TOUR DE FORCE
Gucci’s third Hortus Deliciarum high jewellery collection will take you from ancient Rome to America in the Seventies. Buckle up. By Charmian Leong
Not so very long ago Gucci was known primarily for its covetable fashion, leather goods, iconic accoutrements and a namesake movie starring Lady Gaga. But in 2019, Creative Director Alessandro Michele took the daring, and some might say long overdue, plunge into high jewellery, launching the mythically themed Hortus Deliciarum collection (so named after a medieval manuscript) alongside a dedicated high jewellery boutique in Paris’ Place Vendôme. Latin for “garden of delights”, the original Hortus Deliciarum was a lavishly illustrated encyclopaedia of poems, music, illustrations and classical texts. In Michele’s eye, it became the perfect muse for bringing his bevy of bejewelled creations to life. Now in its third edition, this year’s Hortus Deliciarum high jewellery collection celebrates journeys and memories as grandiose necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets take you on a time-travelling adventure that encapsulates the beauty of history across five opulent themes.
The first set, Roma, expands upon the idea of The Grand Tour—not the motoring television show hosted by former Top Gear hosts, but by the 18th-century rite of passage undertaken by young men. These aristocratic youths would embark on a three- to four-year long tour of Europe, often placing great emphasis on Italy and, in particular, Rome.
With a desire to evoke the emotions of a traveller walking among the splendid ruins and squares of the ancient city, Roma’s most striking pieces spotlight vintage micro-mosaics that were made between 1850 and 1870. These exquisite cameos, created using an ancient Roman technique of assembling tiny, coloured glass paste tiles into a picture, depict some of Rome’s most emblematic structures: the Colosseum, the
Piazza San Pietro with the Bernini colonnades, the Pantheon as remembered in the 19th century, the Roman Forum, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Hercules at Cori, the waterfalls at Tivoli, and the Pyramid of Cestius.
Featuring flexible modules, all the Roma pieces are articulated for movement, flexibility and brilliance. White diamonds dominate the pieces that hold the micro-mosaics so as not to compete with the cameos’ rich hues, though peridots, yellow beryls, red and pink spinels, blue topazes, fire opals and pink tourmalines lend a touch of playful, complementary colour.
Even the ones that aren’t paired with miniature masterpieces are dramatic in their own right. Some also feature the en tremblant technique, an 18th-century method of mounting jewellery parts onto wire-coiled springs to create a “trembling” effect for added sparkle and liveliness.
The second chapter of this visual travel diary takes us to India, during the time of the Maharajas. Royal palaces, lush gardens filled with exotic flora, the coloured silks of Mogul attire, and wandering lions and tigers are dreamed into glittering magnificence via solitaire rings bearing pearor heart-cut stones, rainbow-hued multi-strand necklaces, bracelets woven with gold and enamel, and earrings and rings that recall the rosettes of European cathedrals.
Nature is central to Kaleidoscope, with luminous emeralds and glowing Paraíba tourmalines used to great effect in recreating verdant foliage. Rubellite, Imperial topaz, yellow beryl, tourmaline and garnet lend their fiery hues to ignite memories of twilight. A pair of golden lion heads, jaws gripping stones of deep magenta, encapsulate the theme in a pair of flexible earrings. Perhaps the most thrilling piece is the necklace anchored by an enormous rubellite held in place by enamelled claws, each tipped with a tiny diamond.
The story then takes us from land to the treasures of the sea. Drawing upon the tales of Aphrodite and her birth from sea foam, and Cleopatra’s legendary fixation with pearls, Hara is a chapter dedicated to femininity and mystery. Cue the iridescent orbs in white, cream and black as they are combined with Imperial topazes and tourmalines to create sautoirs, earrings, brooches, and a necklace with a detachable pendant.
Bows and woven ribbons are recurring motifs in many Gucci creations, but here in Hara they were chosen because of their significance as symbols of vitality in both Eastern and Western traditions. Watery tourmalines and the warmth of Imperial topazes combine to evoke the romance of the sea at sunset.
The next chapter catapults us into the New World as Modernism captivates the creative minds of the 1930s and 1940s. Just like the skyscrapers that soar like the optimistic spirits that imagined them, the necklaces and bracelets of Swing take on geometric shapes linked by chains with flexible, asymmetrical modules full of structural details. But these industrial codes are enthusiastically disrupted by the glamour of amethyst, aquamarine and cushion-cut blue-grey beryl in earrings or central pendants encircled by baguette-cut diamonds.
Talisman concludes the collection as we arrive in the 1970s, a time of uninhibited expression, globalisation and growing pop culture. This chapter sees Michele’s desire to immortalise these ideals of freedom and exploration as precious amulets that come alive in psychedelic colours. Thus, white gold chains and diamonds are paired with the ebullience of emeralds, green tourmalines, aquamarines and green enamel.
An engraved and enamelled pendant with a yellow gold base calls on Gucci’s own history for inspiration. Its design was based on the “Savana” foulard that Italian painter and illustrator Vittorio Accornero De Testa created for Gucci in 1969, which was later translated to a pendant in 1981. Another pendant, featuring an impressive hexagonal-cut emerald, is accompanied by a 45cm chain that reinterprets Gucci’s iconic horse bit motif in a new and vibrant way. Even as the world continues to reopen, allowing us all to once again create new memories and travelogues in the present, there is no denying the enchantment and intrigue that comes from journeying to the past. Especially when that past looks as beguiling as Gucci’s ever-evolving garden of delights.
THIS YEAR’S HORTUS DELICIARUM HIGH JEWELLERY COLLECTION CELEBRATES JOURNEYS AND MEMORIES