From Paris to Sydney, London to New York, this year’s spring and summer fashion shows are all about colours — unapologetic, head-turning colours. After years of pastel dominance, which followed a period of minimalism, design and style trendsetters have finally decided to infuse their runway creations with loud pinks, strong oranges, bright yellows, and deep blues.
Yet this bold aesthetic isn’t confined to clothing. In recent years, haute jewellers and watchmakers have increasingly welcomed the combination of semi-precious gems with precious stones and metals to create colourful pieces. Opals, chrysoprase, and turquoise, for instance, sit alongside rubies, emeralds, and sapphires to lend nuance and youthfulness to a design. Coloured diamonds have continued to gain wider acceptance.
Chaumet is no exception, and this year the brand embraces an especially vibrant colour palette for its Summer Spirit creations. Instead of producing a new series from scratch to celebrate the season, the jewellery house decided to breathe new life into existing collections by rendering them ‘in technicolour’, as they put it.
To the Hortensia collection, which was originally inspired by the dainty floral jewellery of the empresses Joséphine and Marie-Louise and the queen Hortense, Chaumet has added Hortensia Eden — a line of slim watches with small, bright-coloured dials and straps that can be mixed and matched. One can choose a dial of malachite, turquoise, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, or pink opal, and pair it with a lizard-skin or satin strap in powder pink, fuchsia, green, blue, orange, or even black. The deciding factor? One’s mood and whim.
The Hortensia Eden line also includes between-the-finger rings — one version with turquoise and another with pink opal; both fashioned in 18k pink gold and studded with diamonds. Necklaces come with a floral pendant, with petals of lapis lazuli, malachite, or turquoise arranged around a brilliant-cut diamond.
Complementing the Eden’s vibrancy, Chaumet chose a subtler look for the new Hortensia Astre d’Or line, which continues the collection’s motif of garden flowers, rounded contours, and small pendants. The line combines brushed rose gold and diamond pavé-setting in five new pieces. Each is rendered in 18k pink gold with brilliant-cut diamonds, ready to dazzle in the summer sunlight.
The mixing and matching of hues and stones continues in the new Summer Spirit pieces for the Liens collection. Available as double-chain bracelets or pendant necklaces, the pieces are collectively called Jeux de Liens. They broaden the palette of the existing series by setting chrysoprase and pink opal on rose gold, and white and grey mother-of-pearl on white gold. Other pieces enhance the sparkle by featuring pavé-set diamonds on white or rose gold. Each design reflects the Liens collection’s central theme, the linking of two souls represented by two crossed lines.
Even with its 230-year history, Chaumet is often seen as current and unconventional — meeting the needs and desires of modern women while surprising them with original combinations of materials and colours. The brand’s Summer Spirit creations justify this reputation, and show that even an old dame in the jewellery world can consistently exude youthful confidence and vitality.
