Victoire de Castellane, one of the most creative people to walk this Earth.

20 juin 2008

Victoire de Castellane, one of the most creative people to walk this Earth.

Belladone Island ring with multi-colour gemstones with movable ‘petals

Celebrating her tenth anniversary as artistic director of the jewellery department of Christian Dior, Victoire de Castellane remains one of the most creative people to walk this Earth.

“BECAUSE Dior gave me carte blanche in 1998 to create the fine jewellery department, I can call the Christian Dior jewel universe mine, and I’m very proud of it!” Victoire de Castellane said during the last fashion week in Paris.

Indeed, de Castellane had made her presence on Place Vendôme felt from Day One, when she was appointed designer by Bernard Arnault, CEO of the luxury group LVMH. She undertook the design of a first collection of fine jewellery for the house of Dior
with great eccentricity, energy and fantasy, shaking up the rather staid and conventional world of French haute joaillerie.

Soon after her appointment at Dior, the spotlight was cast on de Castellane’s colourful and sometimes baroque creations. She repaid the compliment with the provocative comment, “Who said that real jewellery should be boring?” Ever since, as the only jewellery designer for Dior, her creations have stood out for their boldness, artistic flair and flamboyance.

Coffret de Victoire ring in yellow and white gold with diamonds, Australian black opals, sapphires, tourmalines, rock crystal and jade

Through the eyes of a child Victoire de Castellane grew up in aristocratic Parisian society, as a descendant from counts of Provence whose roots go back as far as the 9th century. Nurtured by her grandmother, the elegant Sylvia Hennessy and her grandmother’s friend, the jewellery-loving Barbara Hutton, little Victoire developed a passion for enormous jewels from these women. Her personal favourite category of jewellery is rings. “I like my rings huge and colourful, like the Incroyables et Merveilleuses, or tiny, such as Mimioui, for the little girl in me. Normality bores me – I love the extremes.

I recently realised that, when I was a child, the jewels on my grandmother seemed enormous to me. When I became an adult, I kept this look. I wear big rings that I create for myself. I create the jewels of my dreams, jewels with a big sense of humour, pieces that I can’t find from other jewellers.”Victoire de Castellane is one of the few women who can name crown jewels as her source of inspiration – and reflect that in her creations. Royal, opulent colours are her signature, and this is achieved through the abundant use of coloured stones.

“I love coloured stones. They are like sweets; I feel I can almost taste them. I use all stones, especially the ones that traditional high jewellery has forgotten: amethyst, aquamarine, chalcedony, chrysoprase, citrine, Paraïba tourmaline, and of course, opal, my favourite.”

Dragon du Ciel necklace in white gold with sapphires, rubies, Australian black opal and lacquer

“Opal is particularly hard to work with, because it’s very fragile. In my opinion, the opal is magical, because it contains all colours. I love the fact that it is alive and full of water. There is a superstition around this stone that originated from a time when people in the workshops had to pay for these very fragile stones when they were broken. So they gave the opal a bad reputation in order to avoid working with them!” de Castellane says with a laugh.

Grand statements and life fantastic “The world of luxury should be easygoing,” stresses de Castellane, “and as in haute couture, it should be extravagant.” Not surprisingly then, that motifs – bows, corsets and ribbons – and materials – satin or velvet – from Dior’s haute couture atelier often find their way to de Castellane’s thoughts and creations. In addition, like haute couture, Dior jewels from de Castellane comply with the strictest quality standards.

In fact, de Castellane’s creations remain the essence of French luxury: feminine, exotic and eccentric, yet with an element of fun. Her dramatic jewellery makes grand statements of emotional and visual impact that belong to another extravagant era – a baroque sense of elegance that oozes upper-class. To quote the diamond-diva herself, “Luxury accepts the imagination’s every flight of fancy, and is the essence of poetry”. (courtesy of solitaire.com.sg)

Dragon Protecteur gold ring with amethyst, diamonds, sapphires, rubies and pearl; Coffret de Victoire ring with diamonds, dermantoid garnets, tourmalines, sapphires and jade