Mood Board
Dior Joaillerie’s Victoire de Castellane
Where do designers get their inspirations? Well, from almost everywhere — art, architecture, people, history, nature — even food. They are constantly creative — and continually thinking creatively. WWD Weekend introduces a new feature, Mood Board, looking at the sources of inspiration for leading jewelry designers, beginning with Dior’s Victoire de Castellane.
In 1998 in Paris, Maison Christian Dior created a new jewelry department, appointing Victoire de Castellane artistic director. De Castellane has gone on to help revolutionize the fine jewelry category by reimagining its traditional codes. According to the legendary French brand, from the beginning de Castellane took the quartet of precious stones — diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires — and gave them a lower profile among the chromatic richness of colored fine stones: hues of the tourmaline, spinel and morganite or even the opal, de Castellane's favorite.
The artistic director imagines narrative jewelry with Christian Dior in the title role, often using ideas from her own childhood, crafting pieces inspired by Manga characters, “Alice in Wonderland,” the Grimm brothers, Walt Disney movies, carnivorous flowers, candies and the visual excesses of Bollywood.
Previously she looked to the couturier-founder's love of gardens and of roses, in particular, his favorite flower in the Bal des Roses, Rose Dior Pré Catelan and Rose Dior Bagatelle collections. She has also looked to architecture, one of Christian Dior's great passions, giving birth to the expansive high jewelry Archi Dior collection.
Maison Christian Dior released “Dior Joaillerie: The A to Z of Victoire de Castellane” in 2020 and the following year she unveiled Gem Dior, an abstract and pixelated high jewelry collection, which she defines as the ensemble of her work “put through a shaker.” De Castellane recently enriched the offering with new creations using a recurring geometric motif.
Here, WWD takes a deeper visual dive into what inspires de Castellane's body of work and the recently updated Gem Dior collection.
WWD: Color is a hallmark of your creations. What color makes you feel the happiest? Victoire de Castellane:
Bright colors, neon colors, colors who remind me of candies and their flavors.
WWD: What words do you associate with your creations?
V.d.C.: Joy, nature, freedom, life.
WWD: Who are your jewelry icons, past or present? V.d.C.: I don't really have any icons, I love jewelry from all eras, witnesses of different civilizations.
WWD: Your advice on how a modern customer should be wearing their jewelry ?
V.d.C.: Jewelry should be worn as the most precious accessory, at all times and in a contrasting mix.
WWD: Is there a collection or a piece that resonates with you the most or marks a milestone over your time at Dior?
V.d.C.: Belladone Island presented in the middle of Monet's “Water Lilies” at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. ''Three generations; my and grandmother, my mother
I in the south of France
,, during the summer holidays.