Piaget Unveils Excessive Jewellery Assortment in Florence – WWD

Piaget turned to Florence for the revealing of its newest excessive jewellery assortment as “the capital of the Renaissance,” stated chief government officer Benjamin Comar.

“That is the primary huge occasion after COVID-19; it felt pure to stage the presentation on this fantastic metropolis as Piaget symbolizes final creativity. And shoppers are all the time blissful to go to Florence,” he added with a understanding smile.

The selection particularly of the 14th-century Villa Il Salviatino in Fiesole, simply outdoors Florence, was additionally completely becoming, he added, given its lovely frescoed rooms, its historical past, a view of town’s landmark Filippo Brunelleschi dome, and, in sync with the gathering impressed by nature, its expansive gardens. “It’s a spot with a soul,” he stated. “Our savoir faire and our imaginative and prescient of nature meets the Italian artwork.”

Providing an expertise, “a memento” to recollect is more and more vital to shoppers. “It’s extra than simply the acquisition, the emotional content material could be very excessive. And it’s additionally a technique to thank the shoppers for his or her assist along with displaying what we are able to do,” he stated.

Comar praised Yves Piaget‘s “daring and daring” designs from 1969 as a part of the “twenty first Century Assortment” of extravagant watches with decorative stones set into their dials, laying the groundwork for the model’s signature fashion.

Now, this assortment involves life, known as “Metaphoria,” a metaphor for nature and its metamorphoses, comprising 41 items of bijou and 11 watches, divided in two chapters, Azureia and Beautanica, impressed by nature.

The collections are designed by inventive director Stéphanie Sivrière, who stayed away from a figurative interpretation of nature, however fairly turned to emblematic parts such because the stream of a waterfall, or the rays of the solar. For instance, a shocking Mineralis set is harking back to the waters of a mountain river, an uneven necklace crafted from diamonds, sapphires, aquamarine and rock crystal, paired with blue sapphires in inverted settings. On the heart of this distinctive piece sits a lagoon-blue 13.25-carat cushion-cut aquamarine. The piece is matched by earrings and rings, certainly one of which is about with a 4.1-carat Sri Lanka sapphire.

The Foliatura jewellery watch is about with an arresting cushion-cut Colombian emerald, weighing 6.59 carats. Its white gold physique reveals unbelievable craftsmanship, mixing stylized chrysoprase leaves and intertwining diamonds in opposition to a backdrop of Decor Palace engraved gold. Positioned on the decrease a part of the band, the watch dial permits the wearer to learn the time discreetly.

Watches and jewellery are a balanced enterprise for Piaget. Comar stated the classes are more and more seen as an funding, but additionally famous that he has seen “a pure change of function. Earlier than they have been seen extra suited to particular events, now shoppers purchase and put on extra freely not solely on particular events, for weddings and such, or as items from males to girls.”

Piaget’s jewellery is created completely inside its atelier in Geneva, Comar stated proudly, including that it takes round 15 years to coach an artisan to create the model’s excessive jewellery.

He added that Piaget’s artisans begin from a sketch, fairly than from the stones. “This can be a home of creativity and we wish our designers to really feel as free as potential, arising with concepts first after which adapting the gems to the designs,” he defined. “It’s harder as a result of you may’t order the stones,” he opined.

One other instance of the artisans’ expertise is the Alata set, the place leaves are become gold, mother-of-pearl and diamonds in a necklace, earrings and a watch. There’s additionally a gold and titanium earcuff on which there are gold leaves, engraved with the Decor Palace motif, gold mother-of-pearl, flecks of white gold and diamonds. In a assertion ring, the leaf’s heart is embellished with a pear-shaped 2.23-carat diamond. The set is accomplished by a cuff watch, whose physique is embellished with a marquetry of mother-of-pearl and engraved gold, blended with marquise-cut diamonds.

The Aqua Summa set conveys its imaginative and prescient of frost and ice with the weird pairing of aquamarine with Akoya pearls and diamonds. The collar necklace, totally articulated with an invisible clasp, exhibits off cerulean pear-shaped aquamarines, the most important of which weighs greater than 4 carats.

Comar joined Piaget in June 2021, after years working at Cartier, Dunhill, S.T. Dupont and Chanel, the place he created the watch and jewellery division. After 12 years at Chanel, in 2017 he was named CEO of Repossi.

Asia is a crucial marketplace for Piaget, as are the U.S. and the Center East, however he stated he’s beginning to see “a extra balanced” enterprise throughout geographies, “chatting with a wider clientele.” Males globally are additionally more and more approaching jewellery, a pattern that was began and pushed by Asian shoppers, lengthy used to carrying watches, rings and brooches, he stated.