned its inventive improvement.
By the 96-piece assortment, with greater than 40 of them offered in Paris, Sivrière would really like guests to remove that Piaget is “a jeweler and a watchmaker in contrast to others, notably by way of our work on supplies.”
“What I leaned into was the know-how of the home, notably those who have been a little bit forgotten like chain-making or mesh, but additionally the work on exhausting stones, gold braiding — and timekeeping jewels,” she stated.
An period that embodied this spirit in Sivrière’s opinion is the cusp of the Seventies. In response to the inventive, “1969 was a specific spotlight for the home the place daring and freedom jewellery watches peaked, so I actually centered there.”
They subsequently take delight of place within the anniversary assortment.
Among the many key items within the assortment is an emerald-set cuff watch bracelet. Some 200 components have been assembled and hand-adjusted on a twisted mesh bracelet that homes 36 baguette-cut eye-clean Colombian emeralds totaling over 26 carats. Its value is claimed to be above the two million euros mark, making one of the crucial costly items within the assortment.
She additionally made a number of wears right into a speaking level.
Living proof: a Swinging Sautoir with a twisted gold chain carrying fringes of malachite and turquoise beads. The 29-carat cushion-cut Sri Lankan yellow sapphire and 6-carat aquamarine result in a watch, which will be indifferent and positioned on a bracelet to turn out to be a valuable wrist decoration.
“I get pleasure from giving the consumer alternative ways of sporting [pieces]. It’s reasonably good — and makes it simpler to promote — as a result of it provides a second life to the items relying on the temper, the model of the occasion,” she stated. “Since we’re a watchmaker and a jeweler, having a watch that turns right into a jewel and vice-versa is at all times a great way to embrace that.”
Jewels that don’t inform time are additionally nicely represented.
Standing out is a necklace formed like a radiating collar product of rows of engraved Decor Palace engraving, set with 30 carats’ value of spherical Colombian emeralds, a reasonably uncommon reduce for this gem.
A necklace styled like a rope with gold pompoms, that includes 1,300 cabochon turquoise, was one other spotlight. “It’s loopy by way of work as a result of all the pieces is supple however product of twisted gold,” Sivrière stated. “It was a technical prowess to place that in place and preserve the motion.”
Chief government officer Benjamin Comar lauded Sivrière’s knack for “making a product magical. She pushes aesthetic boundaries and he or she doesn’t keep locked in with approach.”
Whereas others could also be wanting towards new supplies for his or her excessive jewellery, the main focus at Piaget stays on fluidity and guaranteeing supplies are at their finest whereas guaranteeing consolation and wearability. “Between gold and stones, we have already got many fascinating issues to do,” he continued. “We aren’t essentially on a quest for innovation by way of supplies however by way of know-how.”
In selecting Paris, the model supposed an homage to Piaget’s connection to the French capital, stated Comar.
“It’s reasonably historical as a result of within the time of Valentin Piaget, he’d ship his illustrators to Paris throughout trend week to be impressed,” the chief defined. “For a small model of jewellery and watchmaking primarily based in Switzerland’s La-Côte-Aux-Fées, it was reasonably unbelievable. I’m not even positive the Place Vendôme homes went to the exhibits that have been 30 meters from their workplaces on the time.
“What we needed to specific on this anniversary yr is the continuity between Piaget’s creativity [today] and its previous creativity,” he continued.
Requested what attracts purchasers to Piaget right this moment, Comar stated that these he noticed have been “glad to seek out this modernized, not nostalgic” tackle the home. “They’re glad to see and discover as soon as extra what they imagined Piaget to be however, in such occasions, what they need is to see what is particular about Piaget,” he continued. “We’re centered on our tradition, our heritage and the concept that it’s a dwelling patrimony, not reeditions of outdated designs.”
As jewelers placed on ever-more glamorous shows, the onus is on manufacturers to convey one thing new to the desk — and never simply by way of designs, in accordance with the chief. “It’s a part of our cultural position in direction of purchasers, companions and the press,” he added.
Much more so when competitors is fierce and gamers quite a few, along with an financial setting that invitations warning.
“The truth that there are extra consumers creates need, visibility for the class and will get much more individuals ,” he stated. “It’s wholesome competitors and there’s emulation to make much more inventive, much more distinctive, much more fascinating items.”
In response to the chief, Piaget has a large Asian and Center Jap excessive jewellery clientele and has begun seducing Individuals and some European prospects too.
And in contrast to different classes, excessive jewellery purchasers might probably not be analyzed by segments. “They’re above all a neighborhood that has extra in frequent with one another by way of their travels, their inventive pursuits, their model than with individuals of their age class or nationality,” he stated.
However reasonably than spotlight the “Essence of Extraleganza” by itself, the model staged its reveal in dialogue with archival designs and items from personal collections.
Ella Richards sporting classic Piaget cuff bracelet watches.
Courtesy of Piaget
For Fatemeh Laleh, Piaget’s international communication and picture director, immersing guests within the designs by way of a circuit that takes them by way of a succession of levels starting with its Home of Gold id and ending with the Piaget Society and the most recent marketing campaign that includes Ella Richards photographed by Brigitte Niedermayer was important.
“It’s a mise en abyme for this new assortment, with the continuity of the model, the signature, the previous, the current,” she stated. “It provides context to why you fell in love with this necklace or that cuff. And that’s additionally a manner of celebrating 150 years’ value of know-how.”