Cartier builds Le Chœur des Pierres around exceptional gemstones

Fashion

At the centre of Stellara, a white gold and diamond necklace whose radiating lines spread outwards in a wave-like motion, sits a 41.01 carat Ceylon sapphire, and it is a stone of this calibre that Cartier has placed at the heart of Le Chœur des Pierres, a High Jewellery collection of seven necklaces and five earring designs in which each piece takes its direction from the gemstone that sits in front of the designer.

According to the Maison, everything at Cartier starts with the stone, and recognising a Cartier stone among other exceptional gemstones is a matter of intuition guided by the emotion it provokes, an instinct that sits alongside demanding standards for purity of material, elegance of cut and precision of proportions and lends the Maison’s gemstones that certain je ne sais quoi. Jacqueline Karachi-Langane, Director of High Jewellery Creation at Cartier, describes the task of the designer in the same spirit, saying that “the creation serves the stone, revealing its nuances, its brilliance, its sparkle and its inner vibration,” and that the jeweller’s work lies in being moved by a stone and in interpreting and magnifying its presence.

Cartier likens its role to that of an orchestra conductor, harmonising precious materials so that they resonate together, while stone experts, jewellers, lapidaries, gem-setters and polishers remain in constant conversation with the designer from the first stroke of the pencil to the finished piece. Alexa Abitbol, Director of the High Jewellery Workshops at Cartier, says the collection illustrates how exceptional craftsmanship can bring a creative vision and gemstones to life, calling it “a tangible emotion that transforms these gifts of nature into timeless works of art.”

Among the necklaces, Stellara celebrates what Cartier calls the pierre reine, with jewellers combining openwork and diamonds of every shape and size to create a rhythm across the piece while keeping the structure exceptionally light, whereas Fibria, in platinum with emeralds, rubies, turquoise and diamonds, takes the form of a two-strand braid reminiscent of decorative trimmings, with rubies and turquoise set like a diamond-edged rope before two emeralds finish the asymmetrical strands and three more build to a crescendo in the central motif. Polydroma, a domed necklace completely paved with diamonds and centred on a 5.18 carat Asscher-cut diamond, draws on the vocabulary of urban architecture through volume, geometry and repeating patterns, and Panthère Tunya, built around a 48.12 carat Zambian emerald cabochon, creates the illusion of movement as a panther in onyx and diamond watches over a cascade of emerald beads that multiply until the realism of the animal gives way to abstraction, punctuated by nine cushion-cut Fancy Yellow diamonds totalling 10.91 carats.

Tipaza opens with two 7.36 carat briolette diamonds that descend from the slope of the shoulder alongside three strands of matched ruby beads, giving the minimalist design its waterfall arrangement, while Etnara takes its energy from the depths of volcanoes, with a 67 carat rubellite at the centre and two symmetrical rows of rubellites separated by topazes that Cartier compares to sparks. Tutti Chaya, which continues the Maison’s exploration of tutti frutti since the mid-1920s, pairs a geometric mesh paved with diamonds and accented with rubies, emeralds and sapphires with two ribbed Colombian emeralds totalling 56.97 carats, and Cartier notes that nearly 2,000 hours of work, 1,400 of them devoted to goldsmithing, went into crafting the piece entirely by hand, including a reverse side where the bridgework has been transformed into a motif of its own.

The five earring designs follow the same logic, beginning with Drosera, where 18 rubies totalling 28.44 carats sit in the cavities of a diamond-paved structure that wraps around the earlobe, with diamond droplets at the top of the ear evoking the freshness of dew, and Ojai, where 18 pink and orange sapphires totalling 24.12 carats fall in droplets towards the earlobe from the top of the ear, held in rose gold by diamond twigs. Volubia gathers emeralds and diamonds in baguette and briolette cuts into delicate foliage that rests asymmetrically on the lobe and the upper ear, Patellia is built around two pear-shaped brown diamonds totalling 11.32 carats set upside down so that the pavilion faces outwards, and Undara wraps three pieces of blue spinels and diamonds around the ear in what Cartier describes as a sparkling display of precious bubbles, leaving it to the wearer to imagine a mysterious shell or white-capped waves. Cartier describes the whole collection as an ode to gemstones.

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