The 2020 Timeless High Jewelry collection showcases three Boucheron signature codes. Boucheron Creative Director Claire Choisne brings her personal vision to bear on the great classics that make up the rich heritage of the Maison founded in 1858. This year, the Timeless High Jewelry collection reinterprets the Chevron, the Parfum ring and the Liseré.
Since 1858, the Maison Boucheron has been associated with the major trends in contemporary fashion and design. Its aesthetic vocabulary and stylistic grammar, galvanized by avant-garde techniques, have formed a language that expresses itself with equal ease in the convolutions of Art Nouveau and the abstraction of Art Deco. Designed around a decorative motif taken from the archives by Claire Choisne, the Vendôme collection embodies energy and elegance in the white gold of a sculptural necklace studded with brilliant-cut and baguette-cut diamonds. “I love this motif that is both timeless and contemporary, classic and current, of great plastic beauty,” says Boucheron’s Creative Director.
“Its suppleness and its play of contrasts, especially on the necklaces, earrings and bracelets, provide wonderful demonstrations of skill from the workshops”, says Claire Choisne. This motif was first revived in the “26 Vendôme” collection. That High Jewelry collection was based on the architectural style of the famous square. The Vendôme bracelet is a happy union of opposites: “The sophisticated clasp can double as a central decorative element if so desired.” The wearer can thus change the Vendôme bracelet’s appearance to suit her mood. The bracelet combines the essential and the accessory, the useful and the aesthetic, paying homage in filigree to that unique spirit that gives Parisian women their charm.
The fluted body of this ring surmounted by a large sugar loaf cabochon has captured the imagination of several generations and has been revisited numerous times over the years by the Maison’s designers. Its generous, captivating proportions made it one of the top jewelry essentials of the 20th century.
Under the impetus of Claire Choisne, the Parfum ring takes its rightful place at the heart of Boucheron’s timeless designs. “I love this ring; it is a wonderful gateway into the Maison’s world, if only for its blue cabochon which, in my opinion, is the Maison’s recognisable signature. Your gaze will be drawn to a stunning constellation of diamonds set under the body of the ring. Seen from the side, the cabochon appears to be floating; seen from above, its facetless cut, which moderates refraction, reveals, like an inner light, the diffuse sparkle of the diamonds. It’s magic!”. The Parfum ring is both a lucky piece of jewelry and a precious amulet. While it affirms the modernity of the Maison’s great classics, it is above all an expression of the relationship between radiance and material, so dear to the jeweller of light.
Appearing for the first time in the Hiver Impérial High Jewelry collection, the Boucheron Liseré translates the secret of a deep impression felt by Claire Choisne, the Maison’s Creative Director, when she was in the Moscow area once. “This collection pays tribute to the ties forged between Frédéric Boucheron and Russia. In preparation for this collection, we spent several weeks visiting the Golden Ring area. There was snow everywhere. The sky, the ground… everything was white. Then suddenly I saw a black line that turned out to be the bark of a tree trunk. There was a whole forest of white birch trees in front of us, but were it not for that dark line, I wouldn’t have had a clue it was there! It made an impression on me.”
This intense, profound, but simple, memory has inspired a ring of great graphic purity, on which a line of black lacquer scalloped with baguette-cut diamonds forms the unique edging for a sparkly, sumptuous 10-carat emerald-cut diamond. “For me, this edging is the essence of modernity,” says Claire Choisne. “Its graphic brilliance gives the jewellery a mystical appeal and real personality.” The Liseré edging now borders an array of gemstones that shine brightly at the centre of contemporary and sculptural rings, earrings and bracelets.
Created by Frederic Boucheron in 1858, Boucheron is built through four generations of direct descendants. Visionary designer and first jeweler of the Place Vendôme, Boucheron embodies excellence in Jewelry, High Jewelry and Watchmaking. The Boucheron style, free and audacious, continues to create the classics of tomorrow. There are currently more than 61 Boucheron boutiques across the world. Boucheron is part of the global Luxury group Kering.
