Victoire de Castellane takes us behind the scenes of Dior Joaillerie

With Gem Dior, Victoire de Castellane is celebrating her love of jewels by presenting a collection combining watches and jewellery for the very first time. An opportunity for the Artistic Director of Dior Joaillerie to give us a sneak peek at her creative process.

Victoire de Castellane has been captivating the world of jewellery and watchmaking with her endless creativity for over 20 years. But never before had she combined horology and jewellery in a single collection. Well Gem Dior has done just that (which, for those linguists out there, is a play on words between the pronunciation of “gem” and “j’aime”, for “I love”!). The 7 watches and 11 pieces of jewellery are inspired by the world of couture, particularly fabric swatches from the Dior fashion show archives, with an asymmetrical signature. But we’ll leave the storytelling to Victoire de Castellane, after all, it’s her story to tell!

Malachite, tiger’s eye, aragonite, white mother-of-pearl, onyx, turquoise, carnelian and lapis lazuli (*) are placed side by side like the strata of sedimentary rock. “I designed a collection of watches and jewelry that’s not figurative”, explains Victoire de Castellane. The spirit of this collection is modern, it’s a style that I would describe as abstract-organic, an organized disruption that turned out to be a true technical challenge for our ateliers”.

This very organised “disruption” indeed is expressed not only in the pieces of jewellery but in the shapes of the stones themselves. A concept that allowed the designer to assemble their dazzling colours without compromising on elegance.

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(*) With such a long list of gemstones, it wouldn't be right to leave you without a few fun facts to impress your friends: Malachite, first mentioned by Pline for its decorative use in 77 A.C, is used on the base of the Jules Rimet Trophy presented to the winner of the FIFA World Cup. Tiger's eye is a type of striped brown quartz from South Africa that turns a deep brown when heated, known as bull’s eye. Mother-of-pearl, or nacre, is the shell lining produced by some molluscs (which you already knew) and was used by the Maya people to make dental implants. Onyx is an agate, a variety of quartz, from the Greek ὄνυξ, meaning “claw” or “fingernail” in reference to its colour. The English spelling of the word turquoise is derived from the French “pierre turquoise”, or “Turkish stone”. In the early 15th century, it was believed that the stone came from Turkey, whereas in fact it was merely transported through the country from Persia. Carnelian is mentioned in Chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation as adorning the foundations of New Jerusalem's walls. Lapis lazuli has been used for over 7,000 years, and was considered by the Romans as an aphrodisiac.

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Infos : Dior.com

Pictures @Dior Joaillerie

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