Louis Vuitton Unveils Its First High Jewelry Tiara, Monogram Star cut Diamond and More

After the billion-year timeframe that shaped the Earth and its treasures, a century’s worth of seismic shifts inspired Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of watches and jewelry Francesca Amfitheatrof.

And the 100-piece opening chapter of the “Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds” high jewelry collection is shaking things up in its own right, with firsts that include fully traceable rubies, a yellow LV Monogram Star cut diamond and a tiara.

For the 11 themes unveiled Wednesday in Saint-Tropez, Amfitheatrof explored the 100 or so years that followed the French Revolution and end with the 1901 Universal Exposition.

“It was such an interesting time in France. Post Revolution, the abolition of the guilds allowed ateliers the freedom to work with anyone and therefore there’s this boom in creation [among] artisans,” she told WWD in an exclusive interview. “In a way, luxury is born and [becomes] available to whoever can afford it.”

The collection is articulated in two parts roughly covering five decades each, with Amfitheatrof alighting on traditional crafts, technological innovations from that era and the Eiffel Tower.

Bridging the gap is house founder Louis Vuitton, who opened his business in 1854.

“He was bang in the middle of it, one hand on the craftsmanship and the other on the expansion,” she continued. “There’s 50 years of incredible craftsmanship and [he] arrives in Paris when this is happening, setting up the company in the middle of the century because he also sees there’s this innovation, this awakening, this beginning of what becomes modern.”

Handcrafts inform the initial four themes, starting with Splendeur, where floral motifs with ruby centers and clusters of closed set diamonds are intricately layered and laid out to evoke carved woodwork.

Echoing the changes brought by artificial light — another idea underpinning Amfitheatrof’s designs — the 143 carats of juicy Mozambique gemstones in a rosy red close to prized, now-exhausted, Burmese ruby veins become near-fluorescent with a jeweler’s flashlight. More than 50 of them in cushion, pear, oval and octagonal cuts are used for a transformable high-collar necklace.

Most importantly, they are the first colored gemstones to come with an Aura blockchain-backed mine-to-jewelry certificate, thanks to a partnership between the Fura mine and the French luxury house.
The first Vuitton high jewelry tiara is the centerpiece of the Elegance set, inspired by the trembleuse jewelry technique, which sees motifs shimmying with the slightest movement.

“It’s such a French innovation, this idea that your diamonds tremble in the candlelight and seduce your viewers,” said Amfitheatrof, who gave it a novel spin through a mosaic of triangular shapes. “I thought it was a just a great, gentle way to modernize a very old technique [to] make it contemporary and part of the conversation today.”