PARIS – What’s a milestone celebration with out some jewellery?
After watches, Piaget is bringing out its greatest jewels with the “Essence of Extraleganza” excessive jewellery assortment, which would be the spotlight of a week-long exhibition at Palais Brogniart beginning Tuesday.
Open to the general public by appointment from Thursday to Sunday, the exhibition will head to Shanghai in September and Seoul in November.
For Piaget’s creative director Stéphanie Sivrière, imagining a group for the home’s a hundred and fiftieth anniversary was about diving into its patrimony to get a way of the strongest currents that underpinned its artistic improvement.
By the 96-piece assortment, with greater than 40 of them offered in Paris, Sivrière would love guests to remove that Piaget is “a jeweler and a watchmaker in contrast to others, notably via our work on supplies.”
“What I leaned into was the know-how of the home, notably those who had been a little bit forgotten like chain-making or mesh, but in addition the work on onerous stones, gold braiding — and timekeeping jewels,” she mentioned.
An period that embodied this spirit in Sivrière’s opinion is the cusp of the Nineteen Seventies. In keeping with the artistic, “1969 was a selected spotlight for the home the place daring and freedom jewellery watches peaked, so I actually centered there.”
They due to this fact take delight of place within the anniversary assortment.
Among the many key items within the assortment is an emerald-set cuff watch bracelet. Some 200 components have been assembled and hand-adjusted on a twisted mesh bracelet that homes 36 baguette-cut eye-clean Colombian emeralds totaling over 26 carats. Its value is claimed to be above the two million euros mark, making one of the costly items within the assortment.
She additionally made a number of wears right into a speaking level.
Working example: a Swinging Sautoir with a twisted gold chain carrying fringes of malachite and turquoise beads. The 29-carat cushion-cut Sri Lankan yellow sapphire and 6-carat aquamarine result in a watch, which could be indifferent and positioned on a bracelet to develop into a treasured wrist decoration.
“I take pleasure in giving the shopper other ways of sporting [pieces]. It’s reasonably good — and makes it simpler to promote — as a result of it provides a second life to the items relying on the temper, the model of the occasion,” she mentioned. “Since we’re a watchmaker and a jeweler, having a watch that turns right into a jewel and vice-versa is at all times a great way to embrace that.”
Jewels that don’t inform time are additionally nicely represented.
Standing out is a necklace formed like a radiating collar made from rows of engraved Decor Palace engraving, set with 30 carats’ price of spherical Colombian emeralds, a reasonably uncommon reduce for this gem.
A necklace styled like a rope with gold pompoms, that includes 1,300 cabochon turquoise, was one other spotlight. “It’s loopy by way of work as a result of every part is supple however made from twisted gold,” Sivrière mentioned. “It was a technical prowess to place that in place and preserve the motion.”
Chief govt officer Benjamin Comar lauded Sivrière’s knack for “making a product magical. She pushes aesthetic boundaries and he or she doesn’t keep locked in with method.”
Whereas others could also be wanting towards new supplies for his or her excessive jewellery, the main focus at Piaget stays on fluidity and making certain supplies are at their greatest whereas making certain consolation and wearability. “Between gold and stones, we have already got many attention-grabbing issues to do,” he continued. “We aren’t essentially on a quest for innovation by way of supplies however by way of know-how.”
In selecting Paris, the model supposed an homage to Piaget’s connection to the French capital, mentioned Comar.
“It’s reasonably historical as a result of within the time of Valentin Piaget, he’d ship his illustrators to Paris throughout vogue week to be impressed,” the manager defined. “For a small model of jewellery and watchmaking based mostly in Switzerland’s La-Côte-Aux-Fées, it was reasonably unbelievable. I’m not even certain the Place Vendôme homes went to the reveals that had been 30 meters from their workplaces on the time.
“What we needed to specific on this anniversary 12 months is the continuity between Piaget’s creativity [today] and its previous creativity,” he continued.
Requested what attracts shoppers to Piaget at present, Comar mentioned that these he noticed had been “joyful to seek out this modernized, not nostalgic” tackle the home. “They’re joyful to see and discover as soon as extra what they imagined Piaget to be however, in such instances, what they need is to see what is restricted about Piaget,” he continued. “We’re targeted on our tradition, our heritage and the concept it’s a dwelling patrimony, not reeditions of outdated designs.”
As jewelers placed on ever-more glamorous shows, the onus is on manufacturers to carry one thing new to the desk — and never simply by way of designs, in accordance with the manager. “It’s a part of our cultural function in the direction of shoppers, companions and the press,” he added.
Much more so when competitors is fierce and gamers quite a few, along with an financial setting that invitations warning.
“The truth that there are extra patrons creates need, visibility for the class and will get much more individuals ,” he mentioned. “It’s wholesome competitors and there’s emulation to make much more artistic, much more distinctive, much more attention-grabbing items.”
In keeping with the manager, Piaget has a large Asian and Center Jap excessive jewellery clientele and has begun seducing Individuals and some European prospects too.
And in contrast to different classes, excessive jewellery shoppers may probably not be analyzed by segments. “They’re above all a group that has extra in widespread with one another via their travels, their creative pursuits, their model than with individuals of their age class or nationality,” he mentioned.
However reasonably than spotlight the “Essence of Extraleganza” by itself, the model staged its reveal in dialogue with archival designs and items from non-public collections.
Ella Richards sporting classic Piaget cuff bracelet watches.
Courtesy of Piaget
For Fatemeh Laleh, Piaget’s international communication and picture director, immersing guests within the designs via a circuit that takes them via a succession of levels starting with its Home of Gold identification and ending with the Piaget Society and the newest marketing campaign that includes Ella Richards photographed by Brigitte Niedermayer was important.
“It’s a mise en abyme for this new assortment, with the continuity of the model, the signature, the previous, the current,” she mentioned. “It provides context to why you fell in love with this necklace or that cuff. And that’s additionally a manner of celebrating 150 years’ price of know-how.”
