When Victoire de Castellane, the mastermind behind Dior jewellery, creates a new collection, you can be sure of two things: it will be bold and it will be beautiful. But that is all you can be sure of because de Castellane is a singular talent, and her latest creative offering on display during Paris Couture Week has once again thrown convention out of the window.
The new high jewellery and watch collection is named after the town of Granville on the Normandy coast where Christian Dior spent his childhood, and it is the joie de vivre of childhood games that de Castellane has captured in her latest offering. Indeed, if not for the hefty price tags, these would be the perfect jewels for little girls’ dress-up boxes.
As it stands, this range of Dior jewellery, which was unveiled at Dior’s Avenue Montaigne store this week, is most definitely for big girls - but those who are young at heart, for Granville is a gemstone culture clash. Green beryls, aquamarines, tanzanites, chrysoberyl, peridot, pink tourmaline and rubellite all jostle next to one another, creating a pleasurably jarring rainbow. And no singular piece is bound by shape - marquise-cut gemstones sit next to pears, ovals, rounds, and princess cuts.
“They come to life,” says de Castellane, speaking of the coloured gemstones. “The way in which they’re assembled creates a sense of equilibrium that means that no one colour dominates another, so that each one has an equal chance to shine.”
The one thing that is consistent throughout the 12-piece collection is an absence of symmetry. The Dior cocktail rings surround central gems with looping juxtapositions of stones of varying cuts, colours and even setting styles. And the Dior earrings might look similar at first glance, but on closer inspection, there are myriad minute differences between each half of a pair.
Granville also includes nine brightly hued D de Dior watches that, while less frenetic than the jewels, offer just as satisfying a colour clash. Dials are made from bright gemstones such as turquoise, lapis lazuli and an unusual Japanese purple gemstone call sugilite, and then contrasted with bright gemstone bezels and lurid patent straps.
The Dior Granville collection is exciting and energising, and seeing it with your own eyes will leave you marvelling at the impossible imaginativeness of it all; exactly like watching children play the sort of games that inspired de Castellane to spin this precious colour wheel.
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