During Couture Fashion Week, we had the immense pleasure of discovering DIOR’s Haute Joaillerie and Haute Horlogerie collection. Victoire de Castellane’s declaration of love to Christian Dior is now in its second season, and it’s a real pleasure to continue discovering this imaginary exchange.
Her dialogue with Christian Dior? Victoire de Castellane knows Christian like the back of her hand, and never ceases to revive the master’s aesthetic through her own creations. Since last year, their dialogue has become written, in the purest tradition of 18th-century epistolary novels, a century cherished by the couturier. The first letter was Dear Dior. This year, Victoire de Castellane writes a second letter to Christian Dior, the second part of the collection, and it’s called Dear Dior. This time, the missive is more intimate, in the image of these twenty-one pieces, more discreet than the Dear Dior collection, a veritable concentrate of preciousness and great finesse.
“Dearest Christian” is how Victoire’s letter might begin, as her Cher Dior collection is such a tribute to him. And then she tells him about their shared passion: color. Bright reds – scarlet, English red, crimson or cherry – are full of youth and gaiety,” wrote Christian Dior in his Little dictionary of fashion. There’s one for every woman. Or, a little higher up: “When choosing a blue, be careful to look at it in both daylight and electric light, as it can look different.” Choosing shades, harmonizing hues, matching them or, on the contrary, clashing them – Victoire de Castellane also masters this talent of the couturier. And the colors respond to each other: red and blue, the silks and fabrics of the day become rubies and sapphires. As with all our collections, but this one in particular, the subtlety of the stones highlights the work on color. Diamonds, spessartite garnets, demantoid garnets, Paraiba tourmalines, rubies, emeralds and a whole range of sapphires, from light to intense yellow, from pale blue to deep violet, through all shades of pink.
Creative and meticulous, the settings express the full richness of Victoire de Castellane’s color palette: gradations, cameos, contrasts, even eruptions, like fireworks.
” Jewelry is all about color. They add radiance to the face”, said Christian Dior back in 1956. And he added: “Nothing is more elegant than a black sweater and skirt worn with a necklace of multiple sparkling stones.”
Then Victoire de Castellane continues her letter to Christian Dior. This time, she’s in the haute couture workshops at 30, avenue Montaigne. Little hands are busy working on a veil. From this image, Victoire de Castellane imagined the inner structure of her collection: the back of each piece echoing the design of a plumetis. The gold of the setting is finely worked to reproduce the motif. Because in the ateliers of haute joaillerie, too, the craftsmanship is exceptional. And, like the lining of a ball gown, the hidden side of a frame must also reserve all the surprises of the finest art and craftsmanship.
Dior also offers Haute Horlogerie, including a few models.
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