The Parisian jeweller Fred is known for a sunny, optimistic French Riviera sense of style. This is best encapsulated in its sport-inspired Force 10 collection, which features nautical buckle and cable motifs drawn from sailing. For nearly 60 years since it was first created, the collection has embodied a kind of wear-it-everyday-and-everywhere chic. This year, though, the maison is adding to the fine jewellery offering a glitzier rendition in the form of the Force 10 Rise line.
This new chapter to the collection is, essentially, a triple stack in one. The core details of the braided cable and nautical buckle are distilled and transformed into arced loops, supplemented by a line of pavé diamonds. It’s true to form to artistic director and vice-president Valérie Samuel’s style philosophy of stacking jewels.
A fun fact: this configuration of the Force 10’s motifs is in fact inspired by a series of multi-row high jewellery necklace and earring designs. The maison has now smartly interpreted the idea into a collection that offers the look with more everyday ease.
The addition of pavé diamonds—as a band of its own, as well as on the buckle motif—adds a subtle but important touch of glamour. Think of it as Monte Carlo, perhaps, to the core Force 10’s Cap d’Antibes. The Force 10 Rise designs work beautifully as daytime jewels, but even more so as elegant evening accents.
The suitability of the line for evenings arises, in particular, from the combinations and contrasts of textures. The braided gold cables are exquisitely satin polished, and contrast wonderfully against the smooth lines of mirror-polished gold on the buckle and the twinkling radiance of the pavé-set diamonds—details that invite a closer, intrigued look.
