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https://www.barrons.com/articles/chopards-red-carpet-jewels-steal-the-spotlight-in-cannes-01653065348
The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday with all the glitz and glamor of the pre-Covid era. Chopard, the festival’s official partner for 25 years, was front and center with its annual Red Carpet Collection of haute joaillerie creations.
This year’s 75-piece collection is inspired by cinema as envisioned by Caroline Scheufele, co-president and artistic director, and Chopard’s artisans. As a film buff herself, Scheufele reflected on movies that have impacted her and built the collection around the theme “Chopard Loves Cinema.”
“Ever since I was young, one of my favorite things to do was go to the cinema with my family,” Scheufele says. “It was always a chance to be transported to another time and place, which is quite magical. Film really stirs up so many emotions in all of us and has served as a strong inspiration to my work.”
While not all pieces are directly derivative of a particular film, the opening piece is a voluminous rose brooch referencing 1931’s City Lights, Charlie Chaplin’s first movie with synchronized sound (though the Tramp never speaks and there is no intelligible audible dialogue in a poke at the burgeoning talkie craze).
In one iconic scene, he comes across a beautiful girl selling flowers on a street corner. He selects a bloom for a boutonnière then realizes she is blind and has mistaken him for a wealthy gentleman. Taking cues from that famous scene, the brooch, with articulated petals, stays true to the film’s monochromatic aesthetic, with the flower entirely pavéed in brilliant white diamonds, while the blackened stem has leaves dotted with black diamonds.
A 13.69-carat internally flawless D-grade white diamond is the centerpiece of a diamond-intensive necklace inspired by the French Riviera, the setting of another of Scheufele’s favorite films, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 thriller To Catch a Thief, starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.
On a more whimsical note, the collection offers pieces inspired by classic Disney tales, such as 101 Dalmatians, which got a nod in a diamond-encrusted cuff bracelet featuring sculpted dogs with white-diamond coats speckled with black diamonds. This labor-intensive piece required 470 hours to produce.
Another piece references Cinderella with a pumpkin-shaped ring set with spessartite garnets and tsavorites. But there is more than meets the eye: the pumpkin opens to reveal a secret, sculpted diamond-set slipper, the famous shoe that brought Cinderella and her Prince Charming together again.
“High jewelry design, like the cinema, invites us into a world of fantasy, adventure and beauty,” Scheufele says. “The Red Carpet Collection stems from this desire to design an entire dedicated collection from scratch each year. The collection tells wonderful stories that, I hope, will make women dream and serve to inspire them.”
Other pieces not directly associated with specific films demonstrate the creativity and mastery of Chopard’s artisans. A pair of fish earrings with gemstone scales catch the eye with lightweight titanium tailfins that flutter in the breeze. Another necklace features a radiant golden sun pendant, set with monochromatic yellow and orange sapphires, that can also be worn as a brooch.
“The Red Carpet Collection has always been inspired by the actresses and glamorous celebrities that grace the red carpets around the world,” Scheufele says. “Often when designing a new creation, I like to picture the actress who might wear it. I think about their personality… their way of being; this aspect really influences the creative direction I take for a piece.”
Chopard’s Swiss workshop also produces all the awards for the festival’s closing ceremony on May 28, including the Trophée Chopard, awarded to an up-and-coming actress and actor. In addition, the anniversary called for a special Palme d’Or award this year. The best film trophy has a sculpted pink quartz base affixed with the iconic gold palm frond, but with a subtle, glittery twist—one leaf is set with 75 white diamonds to mark the festival’s milestone and another is set with 25 diamonds to mark Chopard’s quarter-century as an official partner.
“Our partnership with the Cannes Film Festival is very special to me,” she says. “It is a rare occasion to bring different art forms together, whether jewelry, fashion, design, or film. One artistic expression nourishes the other.”
The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday with all the glitz and glamor of the pre-Covid era.
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