Chain Letter

High jewellery houses rewrite the rules by way of 1980s tunes and a blast of emeralds, spinels and diamonds

- By Caragh McKay

When chunky chains started dominating this year’s high jewellery collections, the electro-hop beats of Salt-N-Pepa’s 1987 hit Push It pumped around my brain for days. The musical connection also struck a chord with Ehssan Moazen, creative director of Chaumet, one of the oldest jewellery maisons on Paris’ Place Vendôme. ‘Our ‘Tulip’ necklace does have a hint of 1980s streetwear and a touch of punk to it,’ he says of the heavy diamond-set piece from this year’s Le Jardin de Chaumet collection.

Yet it’s rare for a jeweller whose business is seriously precious materials to create big, bold pieces that might be confused with street ‘bling’. After all, high jewellery is, by its very nature, designed to last. ‘Being recognised as a traditional house for our history, craftsmanship and the quality of our jewels is important – it’s in our DNA,’ says Moazen. ‘But it becomes a challenge if we only lean towards our past.’ As such, he sees the voluminous ‘Tulip’, with its off-centre 10.70ct Tanzanian red spinel, as ‘the right inspiration to convey contrasting influences in a highly sophisticated way’.