Fleurs d’Opales: a new, fascinating and mysterious high jewellery capsule collection signed Chopard, with its first three creations unveiled during Paris Haute Couture week.
Opals are gemstones surrounded by an enchanting aura of mystery and of fascinating power. Opulent and flaming, and the most mysterious of all, the black opal adorns today Chopard’s new high jewellery capsule collection, in a harmonic alignment with its aura. In Chopard’s magic garden, extraordinary opal flowers have blossomed, by combining titanium and zirconium with sapphires, amethysts, tsavorites, rubies, spinels and black diamonds.
By exploring the floral world and its marvels, Chopard brings to life unique pieces that testify the genius of goldsmithing at its highest, just like the artistic crafts in Haute Couture. The Maison also reinforces the fact that the opals used for this exceptional capsule collection are traceable and come from a sustainable supply that complies with ethical and environmental criteria.
The opal, from stone has raised to the status of exceptional jewel. From the dawn of time, powerful and subtle, resplendent and iridescent, the opal captures the imagination with its own bewitching light that seems to infuse the stone with a life of its own. Its mobile nature, changing colours and elusive reflections have led the opal to be considered a symbol of wholeness, a sacred manifestation.
Chopard has then been able to capture the opal’s power and complexity. The Maison’s Geneva workshop has orchestrated an encounter between this gem and its multiple secrets, and the contemporary artisanal savoir-faire. A collection composed of six magnificent rings, like vibrant talismans, that manifest the dreamy romanticism that jewels are able to reveal each time form and substance create a perfect alchemical potion.
And so it is that, during Paris Haute Couture Week, Chopard has unveiled the first three of these superb creations, which take the centre of the stage in a bold association of a precious and ancient gem, the black opal, with utterly modern and avant-gardist materials, such as titanium or zirconium.
Titanium is extremely light and may be coloured with a wide range of hues, allowing all possible fanciful interpretations. Meanwhile, zirconium, used for the first time by Chopard in its High Jewellery creations, allows for high-precision workmanship thanks to its hardness.
On the first ring, a spectacular 24.3ct black opal dominates in the centre of a titanium latticework of petals, delicately chiselled and set with purple sapphires and amethysts. Tsavorites set with 18ct white gold prolong the body of the ring in a vibrant harmony of colour.
The second ring plunges the eye into an enchanting blue magic. A 20ct oval opal is exquisitely highlighted by diamond-set pistils and extended by finely veined blue titanium petals, while the body of the ring continues the spell with a harmonious arrangement of tsavorites, lazulites and brown diamonds.
The third creation features an oval 9ct black opal featuring the much sought-after flaming red play-of-colour, resoundingly echoed in the black rhodium-plated white gold pistils set with rubies and purple sapphires. The petals, made of blackened zirconium, are set with pink spinels. The body of the ring in interlaced rose and white gold is set with black diamonds. The petals of each ring are mobile, creating a vibrantly realistic effect.
Mysterious. Precious. Dangerously fascinating – Chopard’s Fleurs d’Opales murmur secrets from the depth of Time and bear the signs of an ancient beauty. CC
Post edited by Claudia Carletti, Jewellery Through Time. All material courtesy of Chopard Press Office.
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