Victoire de Castellane, artistic director of Dior Joaillerie, frequently draws inspiration from the history of the Maison for her joyful high jewellery. Christian Dior’s favourite flower, the rose, is a recurring motif; referencing his childhood rose garden in Granville, Normandy, de Castellane has in the past tended to both its sentimental and romantic associations. Now, a decade after her fragrant Le Bal des Roses collection, the rose again becomes a focal point in the new high jewellery collection Dior Rose.
De Castellane brings her love of vivid colour and bold design cues to these new high jewellery pieces, defined by a plethora of rainbow-coloured gems. The petals of one rose are drawn in Zambian emeralds and opals, another in warm South Sea pearls, while the heart of the flower is a bold tsavorite garnet here or a pink spinel there. A play on the intricacies of shades and cuts runs throughout the collection, reflected in the meticulous gradient of hues framing a Colombian emerald and juxtaposed oval and cushion-cut Sri Lankan sapphires, bringing a rich texture to the high jewellery rose garden.
“Since I arrived at Dior, I have found inspiration in the identities of Dior,” she adds. “I developed the house themes: the garden, the grand balls, and couture. Nevertheless, the themes that inspire my collections are just a starting point, and I mix them with my inspirations.”
De Castellane’s science fiction jewels come in four groups, a sequence of chapters that gradually moves from a symbolic interpretation of the rose to the abstract. The Rose Mantique necklace counts among the collection’s most naturalistic designs. Here, white and yellow gold branches are lavished in diamonds, leaves sparkle green with sapphires and petals are snow-set with colour-coordinated gems, garnets, amethysts, rhodolite and Paraiba tourmalines. A deep blue Myanmar sapphire stands in for the flower’s pistil. In a pair of Rose Mantique earrings, diamond-set white gold branches and leaves are outlined in glossy green lacquer; it’s a technique that has become a de Castellane forte. Green and pink lacquer colours a white gold Rose Mantique ring, dusted in diamonds. “I like to play with colour,” she enthuses.
De Castellane has also made pearls part of her Dior Rose palette. Her Rose Futuriste designs – earrings, a pendant necklace, a ring, all cast from either yellow or white gold – glow with golden South Sea or white pearls, each placed at the centre of stylised rose flowers, their corollas of petals traced in diamonds.
Finally, Rose Couture Abstraite is de Castellane’s tribute to the artistry of Parisian jewellery-making. The chapter presents the designer’ inspiration at its most conceptual, as de Castellane nods to the flower in shape alone, dreaming upcurved, rounded and voluminous jewels. Central stones such as a yellow diamond radiate gradient circles of bezel-set white and yellow diamonds, a precious flower that gains in colour intensity and, all in all, transports you to another, glittering universe.