The designer of a major new jewelry collection wants it that way.
Jewelry stories don’t often begin in the Arms and Armor Gallery at the Met, but that’s where Francesca Amfitheatrof wants to start.
And so I find myself one Saturday morning face to burgonet with Giovanni Battista Bourbon del Monte, a 16th-century Italian mercenary in good with the emperor, the Pope, and the kings of France and Spain. He had the armor to show for it: etched steel partly gilded and sculpted to imitate rich and heavy brocaded textile. Not far from him is a vitrine holding a masterwork of Filippo Negroli, a 16th-century Milanese master craftsmen who seems to have been something like the JAR of the Italian armor world: innovative, often imitated, revered. The plaques next to the Italian parade armor feature vocabulary familiar to a jewelry writer: embossing, repoussé, chasing, hammered steel, gilt. There is also, alongside the description of the decorative elements of each piece of armor, particular attention paid to how it was worked to allow for freedom of movement, for that, ultimately, was its true power. I can imagine Amfitheatrof, a designer whose work has always been driven by narrative, and also by a sense of modern ease, standing in this gallery in front of a German warrior, sketching a Louis Vuitton diamond necklace.
Vuitton, founded in 1854, introduced jewelry in 2004 and has been creating High Jewelry pieces—one-of-a-kind designs featuring exceptional craftsmanship and rare and extraordinary stones—since 2009. This year’s High Jewelry collection—one has been presented ever year—is called Riders of the Knights and is inspired, according to Vuitton, by “lands of legends and audacity.” It explores “the power of vision that drove several medieval heroines to transcend their status as women in order to forge their own destiny.”
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Town & Country.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Town & Country.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
As If We Never Said GOOD BYE
A designer restores a historic home by an the glory it enjoyed during its classic Hollywood heyday.
SIR Mix-a-Lot
Look, Muffy, our old clothes are back! A generation consumed with nostalgia rediscovers and reshuffles trad style their way. The new official preppy dress code is here, and one pony is riding high.
Les Robes Dangereuses
In Revolution-era Paris, three radically chic media stars swept away centuries of strictures about what women should wear and how they should live. A new book unveils the other French Revolution.
A Nose DIVIDED
Legends are never made by playing it safe.
Friends of JUDY
For her fans of 30 years, Judy Geib is a jeweler's jeweler. For young designers, she's something rarer: a role model.
Anatomy of a Classic
A 63-year-old icon just got a face-lift. Can you tell?
This Old Thing? T&C Reviews: Barn Jackets
The rags-to-riches tale of how a humble workingman's staple got its high fashion glow-up.
Nellie Oleson, MODERN MUSE
The kids are in couture and the grown-ups are in oversize bows. When did things get so Freaky Friday?
Loromania!
A standard-bearer of quiet luxury finds itself unexpectedly tap dancing in the spotlight, embraced by American hypebeasts, Gstaad Guy, and Kendall Roy. Back in Milan, it's business as usual. There are 100 years to toast.
Steal the Show
How Broadway fell in love with celebrity producers.