Very, Very Extraordinary

Louis Vuitton explores the essence of high jewellery through simple shapes, simple colours and simple designs in a collection that is anything but.

It has now been a little over a decade since Louis Vuitton first dipped their toes into the prestigious pool of high jewellery and from the get-go, the French luxury house has been making quite the splash. From the debut of their adventurous L’âme du Voyage collection in 2009, to the opening of their premier high jewellery boutique in Place Vendôme, Paris in 2012, and then more recently in 2018, the appointment of former Tiffany & Co. design director Francesca Amfitheatrof as the label’s artistic director for watches and jewellery, LV has shaped up to be a very serious power player in the world of haute joaillerie.

And seeing as branding has always been LV’s forte, it’s no surprise then that the Maison’s iconic motifs have found their way into the high jewellery collections. We are after all talking about a brand that went ahead and patented two exclusive LV diamond cuts in the shapes of their monogram flowers—a rounded-cut flower diamond, and a pointed-cut flower diamond, that flaunts between 65 and 77 facets respectively, in great contrast to traditional brilliant cut diamonds with just 58 facets.

Striking as they are in diamond form, arguably the label’s monogram flower motifs still look their best on leather goods and the occassional runway look. When it comes to jewellery design however, it’s another LV motif that seems to have a stronger appeal: the V for Vuitton.

The V is a simpler form to experiement with, its sharp geometric angles opening up the possibilities for a myriad of design constructions while delivering on

creative product branding—there’s no mistaking what brand the V represents.

The V was first conceived for Louis Vuitton’s high jewellery back in 2014, through the Acte V collection. This year, the alphabet’s 22nd letter is making a return with a new look for a new Louis Vuitton collection, the Pure V.

“For this high jewellery collection, I wanted to express the essence of the V,” Francesca Amfitheatrof. “I wanted to update it, make it more contemporary. A great source of inspiration was the minimalist Art Deco-inspired V signature that Gaston-Louis Vuitton placed on his luggage in the 1920s to the 1930s.”

A total of eight high jewellery pieces make up the new collection. The Art Deco influence is unmistakable yet the Pure V escapes the trappings of looking dated or retro. Au contraire, it looks very of the present—graphic, minimalist, almost futuristic, as if the architecture of each piece is held together by magnets or some invisible force that separates one band from the other, creating negative spaces that expose the skin underneath the jewellery. “In Pure V, the glimpses of skin revealed when you wear the piece are as important as the jewel itself,” Amfitheatrof explains. “I wanted this minimalistic adaptation to be at once chic, cutting-edge and easy to wear. Because nowadays women look for versatile high jewellery pieces that can be worn with both a black turtle-neck and a tuxedo jacket.”

Amfitheatrof is serious about the minimal approach. This collection of necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings are all made up only of white gold, diamond and black onyx. (Black and white will always be a successful, sexy combo). The limited palette allows for creativity by way of gem placements and shapes, to weave a story through forms as much as through colour (or lack thereof ). Thus, while the rings and bracelets evoke the black and white pieces of 1920s France, by alternating a line of baguette diamonds with a line of onyx and triangular diamonds, the resulting ultra-streamlined design is pure 21st century.

Of all eight creations, the star of the collection is hands down the white gold necklace entirely set with brilliant diamonds, with a central V anchored by a floating 2-Carat pear-shaped diamond. The earrings are true statement pieces, Art Deco sculptures designed to elevate a casual day look or glam up a fancier number. But it’s the diamondblack onyx ring that could very well be the most coveted (check out page 26), for its sheer simplicity, contemporary beauty and genderless design. Pure V is just pure genius.