Precious Lace Collection

Luminous, light-as-air and luxuriantly wearable jewels

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With its intricate all-diamond jewels, the Precious Lace Collection is a contemporary classic of today’s jewellery world. Instantly recognisable as the Maison’s stylistic signature, this jewellery line is light, lyrical and supremely feminine, as well as unmistakably Chopard in its effortless design and mastery of craft skills. The collection, inspired by the lightness and whiteness of lace, plays with light and space, weaving diamonds and gold together in fluid, intricate openwork. The result is a fascinating dialogue between strength and fragility, substance and delicacy; between the eternal brilliance of the diamond and the ethereal weightlessness of a lace-like jewel floating over the skin, hovering between Haute Couture and Haute Joaillerie. A jewel that moves in harmony with the body, a sensual and silky second skin fully reflecting the values of the Fédération de la Haute Couture of which Chopard is a “jeweller” member.

A new vision of Haute Joaillerie
Now, with a new series of light and lively jewels within the Precious Lace Collection, Chopard makes the preciousness of diamonds and the luxury of lace more accessible and wearable. These are personal gemset jewellery treasures for every day, every occasion and every woman. Like the collection itself, and its modern take on classicism, this talent for breaking down barriers between Haute and Fine jewellery, thereby dismantling the formality of Haute Joaillerie, is a powerful Chopard signature.

Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s Co-President and energetic Artistic Director, has always understood and anticipated what women want in their jewels, and how they want to wear them. She has championed their causes, creating audacious, glamorous jewels that reflect their multi-faceted lives as well as illuminating their lifestyles, fashions and values. She works tirelessly to make precious jewellery exciting, expressive and most of all relevant today. Ever since she took the creative helm at the Family Maison in the 1980s, she has pushed boundaries, challenging existing conventions and infusing Haute Joaillerie with a fresh elegance characterised by effortless exuberance. In doing so, she gives new meaning to the precious nature of jewellery that women want to keep close to them at all times. Through her pioneering sustainable luxury initiatives, Caroline Scheufele defends the planet, its resources – in terms of gold and gems – as well as human beings themselves. In 2018, Chopard was the first luxury watch and jewellery manufacturer to commit to using 100% ethical gold.

Ethics meets aesthetics
With the new Precious Lace jewels, all hand-crafted in Chopard’s Haute Joaillerie ateliers using ethical gold and diamonds sourced from Responsible Jewellery Council certified members, Chopard brings that vision to life, disseminating the beauty, classicism and craftsmanship of Haute Joaillerie, translating its refinement into appealingly wearable, charismatically feminine jewels.

The designs echo the floral patterns, scrolls, swirls and scalloped edges of fine antique lace. The central design feature of the Precious Lace Collection – a rhythmic, undulating gold and diamond-set curl enclosing an unfurling line of pear-shaped diamonds – is now presented in miniaturised form through several designs. The first is a “Vague” motif whose proportions evoke foaming sea billows and is interpreted as a pair of earrings, a pendant and a ring. In another creative vein, the stylised flower pattern named “Mini-Froufrou”, with its scalloped borders and pear-shaped diamond petals on an airy openwork background, adorns a ring, earrings, pendant and bangle.

Lace – a treasured possession
Just as the collection plays with diamond light and lightness, with shape and form and space, so the theme itself plays with concepts of preciousness, and with the fusion of jewels and fabric, as well as the relationship between Haute Joaillerie and Haute Couture. The art of lacemaking was perfected in 16th century Venice, from where it spread across Europe to centres in Belgium, France, Spain and England, taking on different characteristics, in different styles. Lace, so meticulously and skilfully hand-made, was prized as a rich adornment to costume, for collars, cuffs, caps and ruffles, worn by royalty and nobility. It was thus regarded as a much-treasured, valuable possession particularly by the great Renaissance rulers, including Elizabeth I. Like jewels and gems, lace thus became a symbol of status and power.

In these jewels, the effect of exquisite hand-made lace is re-created by the interplay of pear-shaped and round brilliant-cut diamonds, using their shapes and their silhouettes within the openwork space in each design, to bring a lilting rhythm, playful fluidity and contemporary stylisation to the essential classicism of the theme. The delicacy of lace is replicated by the extreme precision of the goldwork, the slender mounts and airiness that serve to highlight the radiance of the diamonds, and at the same time, showcase the supreme skill of the Maison’s in-house artisans. Expertise similar to that of the nimble-fingered seamstresses referred to as petites mains in the field of Haute Couture, with which Chopard shares a number of core values: an array of eminently noble materials, a flair for details, a commitment to wearer comfort, and above all, an authentic love for women.