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| 19 jul 2017Tourmaline, that chameleon of the gem world comes in every colour of the rainbow, but Vuitton has assembled here a range of exceptional quality blue and green hues
including several Paraiba type tourmalines.
This set of jewels began its life three years ago when Vuitton's gemmologist saw this Paraiba type tourmaline from Mozambique. From the initial spark this green stone threw out, it took three years to collect these rare tourmalines to create the set we see today.
But let’s start at the beginning with this necklace, of all the tourmalines the Paraiba is the most popular for obvious reasons - we all love the promise of a neon-bright stone - and a great Paraiba type even out of direct light will beam out its electric colour.
A Paraiba type tourmaline is defined by the amount of copper and manganese in the stone and only a gem laboratory can certify that. The colour can range from swimming pool blue to bright green and it's the balance between the blue of the manganese and the green of the copper in the stone that create these different colours. All the tourmalines here are from Mozambique.
No less spectacular is the largest tourmaline in the set that at 54.3 carats is special because of its size and the fact that it's loupe clean, and of course its mesmerizing blue colour. What makes tourmalines so precious is that it's very difficult to find more than one of each kind so unlike emeralds, or sapphires, or diamonds they're incredibly difficult to match.
Having searched the world for the best of mother nature, Vuitton re-cuts all of its stones to maximise their beauty, with the appropriate cut that alters the speed of light traveling through the stone, they achieve these dazzling effects.
As for the design of these jewels, the bold look of Conquêtes, which combines the monogram flower with the V of Vuitton for the first time, forms shield-like talismanic shapes that will appeal to women who dare to be different both in their choice of style and colours.
