Chaumet tours the world’s greatest opera houses with its latest festive high jewellery collection.
French jeweller Chaumet takes us on a tour of the world’s greatest opera houses with its latest festive high jewellery collection, Chaumet est une Fête. Karishma Tulsidas reports from Paris
“We have a long history, and you can clearly see the evolution of Chaumet is parallel to the evolution of the major arts”
Chaumet est une Fête—chaumet is a celebration—is not a typical name for a high jewellery collection. But then, Chaumet is not a typical jewellery maison. It does not have—or wish to have, for that matter—the commercial cachet of some of its peers on Place Vendôme, but instead, its limited production means that its bejewelled products are exclusively aimed at its coterie of discerning jewellery lovers. Chaumet’s charming and straightforward CEO Jean-marc Mansvelt puts it succinctly: “We’re not everywhere and our mission is not to reach everybody. The Chaumet client is in search of a certain distinction.” I was given the opportunity to experience a taste of this exclusivity on my recent trip to Paris. It started with the establishments we wined and dined at—a number of restaurants we visited were recommended by Chaumet on its travel-centric app, You me Paris, where it curates a list of restaurants, bars, hotels and tourist spots. This was our first initiation into the charmed world of Chaumet. Before we were allowed to view the pieces, an afternoon tour of Palais Garnier, the national opera house of Paris, offered a glimpse into the inspiration of the collection, which is music and celebration. Fascinating insights into the history and architecture of the musical landmark aside, we were most amused by the revelation that society ladies would step onto the balcony to show off their exquisite ballgowns and spellbinding jewels to their peers—some things never change I guess, as we now have Instagram for that. The presentation was held in Chaumet’s Grand Salon, where Chopin incidentally composed his last mazurka. Composed of 41 pieces, the collection is inspired by four different opera houses and festivals around the world. “Jewels are a way to exaggerate, if I may so say, a woman’s appearance in society,” says Mansvelt. “And because of this inspiration of culture and art, and also because I personally love music, we thought, let’s imagine four different places where women are going to appear: places of society, of nature, of art, where people get together for a celebration.” The theme also honours Chaumet’s storied history as the maison was the official jeweller for Napoléon Bonaparte, who famously held many imperial fetes and even asked Strauss to compose the musical direction for the opera house ball. “Our clients have always been linked to culture,” explains Mansvelt. “When Picasso was with the beautiful Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, they were important clients of Chaumet. So was French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz. We have a long history, and you can clearly see the evolution of Chaumet is parallel to the evolution of the major arts.”
PASTORAL INSPIRATIONS
The first stop represented in the collection is Sussex in the UK, for the annual Glyndebourne opera festival. Held every summer since 1934, it is an idyllic musical festival within the lush green grounds of a private country home, bucolic and quaint in its setting. The essence of Glyndebourne is brought to life with the predominant stone for the Pastorale Anglaise chapter: emeralds sourced from Colombian Muzo mines. The recurring motif is the tartan knot, another nod to Chaumet’s history, as the first recorded bejewelled bowknot by the maison was made by Joseph Chaumet in 1907. This sub-collection’s anchor piece is the Pastorale Anglaise necklace, an elaborate and exquisitely crafted jewel that highlights a 28.98-carat emerald-cut vivid green emerald. The tartan knot, set with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds, comes entwined with emerald-set green leaves. A string of emerald cabochons from Zambia, reminiscent of dewdrops, completes the necklace. It is a potent combination of colours, motifs and stones, but the necklace succeeds in evoking an air of etherealness and gaiety, a perfect representation of a bright summer day in the UK. The artisans within Chaumet’s Parisian workshops have successfully crafted an articulated jewel that lets in light through
the stones. To further emphasise the sheer majesty of this piece, even the back of the bow has been studded with diamonds. From the UK we take a one, two step to Austria, where the next chapter, Valses d’hiver, derives its inspiration from Vienna’s winter waltzes. During the winter season, Vienna hosts hundreds of balls, but the most coveted invitation is undoubtedly for the elegant Opera Ball at the Vienna State Opera, a tradition that began in 1814. It is an annual event that sees the Austrian president and the upper crust of high society don their dapper tuxedos, haute couture gowns and spellbinding high jewellery to commemorate the start of the New Year. Valses d’hiver features a palette of pearls and diamonds to capture the fresh winter snow in Vienna, and the swirling motif emulates the graceful dance moves of the lady as she waltzes with her partner. If you look long enough, you might even see the semblance of a musical note in the motif, but that is the beauty of high jewellery. Like art, it is subjective and open to interpretation. Of note are the pearls that have been used in this chapter: five of the pieces feature natural, not cultured pearls, sourced from the archives and vintage pieces from clients. Mansvelt explains that finding the pearls was serendipitous: “We spoke about bringing back the pearls about two and a half years ago, but it took a lot of time. But I must say it was like the planets aligned for us strangely enough, as we were hesitating between the drawings and more or less in the same week, we found the pearls that provided the final touch.” A touch of luck, I tell him. “Yes, probably,” he replies. “The spirit of Joseph Chaumet and Empress Joséphine, because at the end of the day, the starting point for the fine pearls is very much linked to her. She is depicted in many paintings wearing fine pearl earrings, and we also have in our archives incredible necklaces with two rows of fine pearls worn by her.”
STONE AGE
Natural pearls, emeralds from Muzo— what next? Pigeon’s blood rubies from Mozambique. The colour of love and passion
Five of the Valses d’hiver pieces feature natural, not cultured pearls, sourced from the archives and vintage pieces
anchors the next chapter, Aria Passionata, which honours Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, or more commonly known as La Scala opera house. Constructed in the late 1700s, the opera house was designed by Italian architect Giuseppe Piermarini, who was inspired by the baroque tendencies of that era, and used heavy oak panelling, accents of red and gilded detailing. Chaumet captures the essence of La Scala with Aria Passionata’s dramatic creations, which explode in a fiery dance of vivid reds and floral motifs. But jewellery, as I mentioned above, is an art form and thus subjective. When I first saw the collection, I imagined a flamenco dancer. The folds featuring red garnets, tourmalines and rubies were designed to emulate the red velvet curtains of La Scala, but the sheer lightness of the creation brought to mind the sensual twirling of the red dress of a flamenco dancer, while the floral motif—off an indeterminate flower—reminded me of the red bloom in her hair. Her twirls and swirls are perhaps best represented in the flying tourbillon watch created in collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Hublot. The dial features an enamel base with rubies and diamonds imitating the folds of a red velvet curtain. Across the Atlantic, we make the final opera stop in New York, to visit the Metropolitan Opera. The opening season starts in autumn, and the Rhapsodie Transatlantique chapter uses a palette of intense, pastel-hued gemstones such as Padparascha sapphires, tanzanites, pink tourmalines, Umba garnets and more, to capture the hues of the Indian Summer. Here, we can see the modern touches that Chaumet has imbued into the collection for today’s woman: the maple-leaf shaped earrings, for instance, highlight two different coloured stones, a 9.50-carat Ceylon yellow-green sapphire on one side, and an 8.88-carat Madagascar violet sapphire on the other. Another pair of Umba garnet earrings comes in two parts, the pear-shaped stones in the front, and the leaf-like detail fanning out from behind your ear lobe. It is an interesting meld of colours and stones and, as Mansvelt puts it, “this new colour harmony is unexpected in the world of Parisian high jewellery”. Chaumet was founded in 1780, and while it has endured a history of ups and downs, we are positive that this new direction, led by Mansvelt, will showcase its legendary past in a way that will appeal to today’s 21st-century woman.