No Stones UNTURNED

What comes first, the necklace or the pearl? A Vuitton gemologist tells all.

- STELLENE VOLANDES

One hundred ten pieces, one 30-carat black opal, one 31-carat emerald, and seven years. When you're taking in all the shine and sparkle of the singular pieces of the new Louis Vuitton Virtuosity High Jewelry collection, numbers may seem beside the point. Beauty is the main objective here, non? But often, at this level of jewelry design, the crucial details are in the digits. "In this collection," a Vuitton gemologist tells T&C, "there is a necklace I am particularly proud of. It took us more than seven years to gather all the diamonds with the perfect combination of colors and sizes. It is the Eternal Sun necklace, which features a string of 27 yellow diamonds-extremely rare. They are a true miracle of nature. Today many gemological questions exist on this type of yellow Ib diamond (versus type la), which is created when a nitrogen atom lodges in the carbon's crystalline stru