Poetry Emotion
For Cartier, high jewellery is not just about lyrical beauty, it’s also about awakening one’s senses.
Pearl-clutching necklaces, eye-catching earrings… as jewellery maisons unveil their new haute joaillerie collections this season, one cannot help but to ask, so what’s new, what’s different, how has jewellery evolved? As impressive as they are, has jewellery experienced new innovation beyond rare gems and precious baubles to show off?
Cartier puts forth a most enlightening response to that query. With a new high jewellery collection titled Sixième Sens par Cartier (Sixth Sense by Cartier), the French jeweller is determined to offer more than just precious jewels: they want to stimulate the senses and stir one’s emotions with their latest masterpieces. Yes, they are beautiful to look at, yes, the sparkles are captivating but each piece is also uniquely designed to hold a secret or two, to invite the wearer or its admirer to come closer and engage intimately with these extraordinary pieces of jewellery. To admire not just with your eyes or touch, but also with your heart.
Sceptics might claim hyperbole, but three pieces from the Sixième Sens fantastically illustrate the strength and conviction of the collection’s assertion.
From a cursory glance alone, the Phaan ring is a stand-out beauty, not least due to its gasp-inducing 8.2 carat ruby. The crimson gem appears to be held aloft by groups of triangular diamonds, further supported by clusters of ruby spheres and more diamonds on the side of the ring, composed in a way to allow for
subtle openings between them for light to pass through to illuminate the spectacular ruby. A seemingly straight-forward but nonetheless impressive arrangement.
However, this multi-tiered architecture is but a deception, purposefully designed to present a setting meant to appear inconspicuous. For in truth, the smaller gems are protecting a hidden 4.01 carat rose-cut diamond housed directly below the massive ruby. A stone upon a stone that one could only possibly make out from very close inspection through the ruby itself. Light passing through the ruby subsequently hits the hidden central diamond, intensifying the rich hue of the red stone. It’s a little secret that evokes bewilderment and awe.
Similarly, the Meride necklace is just as visually poetic as it is emotive. The piece is comprised of a repetitive pattern not unlike a checkerboard made up of diamonds, onyx and rock crystals that seem to multiply ad inifinitum. Much like a magic trick, again deception or even misdirection affords it an air of mystique, made possible by a painstakingly meticulous and precise construction that sees each element mounted at different levels thus creating dimension. The twist being? So precise is its execution that when viewed from above, the necklace appears completely flat, not unlike two-dimensional mosaic art. But shift your view for even the slightest and the 3D sculpture that is the Meride necklace reveals itself like a flutter of diamonds and stones around one’s neck. There is suggestion of movement and rhythm to the design of the necklace, made all the more hypnotic by an astute play of materials and light, transitioning between graphic black onyx and mirror-polished metal.
And the magic doesn’t stop there. Again, so precise is the construction of the Meride necklace that its back reveals the exact reverse of its front, showcasing a level of jewellery making that one can best summarise as being born out of great passion.
Another necklace from Sixième Sens par Cartier, the Alaxoa, is a resplendent masterpiece just dripping with fine emeralds. Each emerald was selected by colour and diameter then ever so carefully arranged to create the right harmony and symmetry in its final composition. The emeralds—accented with diamonds—are then threaded together on a wire using an technique rooted in Cartier’s exceptional savoir-faire. The threading forms strands and fringes of precious stones that are later linked together by tiny metal bridges to maintain the shape of a fan. Perfectly mobile, like paper fans hanging in the wind, the supple fringes shift with your every movement as the vibrant emeralds cascade from around your neck, appearing almost organic in nature.
An awe-inspiring collection requires an equally captivating personality to best represent it. For the Sixième Sens par Cartier high jewellery collection, Cartier has recruited
Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani as the ambassador of the collection. Also an accomplished singer and musician, Farahani’s career spans two decades, collecting awards along the way for her roles in films such as Boutique (2003), M for Mother (2007) and The Patience Stone (2012). The match is a meeting of equals, as her sensual beauty and multi-faceted talents complements the allure and majesty of Cartier high jewellery beautifully.
As a jeweller, Cartier demands the best not only in terms of its designs and talents, but also in its practice. The maison is a founding member of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), whose Code of Practice has now been extended to include coloured stones. Ever striving to develop a more responsible ethical, environmental and social practice in their operations and supply chain, Cartier also requires its suppliers to adhere to the very same responsible practices as lined out by its RJC certification. In that sense, one can conclude that perhaps the greatest emotion that Cartier can evoke from its efforts is that of gratitude, for fighting the good fight on top of being a jeweller of exceptional beauty and inspired innovation. Visit www.cartier.com to exploe the full breadth of the Sixième Sens par
Cartier high jewellery collection.