Transcript
|What is Louis Vuitton jewellery all about? I've come to the Place Vendôme in Paris to discover how the history of this company comes through in its jewellery.
Since 1854, Louis Vuitton was kitting out intrepid European travellers with his new-fangled, flat-topped, water-tight steamer trunks, and this spirit of adventure, this spirit of voyaging where others haven't been before, is what shines through in Vuitton jewellery and what has inspired its designers.
One of the most famous motifs at Louis Vuitton is, of course, the monogram pattern, which the canny Louis Vuitton patented in 1896 to avoid counterfeit trunks. It's this pattern that we see reflected in the jewellery as well, in two diamond cuts in the shape of a star and a flower, as well as in jewellery like this Dentelle de Monogram necklace, which mimics the clusters of flowers and stars as found on the canvas.
Just like those daring Victorian travellers, when Vuitton looks for coloured stones, it really does scour all four corners of the world to come up with something really different. Once the designs have been made and the stones assembled then it's over to Louis Vuitton's high jewellery workshops. As you can see, the skills that they use are centuries old and it's a very traditional way, and in fact the only way, to make high jewellery. It's here that all those ideas and the spirit of Louis Vuitton comes alive.
No other jeweller on Place Vendôme has a history like Louis Vuitton and its jewels are very different from everything else. I think they appeal to a woman full of confidence, who really wants to show that she knows where she is going.
If you want to know all that is happening in the world of jewellery and watches, visit my website at thejewelleryeditor.com.
