AROUND THE WORLD
The largest high jewellery collection shown by De Beers Jewellers to date, Portraits of Nature is a colourful collection influenced by the planet’s most awe-inspiring animals
From the Knysna chameleons of the African forests to the flamingo lakes of the Great Rift Valley, the world’s most visually spectacular species are explored and celebrated in De Beers Jewellers’ most recent high jewellery collection, Portraits of Nature. “We have been inspired by the way the colours of some of nature’s most fascinating creatures interact with light and create incredible chromatic effects,” says François Delage, the maison’s chief executive officer. “The result is a collection that showcases the myriad tonalities of rough and polished diamonds in rare fancy colours—our most extensive collection to date.”
Each of the collection’s five suites takes inspiration from a creature native to the countries in which De Beers Jewellers’ diamonds are mined. The group is famous for its success in sourcing the world’s most coveted gemstones and although white diamonds largely remain the number one choice—they are, after all, an immediate signifier of taste whose value and beauty are accepted worldwide—today’s high jewellery connoisseurs want something unique, which is why De Beers Jewellers is branching out from standard styles to offer clients jewellery creations with a difference.
From the Portraits of Nature collection, which took over a year to create, the Knysna Chameleon necklace features an explosion of rough and polished coloured diamonds that border sleek and sophisticated lines of baguette-cut white diamonds. Not only do these kaleidoscopic diamonds reflect the intense, shifting shades of chameleons, but they also depict the animal’s fluctuating textures. Shades including bluishgreen and light pink ensure that this transformable creation is not only timeless, but playful.
The zebra is celebrated in the Chapman’s Zebra set, which features an art deco-styled necklace comprising 600 diamonds. Princess- and round brilliant-cut white diamonds are closely set on a fluid structure that allows the diamonds to move delicately as one. In a contemporary twist, the brilliance of the diamonds is offset by grey mother-of-pearl, without taking away from the impactful zebra stripes.
Flamingo-inspired designs, meanwhile, feature fans of graduating coloured marquise-shaped pink diamonds. Featuring an array of fancy-pink, brownish-pink and orangey-pink diamonds, the tones of which were created billions of years ago by varying degrees of high pressure and temperatures while underground, the Greater Flamingo creations are especially radiant. Plumes of jewels in blush hues allow for maximum light to pass over each jewel’s multiple facets, and the result is ultra-feminine.
“Wondrous and dynamic in design and meticulously crafted to move, it is a celebration of both the animal kingdom and nature’s other most enigmatic works of art,” says Delage about the collection, proving once again that De Beers Jewellers’ understanding of its clientele, as well as its knowledge of how to spice up longstanding house codes with contemporary styles, is what’s keeping this experimental maison in demand.
“WE HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY THE WAY THE COLOURS OF SOME OF NATURE’S MOST FASCINATING CREATURES INTERACT WITH LIGHT”