British Vogue - 10.2019

Ruby, sapphire,

garnet and diamond

earrings and ring.

Both price on request,

Dior Joaillerie. Dress,

to order, Dior Haute

Couture. Hair: Ramona

Eschbach. Make-up:

Tiziana Raimondo.

Nails: Anatole Rainey.

Model: He Cong

I

n Victoire de Castellane’s imagination, jewels become

living, breathing creatures. “They are a little thing you

adopt and wear, and pass down to the next generation

with a piece of you living on inside them,” says Dior

Joaillerie’s creative director with characteristic joie de vivre.

The designer applies that same joy to Gem Dior, her latest

high jewellery collection. Marking 20 years at the Parisian

maison, her rainbow-hued gems in alternating cuts are

arranged with apparently random spontaneity, recreating the

crystalline structure of gemstones beneath the microscope

• an approach De Castellane calls “abstract organic”. These
  exuberant creations are a long way from the staid universe of
  white diamonds and matching parures that dominated high
  jewellery when Bernard Arnault invited her to launch Dior
  Joaillerie in 1999. De Castellane’s is both a feminine and a
  feminist vision. “Jewellery used to be about men showing
  their power over women. Today women are buying jewels
  for themselves,” she smiles. “And that makes me happy.” n

JEWELLERY

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