PIAGET “SUNLIGHT ESCAPE” HIGH JEWELLERY COLLECTION, PARIS COUTURE WEEK 2018
Hot on the heels of Paris Haute Couture and four days of fashion shows comes the latest collections of high jewellery from many of the world’s top jewellery brands like Buccellati, Dior, Chanel, De Beers, Piaget, Chaumet, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chopard, Louis Vuitton, David Yurman, Ana Khouri, Lydia Courteille and more. Oh, how I love Paris! Especially when it is filled with jewellery and fabulous stylish events in the evening! To fully embrace this event and give you a real sense of the jewellery I tried on, I put together some video highlights for GEMOLOGUE IGTV. It’s an exclusive event open only to clients and journalists and a great honour to attend. I hope you enjoy my curation of new jewellery discoveries from Paris Haute Couture.
For Paris Couture last year, the collection Sunlight Journey from Piaget High Jewellery was inspired by the play of light on water under the warm sun of the Mediterranean. This year the sun-inspired spirit of love comes to life under a paler, more northern sky in a dazzling collection called Sunlight Escape. With a boundless freedom and an endless delight of colourful, one-of-a-kind jewels, Sunlight Escape transforms the reflections and refractions of light on ice and snow in a place where the sun never sets and nights have the brightness of days.
Sunlight Escape comes together in three captivating facets of celestial jewels: Warming Lights, Exalting Sights, and Dancing Nights. Each sub-collection captures moments of light and shapes caught in a dazzling, flowing, flurry of colour and gemstones.
The haute jewellery collection Sunlight Escape travels to the very heart of Piaget’s expertise and remains true to the pioneering spirit of the Maison’s long history of crafting exceptional timepieces made with dials of hard stones, precious gemstones in explosive colours and extraordinary shapes, and surprising craftsmanship like feather and wood marquetry. With a unique signature style inherited from founder Yves G. Piaget, the jewellery Maison continues to enjoy more than 140 years of creating extravagant, one-of-a-kind watches and jewellery.
The Piaget Jewellery Paris boutique is just steps away from the Place Vendôme, where all the great jewellery Maisons reside and one of my favourite spots to try on haute jewellery. I was excited to see the new Piaget jewellery collection because of its feather and wood marquetry. As the face of Brazil jewellery brand Silvia Furmanovich, wood marquetry is very close to my heart.
For the marquetry in the Sunlight Escape collection, Maître d’Art Rose Saneuil worked with Piaget for the first time to create a new look for them, using fine straw from rye grass and wood from European hornbeam and sycamore. She painstakingly crafts every element and carefully cuts each minuscule piece of veneer to the exact size before meticulously positioning it into place.
Waiting for me to try on in the Piaget Jewellery Paris boutique was the incredible Blazing Sky Necklace from the Sunlight Escape facet Dancing Nights. Inspired by the aurora borealis as it sweeps silently through the night sky, the Blazing Sky Necklace radiates outwards in an explosion of red and pink spinels, Paraiba tourmalines, spessartites and white opals. In the photos you’ll see the incredible iridescence from the beaded opals. It’s so beautiful to photograph.
Another exciting feature of the Sunlight Escape collection, and a first for me, is the kite-shaped emerald or trapeze cut. Astonishing to see such a cut in an emerald. To create such a masterpiece, it takes the finest gemologists more than a year and a painstaking process to perfect this precious stone, and the final result is stunning. Inventive and audacious, the trapeze-cut emerald evokes the radiant colours of the Northern Lights. For a signature creation, each stone is carefully chosen and cut to create a harmonious ensemble for the sunlight Escape collection by Piaget high jewellery.
BLAZING SKY NECKLACE
Necklace in 18K pink gold set with 1 oval-cut red spinel from East Africa, 1 pear-shaped Paraiba tourmaline from Mozambique, 12 marquise-cut pink spinels, 14 marquise-cut spessartite garnets, 32 marquise-cut Paraiba tourmalines, 32 marquise-cut pink sapphires, 36 white opal beads, 41 marquise-cut diamonds and 225 brilliant-cut diamonds.
MIDNIGHT SUN NECKLACE
Necklace in 18K pink gold set with 1 emerald-cut
emerald from Colombia, 35 marquise-cut emeralds,
119 round-cut emeralds, 42 marquise-cut diamonds and
219 brilliant-cut diamonds.
POLAR STARLIGHT RING
Ring in 18K white gold set with 1 cushion-cut diamond, 1 brilliant-cut diamond, 15 marquise-cut diamonds, 2 pear-shaped diamonds and 55 brilliant-cut diamonds.
EMERALD STAR EARRINGS
Earrings in 18K white gold set with 1 emerald-cut emerald from Colombia, 6 hexagonal-cut diamonds , 20 princess-cut diamonds, 52 baguette-cut diamonds, 6 triangle-cut diamonds and 286 brilliant-cut diamonds.
I would love to hear what you think by leaving me a comment below. Thank you!
I am extremely happy to announce that my new jewelry book – GEMOLOGUE: Street Jewellery Styles & Styling Tips – is now on Amazon. I’m so excited. It’s the first book of its kind solely dedicated to jewellery.
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GEMOLOGUE jewelry blog by Liza Urla is a celebration of fine, fashion and vintage jewellery featuring talented jewellery designers, trendy urban street style, exclusive interviews and rare jewellery reviews. This jewellery blog’s goal is to encourage and educate about jewellery online in a fresh and original fashion to inspire women and men across the globe in a fashion and travelling context.
Jewellery blogger, writer Liza Urla, the founder of GEMOLOGUE, is a London-based and NYC-educated gemologist, who has travelled to and lived in many countries. She is now one of the most influential digital jewellery tastemakers. Her jewellery influence has been acknowledged by Financial Times, The New York Times, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
*Photographed by Anastasia Zanadvorova & Liza Urla. Styling and Art Direction by Liza Urla. All photos belong to GEM Kreatives for GEMOLOGUE.
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