Skin has been trending as a red carpet look for some time now, from Halle Berry’s sheer stripes at the Met Gala this month to Bianca Censori’s see-through mini at the Grammy Awards in February.
Recent jewelry collections have played with the style, too, featuring pieces that achieve a barely there effect on some wearers through the use of soft-tone metals and skin-matching stones. Other designs have open structures that would play peekaboo with any skin color.
Cartier, for example, is scheduled to unveil the Hyala necklace, a highlight of its new En Équilibre high jewelry collection, in Stockholm next week.
“Everything starts with the stones,” said Pierre Rainero, the house’s image, style and heritage director. “We start drawing once certain stones come together. They guide our creative direction. The idea of a ‘second skin’ follows from a pursuit of softness, in color, in form and in the way the piece moves with the body.”
At the center of Hyala is a 5.71-carat oval-cut diamond in what Cartier has called a brownish yellowish orange, flanked by two pink-brown diamonds totaling 6.03 carats; a gradation of yellow, brown and pink diamonds; and pink and brown sapphires, some in rounded cabochon cuts. “We are in the realm of softness, so naturally we avoid strong contrasts to achieve a camaïeu,” Mr. Rainero said, using a French word for a progression of similar tones.
The necklace, in rose gold, is designed to drape fluidly, creating a gauzy effect. “We choose rose gold based on the stones we’re working with, especially when those stones reflect the pink hues of the metal,” he said. (Rose gold, which is less common in high jewelry than white gold or platinum, has a natural softness to its color that designers say complements a range of complexions.)
Rose gold also was Lugano’s choice for its Rose Cut Chandelier earrings, a selection meant to soften the icy effect of 21.66 carats of white diamonds.
“With pieces like this, it’s all about tone and movement,” Moti Ferder, the chief executive of the Newport Beach, Calif., jeweler, said in an email. “The soft, pale hues catch the light in a subtle way, and the chandelier shape keeps the design open and fluid. It adds enough flow to feel easy, not overdone, but refined and wearable.”
And Victoire de Castellane, Dior Joaillerie’s creative director, also turned to rose gold, but a bespoke alloy with reduced copper content developed by Dior. “Rose gold has a soft sheen but also enhances the hues of some gemstones,” Ms. de Castellane said.
The alloy was used for the supple lattice structure of the Bouquet des Roses set — a necklace, ring, ear cuff and earrings — in the Diorexquis high jewelry collection, unveiled May 5 at the Château de La Colle Noire, once Christian Dior’s home in Southern France.
“My creative process never begins with stones,” Ms. de Castellane said. “The spark can be an idea, even a word, but it is always about color.”
The highlight of the Bouquet des Roses necklace is a 13.57-carat oval-cut pink sapphire from Madagascar, framed by white and yellow diamonds, pink sapphires, spinels and doublet fiery opals. The doublet gems were created by laying a thin sheet of opal over a mother-of-pearl base to amplify the combined gem’s iridescence.
“It is a challenging technique because the stone can break in the process,” Ms. de Castellane said. “But it brings out a different kind of fire in the opal.”
Second Skin
Repossi’s architectural take on transparency and minimalism has prompted its creative director, Gaia Repossi, to use its patented Tour Eiffel technique to set gems, creating an illusion of the stones floating over the skin.
Its new Chromatic Sapphires collection, a total of 16 pieces including rings, pendants and ear cuffs, was built on this approach, according to Anne de Vergeron, Repossi’s chief executive, and used sapphires in shades of orange, powder pink and brown to echo skin tones. (The brand said its gems are mined in Tanzania’s Umba Valley in partnership with Moyo Gems, a responsible sourcing initiative that supports women miners.)
In the collection, Ms. de Vergeron said, “the stones themselves take center stage, their pure beauty amplified by the floating effect of this setting. The pieces naturally follow the architecture of the body. Comfort is essential to the seamless wearability; each piece is designed to feel like a second skin.”
Western European jewelers are not the only ones to strive for a sensory experience in jewelry. Vishal Kothari, the founder of VAK, a jewelry brand in Mumbai, has tried to blend his Indian heritage with a modern, skin-aware sensuality.
Central to Mr. Kothari’s aesthetic are portrait-cut gemstones, the thin, flat stones set on minimal metal that are a signature element of his work. In his new Shattered collection, for example, the 18-karat rose gold Spectrum earrings feature 1.21 carats of brilliant-cut diamonds along with 37.16 carats of multicolored sapphires, natural blue sapphires and tiny emeralds.
The stones are placed in what seems to be a random arrangement, but Mr. Kothari actually has layered shades of pale pink to deeper violets, to catch the light in different ways. “Pastel colors combined with shallow cuts create the impression of floating fragments that rest against the skin like a second skin,” he said.
Custom Nude
Rather than sourcing materials, the Belgian-born designer Tatiana Verstraeten recreated her own skin tone for her Vienne collection, which includes a one-of-a-kind necklace and a limited edition of eight rings and earrings with a stylized motif inspired by the Butterfly House in Vienna’s historic Burggarten park.
Ms. Verstraeten applied cold transparent enamel to a gold base, mixing custom pigments. “I learned the cold enameling technique in a Paris jewelry workshop,” Ms. Verstraeten said during an interview in March at her Paris showroom. “Their production schedule was packed, so I learned to apply the technique myself.”
Each Vienne piece has been crafted in 18-karat white gold overlaid with the iridescent enamel and set with diamonds and moonstones. The necklace, for instance, features 20.5 carats of diamonds and 11.3 carats of round-cut moonstones.
“Each piece is designed to rest effortlessly on the body, as if blossoming on the skin itself,” Ms. Verstraeten said. “The tone of nude varies slightly due to the handmade application of enamel, with a lifelike quality, like skin. It almost disappears on some wearers. On others, it has a shimmering glow. That’s the magic of nude-colored enamel.”
For Ms. Verstraeten, working in nude tones gives new weight to a fleeting symbol. “The idea of a butterfly suggests the ephemeral,” she said. “But in nude shades, it becomes eternal.”
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