BRILLIANT BRAVERY
Louis Vuitton’s collection of glittering gems pays tribute to heroines from history
According to legend, Prague was founded in the eighth century by Libussa, the prophetess Queen of the Goths, who told her people about her vision for ‘a great city whose glory will touch the stars’ and ordered it to be built on a cliff above the Vltava. The historic capital of Bohemia still stands there today, its exquisite architectural beauty leading to its soubriquet of the Golden City, the jewel in the crown of central Europe.
It was the perfect place, therefore, for the launch of Francesca Amfitheatrof’s first High Jewellery collection for Louis Vuitton, inspired as it was by mediaeval heroines of both myth and history, whose strength and vision allowed them to break free from the constraints imposed on them by their lesser status as women.
The ‘Riders of the Knights’ collection was revealed, piece by glittering piece, on a balmy June evening at the Troja Palace, worn by models dressed in simple black, the better to show off the gems. One was a warrior queen in a high, fluid diamond neck piece reminiscent of chain mail, a huge sapphire sparkling at its centre, and a cuff like a portcullis on her wrist; another wore a necklace bearing an aquamarine as big as an egg, its turquoise
core a mysterious heart of darkness; a third was decked in a rope of brilliants from which swung the Louis Vuitton flower, reinterpreted as a heraldic emblem in emeralds and diamonds. They seemed armoured in light, protected by the mystic aura of the jewels.
‘There were a number of women in mediaeval times who, through their vision and strength, changed history,’ Amfitheatrof explained. ‘They were from different parts of the world, some of them were from royal households, but others came from nothing, and they led men to follow them on the most extraordinary adventures… These pieces take you on that journey.’
Amfitheatrof joined Louis Vuitton last year from Tiffany & Co, where she had spent four years as the design director, creating its iconic minimalist ‘T’ collection, alongside extravagant, aquaticinspired high jewellery. For Vuitton, by contrast, she has drawn on the idea of a voyage through time as well as space – appropriate for a French fashion house whose name is synonymous with intrepid travel.
‘I definitely always want a story when I’m coming up with a collection,’ she tells me. ‘I need something that moves me. These stones were created millions of years ago, and we dig them kilometres below the ground… It’s kind of crazy to think that these diamonds are the only thing you can wear on your finger that symbolise the beginning of the world, the Big Bang.’
There are six different lines making up the 52-piece ‘Riders of the Knights’ collection, each with its own theme and highlighting a different gem. To celebrate a set of navy-blue Madagascan sapphires,
Amfitheatrof designed ‘Le Royaume’, inspired by Joan of Arc. Pennant-shaped diamond earrings flutter from the earlobe, offset by a quartet of majestic sapphire and diamond rings, whose height and structure recall Gothic arches. A pair of pendant lattice-work cages on diamond chains each contain an enormous pearl, which appears to float freely within; according to the designer, they are symbolic of a sanctuary for a precious belief. ‘Because Vuitton is a house that started with the trunks, which were about protecting your most treasured possessions, I always went back to the idea that the jewellery should, in a way, have the power to protect the wearer,’ she explains.
The concept reaches its epitome in the extraordinary diamond and sapphire gorget, the line’s pièce de résistance, which one can imagine being worn into battle to guard the wearer from a lethal blow. Amfitheatrof takes the collar from its display case to show me the fluidity of its construction, the way the weight is evenly spread around the neck. ‘When you wear it, it’s like a textile,’ she says, running it through her fingers.
‘La Reine’, by contrast, celebrates the spirit and power of Queen Elizabeth I, with a series of 10 pieces studded with giant aquamarines, all cut from a single rough stone. One beautifully brutal diamond necklace is adorned with nine huge aquamarines, cut to the size of Fox’s Glacier Mints and adding up to almost 153 carats. ‘Imagine her, with her red hair, wearing this!’ exults Amfitheatrof. A pair of deliberately mismatched pendant earrings, one bearing the Louis Vuitton V, the other the house’s blossom symbol, nod to a daring and unconventional spirit, but there is also an acknowledgment of Gloriana’s darker, more capricious side in Amfitheatrof’s choice of stone. ‘I’ve never seen aquas like this in my life,’ she says. ‘Normally, they’re like a swimming pool, but these are moody
– you feel like you’re being drawn into them, and there’s this extra depth.’ And the secret of the Virgin Queen’s hidden romantic liaisons is delicately hinted at in a bracelet that uses the codes of the maison – the L, the V, the flower – to spell out ‘love’, hidden within the intricately patterned diamonds.
Other themes are intended to reflect feminine virtues: ‘L’Intuition’ uses deep-green Colombian emeralds to connect strands of diamonds together; a signet ring bears the Vuitton flower and an emerald that appears to float on a black-onyx surface. ‘Le Talisman’, a 12-piece collection, also uses emeralds, set in discs of bright-blue lapis lazuli, in amulets suitable for a high priestess. And the bravery and chivalry of mediaeval heroines is acknowledged in ‘Les Armoiries’, three gem-hilted dagger brooches, and ‘La Cavalière’ – the Horsewoman – which evokes the jaunty bits, bridles and buckles of harness in diamonds and blood-red Tanzanian spinels.
For Amfitheatrof, these pieces are intended to link the wearer with female rulers of the past. ‘I wear my grandmother’s wedding band, and I feel like it connects me to her,’ she says. ‘I think jewellery has an incredible ability to be a time capsule, not just something to wear.’ And in her exquisite reimagining of pieces from the age of chivalry, she sweeps us all on this intoxicating journey across the centuries, following in the hoofprints of the Riders of the Knights.