What’s Happening With the High Jewelry Previews in Paris?
Boucheron’s Stag Beetle is back and Gucci x Pomellato combines leather making with jewelry expertise
This week in Paris, many major jewelry Houses and some independents are presenting their High Jewelry collections parallel to the couture fashion shows. The idea of jewelers joining couture week has continuously grown over the years, based on the fact that clients of one-of-a-kind jewelry are often the same clients shopping for one-of-a-kind clothes. In other words, it's convenient for them to see everything in one city during a set time frame.
Although I am not in the City of Light this year to cover the news, the jewelers make it easy to do some armchair editing from where I sit in the sweltering Big Apple by sending comprehensive press packages with photos and often videos. Honestly, some of the press material feels like an extension of the money-is-no-object collections.
So far, the most newsworthy and relevant jewels have come from Boucheron and the Gucci x Pomellato collaboration.
A Boucheron video showing several pieces including the Stag Beetle brooch composed of diamonds, titanium and white gold.
BOUCHERON
I was not surprised that it took four years to develop Boucheron’s Impermanence collection of 28 one-of-a-kind pieces, nor that it took 18,000 hours to create them. I wasn’t stunned that the House combined traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge techniques, including 3-D printing. I wasn’t even taken aback that ceramic, borosilicate and a type of glass used for test tubes were used in the jewelry. Claire is known for breaking the boundaries of what High Jewelry can be.
What I was amazed and delighted to see was the Stag beetle among the fascinating flowers and interesting insects in the collection. I have a connection to this beetle.
The 1890s Boucheron Stag Beetle, is shown on the far right mountain, opposite the JAR snake necklace, in this video from the 2021 Beautiful Creatures exhibit.
The Boucheron Archives generously loaned a Stag Beetle made around 1895 to the exhibition I curated, Beautiful Creatures: Jewelry Inspired by the Animal Kingdom, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The fearsome looking insect was the antithesis of all the romantic butterflies, sultry snakes, adorable lions and glamorous birds in the show. Almost three inches long, the beetle's exoskeleton was covered in dazzling diamonds and rubies, but its gold mandibles looked dangerous.
When I gave tours of the exhibit, I always stopped on the beetle and asked my guests, "With all the options available at Boucheron in 1895, could you imagine a man saying to his true love, ‘You must have a Stag Beetle, darling?’”
I went on to explain while the creature may look scary now, at the turn of the century, people were so fascinated by entomology that they saw the beauty in the bug brooch that could be transformed into a pendant or hair pin.
Back then, the study of insects, like all aspects of nature, was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, much in the same way nature-themes now are a response to the Digital Age. Stag beetles were also symbolic, like so much contemporary talismanic jewelry. They represented, strength, resilience and good luck.
The new Stag Beetle at Boucheron may not be as realistic-looking as its predecessor from over 134 years ago, but I was happy and surprised to see it make a comeback.
I also enjoyed the long dragonfly earrings set with diamonds in sapphire glass, mother-of-pearl and white gold and the thistle ring composed of diamonds, a white ceramic coating and white gold.
GUCCI x POMELLATO High Jewelry
Two legendary Italian brands, Gucci and Pomellato, initially joined forces to showcase their leather working and jewelry design talents on the Gucci Cruise 2026 runway.
Several new pieces debuted in Paris this week for the collection, which is named Monili after a less commonly used Italian word for jewels than gioielli. A Pomellato piece made in 1984 provided the jumping off point for the designs.
The items include a minaudière bag with a chunky diamond bracelet. And two bracelets that showcase the collaboration's split personality with leather loops and pavé-set diamond and white gold clasps.
These strong statement pieces were divisive among my jewelry group chat.
I feel like they work, but armchair editing has its limits. I wish the Italians had sprung for some model shots. Seeing the still life pictures of jewels made me sorry I wasn’t in Paris to try one on for myself.
GOLD LINKS:
From Culture Mag: Daniel Humm Bought A JAR Engagement Ring for Annabelle Dexter-Jones Less Than a Month In A detail of the jewel is on the bride’s Instagram here.
From Vogue: This Antique Jewelry Dealer Bride Wore an Art Deco Tiara as a Headband for Her New York City Wedding
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