Colour me happy
Harry Winston’s beloved Winston Cluster now bears rubies, sapphires and emeralds too, learns CANDICE CHAN
DIAMONDS ARE STILL a red carpet favourite at this year’s award season. And the jeweller that continues to lend star power to celebrities since Jennifer Jones kick-started the practice of actresses borrowing jewellery in 1943? Harry Winston.
Among the many scintillating Harry Winston designs that adorn the ears, décolletage and wrists of the stars, a favourite has risen through the ranks to become the red carpet darling: Winston Cluster.
Standing resolute against the vagaries of time, Winston Cluster has stayed largely unchanged over the decades. Deliberate combinations of platinum-set pear, marquise and round brilliant diamonds are arranged at different angles to catch maximum light, so as to fulfil the sole purpose of emitting as much brilliance as physically possible. From the classic Winston Cluster earrings to the emblematic Wreath Necklace, they are a persistent reminder of the brand’s enduring traditions.
In an unprecedented move that occurred in February, 75 years after the first Winston Cluster design launched, precious gemstones were added. The diamond-set pieces now come adorned with emeralds, rubies or sapphires. On pendants and earrings, these gemstones have been set at odd angles for maximum scintillation, in order to aptly reflect the collection’s signature aesthetic. The story of Winston Cluster is as poetic as it is important. It started on a winter’s night in the 1940s, when founder Harry Winston observed a holly wreath hanging on the door at his Scarsdale estate. Entranced by the architectural beauty of the leaves, freshly dusted with snow, he also marvelled at how their branches were completely hidden behind the foliage.
His fascination was immediately followed by a eureka moment: Winston understood it would always be gemstones that hogged the limelight, not their metal settings. A discussion with the company’s head designer Nevdon Koumrouyan followed and the rest, as they say, is history. Koumrouyan’s artistic sensibilities and innate elegant style brought Winston’s design to life. Both men introduced a new aesthetic, by mounting diamonds in near-invisible settings to maximise the stones’ brilliance. Some 75 years after that fateful wintry day, the brand remains deeply committed to this icon, refreshing its sensibility only ever so subtly with a pop of colour and life.