‘Exquisite’ is a word we ought to hear more of in luxury. Finely, delicately wrought beauty may feel like a vanishing thing—but not, it seems, at the house of Dior where artistic director Victoire de Castellane has dreamt up the Diorexquis high jewellery collection.
The collection is highly detailed—and, yes, exquisite—in its combinations of colours, gemstones and textures. De Castellane’s forte as a designer is her painterly use of colour, and with it she has created evocative tableaus that nod to the maison’s cherished themes. Christian Dior’s love of flowers manifests as delicate bouquets; his imagination and romanticism as enchanted landscapes; and the magnificent couture gowns he designed for magical balls.
Here, a fantastical vision perhaps of French riviera-style lounging decked in gems. The model on the left wears a trio of green and pink Bouquet de Printemps designs from the Diorexquis collection: a necklace, earrings and a ring, all set with a bevy of diamonds, emeralds, pink sapphires, tsavorite garnets and malachite. The rest of the jewels on her and the model on right mix and match from Dior’s various high jewellery lines—the lace-inspired Milly Dentelle, architectural pieces from the Dior à Versailles range, and the garden ode Les Jardins de la Couture. What’s remarkable, of course, is the stylistic malleability of de Castellane’s designs—they’re bold, but they play elegantly together across collections.
The standout from Diorexquis, however, is this Forêt Nacrée set of jewels that’s a wearable fantasy garden mise-en-scène. Scenes of flowers, butterflies, deer and rabbits are formed by a remarkable mix of gemstones: white and yellow diamonds, emeralds, pink sapphires, spinels, purple and tsavorite garnets, turquoise, pearls and lacquer—strokes of exquisite chromatic artistry on a dreamy canvas of mother-of-pearl.
The October ‘Kinship’ issue of Vogue Singapore is available online and on newsstands.
