High jewellery is no longer just about gold and platinum
The use of materials not conventionally considered luxurious in haute joaillerie became popular among jewellers during the financial crisis of 2007. The affluent scaled down on ostentatious spending, choosing designer items and high jewellery buys which were less conspicuous. By pairing less costly materials like ceramic or titanium with precious gems, collectors could downplay the perceived cost of their buys and also assert their individuality through wearing something unconventional. However, even after the world recovered from the shock of the financial crisis a few years on, independent jewellery designers and maisons are still juxtaposing the precious with the non-precious to create one-of-a-kind designs that appeal to some customers’ preference for the quirky and unique.
The most popular of these materials is still titanium, the toughest, strongest metal on earth. At only a quarter of gold’s weight, it is a blend of strength and lightness, enabling designers to inject movement, fluidity and weightlessness to otherwise heavyset and chunky jewels. Michelle Ong of Carnet started working with titanium 20 years ago. While designing a brooch featuring precious stones, she discovered titanium and the challenge it presented: how does one incorporate the material’s fluidity and lightness into a complex design with conventional precious metals? “Although titanium is technically challenging to use in jewellery crafting, it has allowed me to create some of my most recognisable signature pieces," shares Ong.
The use of titanium is unlikely to abate as more traditional jewellers have also picked up on using it. Moussaieff, with a heritage that dates back to the 1800s, uses the metal to set stunning rare gems in its high jewellery pieces. Glenn Spiro, whose G London collection pieces start from around US$100,000 (S$141,000) and go up to about $25 million (S$35.6 million), has featured titanium so heavily in his works over the past decade that the metal has become synonymous with his design. He explains that titanium doesn’t pull on the skin like gold does and weighs so little, that it has made some of his bigger pieces which are more riotous or voluptuous with precious gems wearable. Italian jeweller Pomellato has also embraced titanium’s light weight and high tensile strength, setting it against rose gold in its Arabesque collection. The metal also makes an appearance in the Black Rainbows collection by British jeweller Solange Azagury-Partridge, who created the line in collaboration with Belgian designer Francis Mertens to celebrate American Express’ titanium Centurion card in 2011.
One of Dior’s gowns that inspired the oscillating weight on the dial of the VIII Grand Bal Piece Unique Evol No. 5- Earrings with copper, white gold and tourmalines, Hemmerle
- J12, Chanel
- Quatre rings, Boucheron
German jeweller Hemmerle first worked with unlikely metals in 1995 when it received a commission from a customer to set diamonds in textured iron. The customer had a penchant for wearing historic Berlin iron jewellery, which were given to Germans in exchange for the gold and silver pieces they donated to help fund the War of Liberation in 1813. Since then, Hemmerle has gone on to dazzle with its one-off pieces that combine materials such as pebbles, real snail shells and even walrus teeth with gold and diamonds.
Last summer, Piaget collaborated with feather artist Nelly Saunier to create a US$360,000 cuff bracelet lined with tiny feathers from exotic birds like the Abyssinian roller, Lady Amherst’s pheasant and the riflebird. A more easily obtained, but no less bizarre material that has appeared in the works of a few independent designers is beetle parts, mainly the iridescent exoskeleton. Los Angeles-based designer Daniela Villegas has combined the creepy-crawlies with porcupine quills for her avant-garde creations. Even Dior has found the beetle irresistible, and unveiled a VIII Grand Bal watch collection during Baselworld 2015 featuring marquetry-set scarab beetle wings on the dials.
Meanwhile, a less exotic material that has quietly found its way into the rarified world of haute joaillerie is ceramic. It features in Boucheron’s Quatre rings and Chanel’s J12 timepieces and jewellery. Most of these jewellers cite ceramic’s lightness as an asset. As designers push new boundaries in the world of jewellery design, perhaps this unconventional pairing of materials in haute jewellery will soon become de rigueur.
