PARIS — Hotter days are at hand as June nears but Cartier’s panther continues to be leaping by an ice floe.
It was captured in motion because the Panthère des Glaces necklace, one of many standout items of the jeweler’s new “Nature Sauvage” excessive jewellery assortment that was unveiled Monday in Vienna.
“We wished to take a recent take a look at the Cartier bestiary, specializing in it and giving it modernity by surprising encounters,” the jeweler’s inventive director of excessive jewellery Jacqueline Karachi instructed WWD at a preview.
Although figurative designs are on the heart of the brand new assortment, Karachi and her groups wished to inform novel tales, journey into imaginary locales and stage animals in uncommon scenes.
Cue that cold-weather feline, alongside a flamingo nesting in a décolletage, a turtle diving down towards a brightly coloured gem, a dragon curling on the base of the neck, a zebra turning right into a graphic striped collar and even a beetle hovering into the sky, with a geometrical necklace for a contrail.
If most of the species come as no shock to the Cartier devotee, Karachi felt the animal realm was solely the start line of the journey.
“The shock is much less within the selection of the animals however somewhat within the context and the story round them,” she mentioned. “The animals mix into their setting to the purpose of hybridization and that was one thing notably fascinating to us.”
Sometimes it took a bit to search out what the creatures are or the place they hiding. “Fold again two parts on the brooch and you discover out it’s a turtle, whereas the necklace itself has one thing extra floral to it,” she mentioned of the Mochelys necklace.
A turtle hides in Cartier’s Mochelys excessive jewellery necklace — and will be worn as a brooch.
Iris Velghe/Courtesy of Cartier
Likewise, the beetle served because the mechanism on a zip-style fastening. “It amused us very a lot,” she admitted. “After getting discovered it, you perceive [its] flight and we appreciated the ‘second studying’ facet, the place not every little thing is alleged at first.”
Karachi was additionally eager to seize “a snapshot in nature, within the lifetime of the animal, which is extra vital than shocking by an uncommon animal.”
Bringing a recent twist have been the geometries lifted from metropolis constructions and fashionable buildings, which dovetailed with animal motifs.
“By means of the element of volumes and stone-setting, we staged stones that would have been traditional to evoke a crocodile pores and skin,” she mentioned of the Scuttella ring with its 3.48-carat diamond centerpiece.
One other instance is the Amphista necklace, the place the geometric scale sample of two snakes pivot into vertical stretches of sq. diamonds and octagonal Colombian emeralds.
All through, gems have been the ultimate affect on every design. “It’s actually the spirit of the stone that can give us the spirit of the creation,” Karachi mentioned.
Distinctive specimens included a large 71.9-carat drop-shaped rubellite cabochon, a 38.5-carat aquamarine, an 8.63-carat sugar loaf-shaped Zambian emerald in addition to a kite-shaped D internally flawless Sort Iia licensed diamond, the centerpiece clutched by the feline on the Panthère des Glaces necklace.
The Cartier Alae excessive jewellery necklace figures a hovering beetle.
Courtesy
“The whole structure of the piece was thought round this stone, from the rock crystal that outlines it to the V form of the necklace that highlights this lower,” she defined. “The ability of this animal, its purposeful character, its boldness are in service of this stone.”
This design additionally epitomized the up to date strategy Karachi meant within the assortment, notably in terms of methods. “We all the time attempt to push additional the boundaries of know-how,” she mentioned.
Additionally being questioned are the traditional shapes present in European jewellery custom.
Working example: the articulated ring-bracelet Panthère Jaillissante, with its sapphire-flecked diamond coat. Right here, the panther’s lengthy tail curls across the wrist because it stretches throughout the highest of the hand and ends in a hoop with that sugar-loaf emerald.
“It’s revolutionary as a result of it must be sculpted on the hand however be adaptable to numerous morphologies, observe the actions with out hindering motion,” she mentioned. “It’s a way of life with this sculpture, this animal and bringing it alive.”
“Whenever you put on a bit like this one, you might be affirming a sure persona. It’s additionally fascinating to see the interplay between the animal and the one who wears it as a result of nobody chooses a bit at random,” she mentioned. “We wished to work on expressive items who’ve spirit and hint again to the persona, the spirit, the distinction of every animal, which brings us to the distinctiveness of every individual,” Karachi added.
The primary one to sport these figurative designs is actress Deepika Padukone, who was already a world ambassador of the home and can now be the face of this assortment and its campaigns.
Lauding the jeweler’s timelessness and iconic designs, she declared she was “thrilled to be a part of the Nature Sauvage excessive jewellery marketing campaign, a shocking vary of masterpieces embodying the spirit of nature’s wild magnificence and the unparalleled craftsmanship that defines the model.”
After Florence, Madrid and Lake Como, opening a brand new excessive jewellery chapter in Vienna matched the jeweler’s need to lean into its identification as a home of artwork and tradition, mentioned chief advertising officer Arnaud Carrez.
The jeweler additionally has a longstanding boutique on Kohlmarkt, an upscale purchasing road that’s additionally residence to Van Cleef & Arpels, Dior and Louis Vuitton. The Cartier retailer has been lately refurbished with the assistance of French architect Laura Gonzalez, who additionally designed numerous the model’s different models, together with the Rue de la Paix flagship in Paris.
Deepika Padukone carrying the Amphista excessive jewellery necklace.
Johan Sandberg/Courtesy of Cartier
However don’t think about the two-day excessive jewellery showcase, which is able to convey collectively purchasers, press and a raft of bold-face names, as mere buildup towards a transaction.
“These events are a part of what the home is,” Carrez contended. “It’s not about outspending others. It’s extra about outsmarting and figuring out experiences that resemble us and are in coherence with who we’re.
“We’re an unique home by the character of our objects however we’re additionally an accessible, inclusive home by exhibitions open to the general public but in addition occasions [like] excessive jewellery showcases which might be a possibility to indicate who we’re to a wider public,” he continued.
The Austrian capital additionally has a little-known hyperlink to the jeweler. “In response to sources, Louis Cartier got here to Vienna and frolicked right here in 1937,” Carrez revealed.
On the time residing in Budapest along with his spouse, who got here from a household of the Hungarian the Aristocracy, the Cartier scion is alleged to have visited Schönbrunn Palace in addition to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Whereas it’s already part of the home’s historical past, town is the start of the Nature Sauvage story.
Round 100 items, together with 87 excessive jewellery designs, can be revealed Monday and the gathering will develop to greater than 200 items with subsequent chapters.
“If a bit waited two years to be born, it might wait one other couple of months,” Karachi quipped. “We’re telling you tales however we’re not telling you every little thing without delay. There’s a bit of little bit of suspense.”