At the highest levels of design and craftsmanship, lightness becomes the paramount value. How to make the evidence of intense work by hand disappear, as if it were never touched or chained to the earth? Chaumet has proposed a charming answer this year with its Un Air de Chaumet capsule collection of high jewellery: unbounded lightness taking flight, as birds do.
The collection consists of four parures, crafted with virtuosic techniques, of primarily head ornaments, brooches and ear cuffs designed to look almost suspended on the body. There is Plumes d’or, with gold and platinum feathers in brushed and diamond-set finishes.
In Ballet, swooping swallows feature diamonds on delicate bead and cut-down settings that create extraordinarily even and aerodynamic surfaces. Parade invokes the dramatic arc of a firebird’s plumage, decorated with diamonds and guilloché.
And Envol, where a breeze has seemingly fluttered and twisted gold ribbons over themselves. The latter designs feature diamonds on scale settings, a relatively new technique that raises and overlaps the stones, lending the designs the illusion of sparkling liftoff.
The May ‘Escape’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online.
