Millegrain and Pearls: High Jewellery Collections We Love

There’s something Edwardian about the newest season’s high jewellery collections from Chaumet, Mikimoto, Dolce & Gabbana and more. From openworked details, diamonds, millgraining, to fillgree and pearls, these pieces have got us positively mesmerized.

Diamond Droplets

Music, dance and magic are at the heart of Chaumet en Scène, the maison’s newest high-jewellery collection. The trompe l’oeil parure is emblematic of Chaumet’s virtuosity, a skilful setting of diamonds and pearls together in pear-shaped drops that give the illusion of a single stone.

Clothed in Pearls

In the skilled hands of Japanese pearl jeweller Mikimoto, woven strings of pearls and diamond have been transformed into a delicately intricate bow. Launched at Paris Haute Couture Week, The Bows is Mikimoto’s newest high-jewellery collection, drawing inspiration from its long-standing ribbon motif to create fabric-like jewellery out of diamonds, pearls and gold. Brilliant diamonds and Akoya cultured pearls lose their hard edge in the Bow necklace; instead, we’re visually left with a supple strip of satin ribbon, softly draping around the neck and tied into an oversized bow, held together by a vibrant mint-green tourmaline.

Mane Attraction

Southern Africa is both the source of De Beers’ diamonds as well as the inspiration for its latest high-jewellery collection, Forces of Nature. Inspired by eight creatures native to the region, each creation captures the animalistic and talismanic powers of Southern Africa in dazzling fancy coloured and white diamonds and rough stones. These Protection Drop Earrings depict the lion, fierce and noble, its beautiful mane rendered in a shower of tactile gold beads and diamonds. 

Pearls of Perfection

Van Cleef & Arpels’ Perlée diamonds duo ring presents two gold bands, edged in golden beads, crossed over each other in a new aesthetic for the maison.

First Light

The second chapter of Messika’s Midnight Sun High Jewellery collection bears witness to the twilight zone, its jewels recalling the first rays of light as night gives way to morning. The White Midnight Sun necklace, an incredible bib of more than 2,400 snow-set diamonds, sees the stones completely crystallise the gold underneath to evoke the whiteness of dawn.

Between the Lace

Filigree is an ancient jewellery technique in which fine gold threads are drawn and weaved together to create distinct and beautiful open-worked patterns that evoke the ephemeral delicacy of lace. Favoured by the aristocracy – and it’s no small wonder, given the skill needed to create these elaborate jewels – the craft is wonderfully highlighted in Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Gioielleria collection.

Read more: Brand signatures – the importance of a strong jewellery motif