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On the top left, Bracelet with graduated links, made with recycled On the bottom left, a ring from the Hortus Deliciarum
gold by Yves Saint Laurent, and the necklace Coeur de Paris by collection by Gucci. ©Gucci
Louis Vuitton. ©YSL ©Thomas Legrand

“Perhaps the sea’s definition of a shell is the pearl. Per- made from recycled yellow and white gold, adorned with
haps time’s definition of coal is the diamond.” This is how diamonds. That same year, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, who
Khalil Gibran, the world’s most famous Lebanese poet, de- founded her jewelry brand in 2007 and is part of the fourth
scribed, in romantic and metaphorical verses, the profound generation of the Fendi family, also debuted in High Jewelry.
and evocative value of precious stones. A value that, for sev- Her collection for Fendi blended femininity, elements of Ro-
eral years now, has not escaped even the most important man architecture, and the FF logo, reimagined in a rounded
fashion brands, which over time have begun to enrich what cursive design. “Stones absorb: it is hard not to think that
haute-couture can offer in high jewelry collections. they are alive. They have made their way towards us over
Coco Chanel pioneered this trend: in 1932, the fashion millions of years. Choosing them is like choosing stars,”
designer first turned her attention to diamonds and high jew- said Delfina.
elry. After the Wall Street stock market crash and the terrible Louis Vuitton, for its latest High Jewelry collection LV
economic crisis of 1929, the London Diamond Corporation Diamonds, has focused on sustainability: the brand has
invited ‘Mademoiselle’ to create a diamond collection that announced the creation of the first digital certificate, sup-
would give visibility to this precious raw material. Thus, Bi- ported by the non-profit Aura Consortium Blockchain foun-
joux de Diamants was born, the designer’s first and only high dation, which displays the ‘journey’ of each precious stone,
jewelry collection. Composed of around fifty pieces of white introducing a new standard of traceability in the life cycle
and yellow diamond jewelry mounted on platinum and yellow of diamonds. But the brand didn’t stop there: it also patent-
gold, it taught that “To forget the crisis, there is nothing like ed the LV Monogram Star diamond cut, recognized by the
being able to contemplate beautiful new things, which the art Gemological Institute of America and, in 2024, launched the
of our craftsmen never ceases to bring to light,” as she her- first High Jewelry line dedicated to men. Now, with the new
self explained. Le Damier de Louis Vuitton line, the brand is going back to
The link between fashion and high jewelry, on that oc- its roots by reviving the iconic identity of the historic motif
casion, had only just begun. The real consolidation between created in 1888, which has become a symbol of originality
the two worlds, however, took place in the 2000s: since then, and authenticity over the years.
some of the best-known fashion brands have begun to un- In 2019, Giorgio Armani also presented his first High
derstand the creative and commercial potential of having a Jewelry collection in the heart of his Milan, ‘christening’ also
high jewelry collection, and have begun to explore its fields a new shade of gold, which he called ‘Nuance Giorgio Arm-
and boundaries. ani’, i.e. a delicate powdery shade, halfway between yellow
Dolce&Gabbana has been one of the first and most suc- and pink gold. His collections fit into the vision of a prêt-à-
cessful in this experiment. This year, their master artisans porter which, just like his clothes, is unconstrained by sea-
have reached such a high level of skill in goldsmithing that sonal trends.
they created a collection based on filigree. Filigree is one of In 2022, after a year of planning, Prada launched its first
the oldest and most intricate techniques, with evidence of its jewelry line made from 100% recycled and certified 18-carat
use going back as far as 2500 BC. For the designer duo, Alta gold, showcasing its commitment to conscious and respon-
Gioielleria is now a natural extension of fashion: ‘handmade’ sible practices. However, Gucci had already entered the
for the artistic couple has no secrets and remains one of the world of high-end jewelry three years earlier, in 2019. Over
foundations of their creative essence. They chose to bring 200 creations, mainly one-off pieces with ethical certifi-
in-house not only the jewelry and watchmaking workshops cations to guarantee the traceability of gold and precious
but also a gemology center, which certifies the gemstones stones, made under the supervision of former creative di-
used in the various collections. rector Alessandro Michele, who has been bewitched by
Among those who ventured into a world of dazzling jewelry since he was a child and admired it on his beloved
diamonds and precious gems was Yves Saint Laurent. In grandmother. Hortus Deliciarum – the name of the collec-
2023, under creative director Anthony Vaccarello, the brand tion – for some, even more precious than the first encyclo-
launched its High Jewelry collection, marking its debut in pedia written by a woman, in the late Middle Ages, which
high-end jewelry. The collection featured timeless pieces bears the same name and inestimable value.

138 Fashion Protagonist