It’s a bit of a paradox, perhaps, to describe diamond jewellery as demure. But it is distinctly possible, with a bit of brilliant design, to imbue these precious gems with a spirit of understatement. And that sense of restraint is, at the moment, all over the style and cultural zeitgeist.
Well, it’s no longer just fashion that’s into this aesthetic. Some of the most recent jewellery collections—many of them fashion brands, granted—have fallen for this sensibility. The result: jewellery designs that, even as they are unquestionably exquisite, wear their luxury with not a shout but a whisper.
A kind of tempered opulence , if you will. And even though diamonds are often dubbed the king of gems, they are, in a way, best placed for subtlety. Save for fancy coloured versions, diamonds are after all prized for colourless clarity.
At Dior and Cartier, a revival and refreshing of past motifs. For the former, its emblematic cannage straw weave; and for the latter, the coffee bean that gained popularity in the 1950s on the French Riviera. At Louis Vuitton and Chanel meanwhile, these maisons are making subtle references to house signatures.
The mechanism and workings of a trunk suitcase lock in the case of Vuitton, and the eternally desirable quilted motif in the case of Chanel. Here, a look at four diamond jewellery collections that have elegant understatement in spades..