Claire Schweizen, Boucheron’s creative director since 2011, said she set out to break all the rules while creating the house’s new 30-piece high jewelry collection. Called More is More, it will be presented by appointment this week at the Hôtel Partulier headquarters of the jewelry house on the Place Vendôme in Paris.
“We started working on it in 2020, during the second lockdown,” Ms. Choisne recently wrote in an email. “There was a lot of anxiety all around, and I felt the need to completely free ourselves from any creative constraints.”
She said she wanted to “bring joy by creating a sense of joy and comfort” through simple volumes, high contrast, exaggerated scale, and optical illusions inspired by the world of comics and animation.
Deciding not to create traditional high jewelry – elaborate, gem-filled ensembles of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and other matching pieces – gave her a chance to rethink her design process, she writes: “We invented new looks that I wouldn’t have imagined naturally.”
Among the creations are Pull Me, a citrine-embellished hoodie, and This Isn’t a Loop/This Isn’t a Scrunchie, a six-piece that can be worn both ways. There’s also In the Pocket, a handy pocketwork—worked in stripes of onyx and brilliant-cut diamonds with accents of mother-of-pearl and gray lacquer—that can be attached to clothing with magnets.
The accompanying bracelet, called An Apple A Day, is a pop art-inspired spherical design of tsavorite, black lacquer, titanium and white gold, which the designer has likened to an art installation as it may be worn as is or detached in a bracelet and two rings.
Explaining her approach to trompe l’oeil—in English, fool-the-eye—to the craftsmen in Boucheron’s Paris studio, Choisne said, was more complicated than she expected. She wrote: “I told them, ‘It’s two-dimensional, but it has to give the impression that it’s three-dimensional, but it’s still two-dimensional. ‘”
The design of a pocket in fine jewelry has proven to differ greatly from the design of a necklace, as I wrote, because the pocket had to sit securely on clothing (rather than simply resting on the body), be able to support the weight of a phone or hand, and accommodate jewelry. a movement.
Ms. Schwazen and her team found the solution by combining Lycra, a sportswear fabric known for its elasticity, with titanium, which is lighter than gold. The pocket may look solid, but it is actually hinged, consisting of plates made on a 3D printer and held together by titanium screws.
The two-dimensional theme is reflected in Do Not Iron, six creations that look more like iron patches than centimeter-thick pins. Designs include a cicada flower and a jack of the house design, a motif inspired by audio jacks introduced by Ms. Choisne in 2019. Here, it’s crafted in white and yellow gold and set with round-cut and baguette-cut diamonds set with black lacquer.
Ms. Choisne writes that the collection is “a vision of fine jewelry that is precious but not boring.”