GILDED GLAMOUR

ART: KIMBERLEE KESSLER
WORDS: PEMA BAKSHI

Nature has always been Cartier’s quiet collaborator. Look closely within its expansive archives and you’ll find its blueprint everywhere: the charismatic composure of the panther, the ornate symmetry of a butterfly’s wing, the hypnotic stripe of the zebra, the organic tessellation of a crocodile’s skin. In En Équilibre Chapitre II, Cartier’s new high jewellery collection, these wild geometries are reimagined with gemstones that appear less cut than conjured – opal and onyx, sapphire and diamond, each arranged with architectural precision, fuelled by an instinctual zest for adornment.

For the Maison, harmonising with nature doesn’t simply mean to take on its pelts, but to capture the raw allure of the wild’s most mystifying inhabitants. With the En Équilibre Chapitre II collection, beguiling patterns mined from the natural world are inexplicably refined through time-honoured artistry. As Jacqueline Karachi, Director of High Jewellery Creation, notes, Cartier’s vision has long been to offer the paradox of “sophisticated simplicity” – a craft where understatement and spectacle co-exist as they do in nature.

The newly realised pieces recall a surreal carnival of vintage glamour, where feathers and jewels glimmer beneath the haze of champagne decadence. Flamingos, poised mid-dance, become echoes of Cartier’s opulence, while serpents command through shadow, their sensual forms reflected in rings and necklaces that coil around the body. Here, ornament is revered as a language as old as life itself.

Yet for all its dreamlike excess, this collection remains disciplined, shaped by the prowess of Cartier’s expert craftsmen. As Alexa Abitbol, Director of the High Jewellery Workshops, observes, the true challenge lies in “the technical transcription of the original aesthetic intention” – a translation of vision into matter. Crafted with acute understanding and masterful precision, stones pulled from the earth are transformed into objects that pulse with the beauty of the natural order.

In En Équilibre Chapitre II, we are reminded that glamour is not invention, but inheritance. To dazzle, to display, to shimmer in the light, these are instincts written into our DNA, as proven by the creatures we take up as muses. Cartier simply gives them form, inviting us to heed the call of the wild

“GILDED GLAMOUR” IS PUBLISHED IN THE 23RD EDITION OF GRAZIA INTERNATIONAL. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE.