COMING UP ROSES
With actress Elizabeth Debicki embodying La Rose Dior, all eyes are once again on the jewellery collection showcasing Dior’s flower par excellence – the rose
ROSES ARE ALMOST SYNONYMOUS with Dior by now. Monsieur Christian Dior was known to be a great lover of nature, and roses were his favourite bloom. “Fortunately, there are flowers,” he once wrote in his memoir. On another occasion, he remarked, “After women, flowers are the most divine creations.”
Jewellery designer and creative director for Dior’s jewellery division, Victoire de Castellane shares the same enthusiasm for nature with the House’s founder. Since her arrival at Dior some 20 years ago, de Castellane has dug out bits and pieces about Monsieur Dior’s legacy – his greatest loves and inspirations – and turned them into the codes and motifs we know and love about the maison.
The garden, of course, is one of them.
Season after season, de Castellane plants new collections within La Rose Dior floral universe, resulting in gorgeous interpretations in the Bois de Rose, Rose Dior Bagatelle and Rose Dior Pré Catelan lines.
A fourth rose blossoms this season, the Rose Dior Couture, combining the fragility of a rosebud that’s just beginning to unfurl, with the silkiness of a fabric flower. It’s a nod to another of Monsieur Dior’s greatest legacies – that of his haute couture creations. The rose motif often appears printed, embroidered, or brocaded on dresses and evening coats, as an element on a belt, painted on a chiffon dress, even suggested in the fullness of a skirt. In the new collection, rose gold and diamonds come together on delicate necklaces, stud earrings and rings, their form inspired by the aesthetics of Bois de Rose, which incorporates the rose’s stem into the design.
De Castellane describes the Bois de Rose as “a stem that coils around the finger, like a poetic jewel, a romantic declaration or a symbol of eternal love”. The collection was inspired by the young Christian Dior’s childhood in Granville, Normandy, where he learned the art of pruning roses from his mother, Madeleine. For the first time, bangles appear in the Bois de Rose line. Chiselled in white, pink or yellow gold, with or without a fine sprinkling of diamonds, the bangles appeal to both men and women alike with its pure and organic form.
Monsieur Dior had his rose garden at the Rhumbs villa in Granville, where he grew up as a child, and which inspired the Bois de Rose collection. For de Castellane, it’s the Bagatelle line which recalls the quintessential gardens she strolled through in her younger days. Rose Dior Bagatelle is de Castellane’s “idea of what is charming” and is created in white gold and
elevated with diamonds. This season, there are 11 new creations in the line, designed so as to invite contemporary ways of wearing jewellery. The mono-earring appears as a stud or in a motif that stretches from the earlobe to the helix.
Again, taking inspiration from the band of the
Bois de Rose collection, the Bagatelle rings lend themselves to mixing and matching, so wearers can freely create their unique style.
A more feminine and extravagant take than the other designs in La Rose Dior’s universe, there’s also a two-finger ring, an open bangle, elaborate earrings and a finely worked necklace with an interlaced clasp from which dangles a single rose in the collection.
The Rose Dior jewellery line has a new face. Wearing the new jewellery on Dior’s latest campaign is none other than Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, in the lead-up to her highly anticipated portrayal of Princess Diana in the hit series The Crown. Debicki, who takes over the role of the princess from Emma Corrin, has heads turning everywhere she goes after photos of her dressed in the princess’s famed revenge dress emerged on the Internet. As an ambassador for Dior’s Rose Dior collection, Debicki embodies the sophistication and elegance of the brand, joining Cara Delevigne as the other jewellery ambassador for Dior.