Harper's Bazaar Arabia

September 2014|Harper’s BAZAAR| 215

CREDIT HERE

ovially perched on the edge of a high-backed armchair

in one of Dior’s salons, on Rue de Marignan in Paris, a room that’s all mouldings and grey décor, Victoire

de Castellane is fl ipping through sketches of her latest creations for a new collection of fi ne jewellery for the house.

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ver the polished Parisian, she’s dressed in an

all-black uniform of Dior sweater and Joseph leggings, the silhouette’s clean lines sharpened by a pair of glossy

brown Céline stilettos – “from two years ago,” she says, peering out from nerd-chic specs by Prism.

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hipping out an illustration of a necklace,

Victoire talks about her own jewellery habits. “I don’t like to wear jewellery by day,” she says, the honey

highlights glistening in her Penelope Tree do. “I don’t want to be distracted by it when I’m working.”

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xpected, perhaps, coming from a woman

with such an uncluttered silhouette. But it’s a statement that’s at least mildly surprising given that, between her

own line and her work for Dior Joaillerie, Victoire has entire cut-and-polished collections at her disposal.

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ike so many of Victoire’s collections for Dior,

this latest one – dubbed Archi Dior – has historical roots. Christian Dior, the story goes, had always wanted to

be an architect, to the extent that he frequently applied the métier’s principles to his clothes.

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ubversive as she is, Victoire dipped into the Dior

archives, taking inspiration from an array of garment illustrations in designs that emulate dressmaking fl ourishes

like drapes, fl ounces and pleats – albeit in rocks and metal and through a 21st-century lens.

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Opposite: ‘Archi Dior Ailee Emeraude’ necklace in white gold, diamonds, tsavorite garnets, emeralds,

blue-green tourmalines, green tourmalines and demantoid garnets, Dior High Jewellery