Cartier creative director — we must approach a stone with ‘humility’

Jacqueline Karachi has never worked anywhere besides Cartier. The creative director of the 176-year-old jewellery and watches maison joined Cartier’s nearly all-male design studio straight out of the École Boulle in Paris more than four decades ago.

“They thought it was important to have a female perspective when designing the jewels aimed at women,” says Karachi, her tone laced with good-humoured irony, in an interview at Cartier’s Paris headquarters. About 20 years ago, she became the second woman to bear the creative director title at Cartier following Jeanne Toussaint, a legendary designer who steered the brand’s creative efforts between 1933 and 1970, and developed many of its hallmarks.

Today, Karachi presides over Cartier’s high jewellery and watches division, leading a 14-person team of designers who dream up the maison’s grandest creations. These include the finely articulated rose gold collar from its latest Le Voyage Recommencé collection, with its lumbar-like stacks of onyx, coral and diamonds, and a pair of beryl, turquoise and diamond earrings hung with large heliodor pendants in a rich, wine yellow...