PARIS — For Chaumet‘s chief executive officer Charles Leung, “we don’t thank nature enough.”
It’s certainly been a bountiful source for the 246-year-old jeweler, which has earned the moniker of “naturalist jeweler” thanks to poetically figurative depictions that once caught the eye of France’s Empress Joséphine.
“Last year, we talked about preservation, what nature has taught us and how to be resilient like it so we wanted a little bit less heavy this year,” he told WWD. “We also think that nature doesn’t need to be so far away from us — it could be so close to us.”
In fact, it could be right there in your mug — in the form of coffee or tea.
For its “Journey Through Nature” high jewelry collection, the first entirely under creative studio director Olga Corsini, Chaumet took cues from green tea, coffee, saffron or vanilla — all beautiful as plants but more immediately familiar for their flavors brought back from around the world.
Each chapter of the 46-strong collection tapped into sensorial cues of botanic freshness, spicy sweetness and aromatic warmth eschewing the figurative botanical depictions the jeweler is best known for in favor of pieces that alluded to “the invisible gift of nature that evokes smelling, taste, memories,” as Leung put it.
Take the Tea Field necklace, where nary a leaf of the camellia sinensis was visible. Instead, Corsini imagined a bird’s eye view of terraced fields where a 23.81 carat Colombian emerald figured lush vegetation.
The Tea Field necklace.
Courtesy of Chaumet
Geometric cascades of white diamonds evoked water, while closed-set round gems figured droplets curling around the neck, for a total of 43.30 carats.
It was among the selections sprinkled throughout an evening gala at the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, an upscale hotel located in a 12th-century Cistercian abbey on the edge of the Rambouillet forest near Paris.
Between courses imagined by three-Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Anton, ballet dancers wove their way around the abbey’s former refectory sporting the new designs and a selection drawn from other high jewelry collections, including a smorgasbord of tiaras, a house specialty.
Mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel, who sang the French national anthem from the roof of the Grand Palais during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, serenaded celebrities including Sophie Marceau, Natalia Vodianova, Amy Jackson, Ed Westwick, South Korea’s Song Hye Kyo, China’s Li Bingbing and Thai actor and singer Gulf Kanawut Traipipattanapong, as well as Chaumet clients decked in their jewels.
Other highlights included the Mint Leaf set, where icy freshness was figured with emerald-cut aquamarines, which went from 10 to 17 carats from the ring to the necklace, and came paired with gleaming white pearls.
Meanwhile, not a tone of brown came into play in the Coffee Aroma. “It’s the coffee that comes to mind when you close your eyes,” Leung said.
Sapphires and white diamonds starred in an abstract wisp of steam crafted in gold that swirled around a 12-carat oval centerstone that evoked the aromatic marriage of water and fresh ground beans. The latter were figured as a graphic pompom of ovoid shapes, an intricate ensemble that took 1,200 hours to make.
It exemplified the balance of gems, craftsmanship and storytelling brands must finesse that Leung described when asked what high jewelry clients value most today.
Verbena Bouquet necklace in yellow gold, with a 5.11 carat cushion-cut yellow Ceylon sapphire, 16 cushion-cut colored sapphires from Ceylon and Madagascar for a total of 35.76 carats, plus round colored sapphires and brilliant-cut diamonds.
Courtesy of Chaumet
Stones come out on top, while gold, despite its rising pricing, takes a supporting role as “a commodity everybody can buy” for the executive.
And a storied house with a connection to France’s queens and empress is all well and good but according to Leung, that has clients going “that’s interesting but what about me?”
Surprise and contemporary nous, such as the more abstract direction taken by Corsini in the collection, are therefore crucial. But that too comes peppered with a handful of figurative pieces such as Chaumet’s beloved bees or saffron flowers, which called for grand feu enamel.
“We are coming back with old techniques that we have a kind of duty to reintroduce, to keep going, and to [showcase] beautiful possibilities in diversity, in jewelry making, not always using diamonds and stones,” Leung said. To sustain this on the long run, Chaumet partnered in June with the Haute École de Joaillerie in Paris as sponsor of the class of 2028, and regularly welcomes designs schools from France and Italy to its studio.
Association with high-profile events have also increased resonance for Chaumet with local clients.
In France, designing the medals for the Paris Olympics led to renewed interest. Leung said the house had enjoyed “more than double-digit growth” with French customers, which he attributed to resonance that could stem from the hexagonal design reminiscent of France’s “Hexagon” nickname.
Taking part in the Osaka World Expo, where it took pride of place in the French Pavilion during the final six weeks of the event, also yielded results. The market “basically doubled,” driven by local demand which compensated the decrease in Chinese shoppers in Japan that brands are experiencing across the board.
A model wearing designs from Chaumet’s latest high jewelry collection.
Jean Picon/Courtesy of Chaumet
All this is crucial to navigate today’s choppy conditions for luxury, with high jewelry the gleaming tip of the jewelry iceberg with its mid-teen share of the business on average for Place Vendôme players.
Asked how the category was faring, particularly its high jewelry segment, Leung drew a parallel between high jewelry and the fine art market, with a tiered dynamic playing out. “Exceptional high jewelry,” which the executive defined as pieces north of 1 million euros, continues to be resilient.
Meanwhile, around the 150,000-euro mark, efforts have been made toward “more creativity, more transformability” to tempt clients. Here, repeatable designs come set with rare gemstones, as shown in the half-dozen “Signature” pieces woven in Wednesday’s glamorous showcase.
As for the male customer, Chaumet is “trying to slowly open the door for them,” Leung said. There were brooches aplenty on the lapel of the evening’s dancers, although those were not the only options.
Last year’s introduction of a crown ring with a more masculine vibe was met with demand from clients from East Asia and the Middle East, the executive said.
Peppercorns tiara in white gold.
Courtesy of Chaumet
Meanwhile, Leung said Chaumet was “quite balanced” in terms of geographic origins of its high jewelry clients.
Greater China is “doing very well” and has “always been a very interesting market” for the French jeweler. Southeast Asia is also on the rise, with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand leading, while South Korea is also growing. While Chaumet counts some “good clients” in Japan, according to the executive they were “not huge collectors.”
The Middle East, where tensions have now cropped up afresh with the war in Iran, “is selling very well.”
North America is also showing potential, with “the size of the the market growing bigger,” Leung said. The brand is opening a shop in Vancouver, working with its partner of 10 years on the territory.
For the U.S., the executive “still has some cards to play,” given the interest of American clients already buying Chaumet. It is “the last piece of the puzzle that we need to put on for Chaumet,” he said, but it’s a “very competitive but very interesting market” that needs a solid, well-executed plan. “It’s either we do it or we don’t, [so] when we go, we go with commitment.”
