Louis Vuitton's latest high jewellery collection, unveiled in January 2025, is the second instalment of the Awakened Hands Awakened Minds story.
Designed by Artistic Director Francesca Amfitheatrof, the 50 new jewels are divided into seven themes and include necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets, a compass, pocket watches, and fobs. The name Awakened Hands Awakened Minds refers to the coming together of craftsmanship and design, inspired by the aesthetic principles of the first series that captures the zeitgeist of the daring innovation that transformed Paris from a mediaeval town into a modern metropolis in the late 19th century.
Awakened Hands Awakened Minds pays homage to the City of Light as slums gave way to glistening glass pavilions and the sweeps of bright white facades on Boulevard Haussmann during the glorious decade of World Fairs and International Exhibitions.
The genius of Amfitheatrof's designs is their ability to express on a small scale in precious materials the engineering and mechanical feats of the French pioneers who, over a century ago, fearlessly crisscrossed the country with railway lines, threw tonnes of metal and glass into the air to create the towering arches of the Grand Palais, and defied gravity with the soaring steel beams of the Eiffel Tower, at the core of this new world vision.
Of awe-inspiring complexity, the Victoire necklace's industrial might of arches, joists, beams, struts, and platforms of the Eiffel Tower are shrunk down and yield their strength to caress the body. Open-work gold supports a geometric, semaphore pattern of white and yellow diamonds with a 3.08 D IF carat LV Monogram Star cut Diamond at its centre.
The Vision family includes a dramatic multi-strand choker necklace that evokes the Age of Steam that transformed Paris and the entire country with thousands of kilometres of train tracks and majestic railway stations. Rivets join each tier, the central of which is reminiscent of the rhythmic pattern of train tracks entirely set with baguette-cut diamonds and flanked top and bottom by rows of the house's emblematic 'V' shape. A 50.01 carat Octogonal step-cut golden yellow sapphire from Sri Lanka and a 3,07 carat LV Monogram Star cut diamond beam out from this necklace.
The arresting Phénoménal jewels are inspired by textiles woven in the newly industrialised factories of Paris, together with rope motifs found in the ornate porcelain tableware of the time and the lattice ironwork that adorned the façades of buildings. Diamond-set' ropes' loop over a gold coil, fastening a weave of smooth gold lozenges and more diamond ropes around the neck. Step back, and the weave of the body of the necklace is a recurring pattern of Vuitton's signature 'V' and embraces at its heart an LV Monogram Star cut Diamond and an electric green 7.44-carat Colombian emerald. The family includes the Phénoménal compass, pocket watch, tie clip and brooches created for men.
Dynamisme –double tier of open chevron motif in platinum and gold emphasises the technical prowess of the engineers of the re-birth of Paris. The diamond-tipped chevrons overlap, creating a sense of forward motion and the excitement of the dawning of a new era of reason and science. LV Monogram Star cut diamonds punctuate the mesmerising domino effect of the dozens of chevrons that make up each Dynamisme jewel.
Gravité draws on physicist Leon Foucault's scientific investigations, which, thanks to his famous pendulum experiments, gave evidence of the Earth's rotation. The sweep of a pendulum is traced in white gold, diamonds, and Kashmir sapphires in two different necklaces, a bracelet, and three rings that pulsate with the energy of a constantly moving pendulum catching the light.
Exquisitely light, the Elegance headband sets a constellation of diamonds across the forehead, hand, and ear lobes. The simple white gold open-weave expresses the delicacy and feminity at the heart of the French style of the era. The Elegance line includes an innovative transformable bracelet that converges in a V-shaped layout across the back of the hand and the ring finger.
The Splendeur pendant necklace, rings and earrings hark back to the magnificent craftsmanship of France's imperial palaces and opulent floral textiles. Rubies and diamonds create Monogram flower patterns, fusing ancient skills with a contemporary air.
Louis Vuitton has shown the power of the perfect synchronicity between the hand of the jeweller and the mind of the creator in a new chapter of jewellery that brings the history of Paris' revolutionary transformation to life.
