Italian fashion house Gucci is paralleling the natural and kaleidoscopic universe of creative director Alessandro Michele in its new collection of high jewellery, Hortus Deliciarum.
Derived from the Latin “Garden of Delights”, the Hortus Deliciarum collection evokes the transformative nature of the sky, drawing inspiration from shifting colours and star patterns. Each piece of the collection aims to embody the power of Mother Nature, interpreting the various wonders of the natural world.
Gucci has showcased the pieces in an advertising campaign to present the collection, featuring British actress Jodie Turner-Smith, star of the film Queen & Slim, through a series of images and a film that pays homage to Hollywood glamour. Shot by Glen Luchford, the campaign sees Ms Turner-Smith taking a midnight dip in her ostentatious swimming pool accompanied by her brightly-coloured pet snake and bird. While Mother Nature is Gucci’s ultimate source of inspiration for its “Hortus” of jewels, with their flowers and magical beasts, the actress serves as a fellow muse, expressing the universal beauty of the natural world.
The collection itself comprises more than 130 pieces, and its motifs are divided into four chapters inspired by the stunning beauty of the natural world, star-crossed skyscapes and sunsets. Included in the collection are singular and remarkable solitaires, revamped using maximalism and a selection of bejewelled timepieces.
The first chapter is an ode to the majestic beauty of natural landscapes, recreating the great outdoors as personal talismans. Monumental natural features, such as waterfalls and forests, are played out in delicate and romantic jewels.
The saturated, hypnotic hues of a sky at sunset inform the second chapter of the collection, which focuses on capturing the fleeting essence of nightfall. Styles borrow from the antiquated romantic settings of the nineteenth century. Opals and topazes are set alongside garnets and tourmalines in a skyscape of warm colours on the Georgiana collet-set Rivière necklace with an 8-carat opal set with twilight-hued gemstones.
The third chapter of the Hortus Deliciarum collection captures the romanticism of a rose garden which forms the foundation for the brand’s most delicate and feminine narrative. Rococo bows and talismanic sautoirs pay homage to the cherished botanicals. Each gemstone was specifically chosen for its light, delicate colour, such as the sunset-hued pinkish-orange Padparadscha sapphire, which resembles a rose petal on the cusp of blooming.
The fourth chapter utilises the animal kingdom as a touchstone to characterise the mythic bestiary and ancient fauna. The symbolic strength of the lion, the courage and passion of the tiger and the magical mysticism of Dionysus comprise the crest of Gucci’s high jewellery collection. In one collier-style necklace, a 16.36-carat opal is surrounded by 22 leonine figures, forming a pride of lions as an emblem of personal strength.
Furthermore, watchmaking is also redesigned to connect the words “luxury” and “soul”. Lion heads rotate to reveal and conceal ocean-blue Australian opal dials on a range of diamond-laden bracelets, set with violet tanzanites and pink tourmalines, rubellites and mandarin garnets.
“The High Jewellery collection combines Italian craftsmanship with the romantic and poetic narrative of Gucci,” a brand rep added. “Each gemstone has been fastidiously chosen for its quality and uniqueness, speaking to the painstaking attention to detail that Gucci creations are known for. In an array of pieces, the world of nature brings to life a collection redefined with maximalist allure.”