Passion, poetry come together in Gucci's foray into haute jewellery

The global brand forays into haute jewellery with a debut collection at Paris Couture Week and the opening of an exclusive store in the French capital.
Gucci's collection contains 200 pieces under three themes: Eternal Love, Animal Kingdom and Solitaires.
Gucci's collection contains 200 pieces under three themes: Eternal Love, Animal Kingdom and Solitaires.

After years of being at the forefront of fashion and accessories, Italian luxury brand Gucci is now turning its attention to gems and jewellery. The brand chose last month’s Paris Haute Couture Week to announce two milestones in its history—the launch of its high jewellery collection and the official opening of the brand’s only high jewellery boutique at the world's most exclusive jewellery address, Place Vendôme.

Called Hortus Deliciarum or Garden of Delights, the inaugural collection is the brainchild of Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele. Renowned for his passion for jewellery and poetic vision, Michele has personally sourced unique stones for the collection that contains as many as 200 pieces.

These fall under three themes: Eternal Love, Animal Kingdom and Solitaires. In keeping with the current trend for grandiose Rococo-  and Baroque-inspired jewellery, the contrasting colours of cabochon gemstones and chain-link diamond pavé necklaces with animal motifs also keep the collection fashionable and contemporary.

In Eternal Love, Gucci presents jewelled interpretations of some classical emblems associated with this divine feeling. So, you will find bracelets, tiaras, rings, brooches and earrings embellished with arrows and floral motifs. The white and yellow gold which the collection is set in is polished to shine as bright as possible.

As the name suggests, Animal Kingdom has a whole gamut of mythic bestiary and is an ode to ancient fauna. Here, white diamonds, pink sapphires, rose topaz, green tourmaline, emeralds and intense garnets are all crafted into bees, tigers, lions and even mythical beasts such as Ouroborus serpents, showing that when it comes to high jewellery, there really is no limit to imagination.

The Solitaires collection encapsulates decadence in the singular, striking solitaire rings—think pear-cut coloured gemstones juxtaposed with heirloom settings, and coiled rings enveloping a heart-cut aquamarine or rubellite of over 20 carats. This range is bursting with colour that comes from gemstones such as rubellites, emeralds, aquamarines, morganite, sapphires, amethyst, topaz and  tourmalines.

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