A Rose by Any Other Name
Sartorial tastemakers Jamie QQ Wu and Glenn Goh celebrate the enduring appeal of the La Rose Dior fine jewellery collection—and show why Monsieur Dior’s favourite bloom still smells as sweet
In the vast Dior universe, there is no symbol more enigmatic than the rose. Besotted with the bloom that reigned in his mother’s garden, Monsieur Christian Dior made certain that the flower of his fascination blossomed all across his couture creations.
The French fashion designer conjured his legendary New Look by making skirts wide like the corollas of a rose. He borrowed the pink from its petals—the “colour of happiness and femininity”, as he called it—to create blushing ball gowns. He even bottled the rose’s sweet scent for his first perfume, Miss Dior.
Today, the rose still blooms in the House of Dior. You might find it embroidered on a dress by Maria Grazia Chiuri, or printed across Kim Jones’s menswear collections. The maison even has an everlasting garden of its own through La Rose Dior, a fine jewellery collection that celebrates the founder’s favourite flower.
Designed by Victoire de Castellane, artistic director of Dior Joaillerie, the collection is as multifaceted as the rose itself. It is split into four distinctive lines: Rose Dior Pré Catelan, featuring the bloom intricately carved out of colourful crystals such as rose quartz and amethyst; Rose Dior Bagatelle, which immortalises the rose in frosted creations crafted from white gold and diamonds; Bois de Rose, which takes the flower’s thorny stem and turns it into intriguing bracelets, rings and earrings; and Rose Dior Couture, which is centred on a stylised interpretation of the rosebud.
Every piece of the La Rose Dior collection is an expression of the maison’s exceptional craftsmanship, achieved within its hallowed jewellery workshops in Paris. But the collection is also a fitting tribute to femininity;
the complexity of womanhood is reflected in Dior’s many interpretations of the rose, which run the gamut from edgy to elegant.
Inevitably, the collection speaks to a woman like Jamie QQ Wu. A go‑getter who juggles her time between pursuing her passions and being a mother, she embodies the strength that Monsieur Dior has long admired in women.
And true to the universal appeal of the rose, La Rose Dior holds charm for men as well. Glenn Goh, a Dior Men devotee, marvels at the thorn‑inspired details of the Bois de Rose range in particular. “When I first saw the collection, I thought it was quite exquisite,” he says. “I like how organic the lines are. The pieces are not exactly geometric, but the rings and bracelets can be stacked together, meaning that everything is well calculated and designed.”
But what is artistic design compared to sentimental attachment? Dior’s founder certainly understood the latter, as does Wu.
“When I hear ‘rose’, I immediately think of the south of France,” she says. “I’ve been there with my husband every summer over the past decade. There are these fields and fields of roses in all kinds of colours. Come May, it just becomes this rose paradise.”
And then comes the greatest magical connection: “We can actually see one of Monsieur Dior’s holiday houses from outside our place,” she says. “And that’s the ultimate dream.”
Dior’s interpretations of the rose run the gamut from edgy to elegant