During Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, the world’s starriest shopaholics vie to add the most jaw-dropping precious stones to their vaults. The ocean-hued Paraíba tourmaline continues to soar in popularity, David Morris showcased a ring with the world’s largest known near-spherical pearl (with a near £7m price tag!), and Graff showcased a necklace with a sapphire and diamond choker featuring a rare 31-carat blue sapphire at its centre.
Place Vendôme presentations are steeped in tradition, drawing from centuries-old archives and techniques that derive from haute couture ateliers and horology. But on the catwalk at Robert Wun’s spring/summer 2026 haute couture show, something fabulously fruity was going on. The Hong Kong-born, London-based designer is renowned for ripping up the rule book when it comes to the aesthetics of conventional couture salons. His one-of-a-kind pieces are intentionally deteriorated, featuring burn marks and beetroot-dyed stains that resemble red wine.
For spring, Wun’s tradition-subverting approach also extended to his catwalk jewellery, with the couturier collaborating with London-based Anabela Chan on tiaras, necklaces and body jewels, crafted from 6,000 laboratory-grown gemstones. These included colourful “Fruit Gems”, which are synthesised in Chan’s studio, using Erewhon-worthy produce including beetroot, blueberries, purple sweet potato, blue spirulina and spinach. “We’re challenging the preconception around what is valuable and precious,” says Chan, who looked to priceless historic pieces for inspiration, like Maharaja jewels, French court fancies and the tiaras recently displayed at the V&A Cartier retrospective in London.
Wun’s collection was divided into three parts, “Library”, “Luxury” and “Valour”, with Chan’s designs featuring within the second chapter. The couturier has long experimented with the concept of the mannequin, with models walking his runway with additional eerie pairs of arms, and here, they walked like living display cases, their bodies encased in the flocked velvet of vitrines. Chan likens the looks to an “environment of desire,” where “display cases become body armour.”
Chan’s attention to materiality can be traced back to her original training as an architect, before she changed paths, specialising in print and embroidery design at Alexander McQueen. In the 13 years since she launched her eponymous label, her lab-grown creations have been worn by A-listers, including Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift. On the Wun catwalk, her red carpet-ready pieces saw beetroot gemstones presented against pigeon-blood rubies, sweet potato against purple sapphires and spinach against emeralds. While conversation at Couture Week turned to the price of gold reaching a record high, Chan’s pieces incorporate recycled aluminium from drinks cans. “You can really create red-carpet jewellery with humble materials,” she says. Now that’s one way to get your greens!
This article was first published on British Vogue.
