For the Boucheron “Contemplation Collection”, Creative Director Claire Choisne embraced celestial modernity designed for the wearers desiring nouvelle luxury elegance.

The historical French jewellery house continues drawing from its brand references of diamond swirls on necklaces. Luxury and brand aesthetic complexeties continue to be front and centre at the maison. Each collection piece is a superb example of jewelled perfection.

Choisne describes her creative process and says her approach is inspired by the fluidity and sensory feelings of today's world.

Choisne gives an exclusive interview to Breck Graham for Arabian Knight.

How did you design the pieces based on classic Boucheron designs?

No matter past or present, creating timeless piece is important to us. We try to understand the original intention of the founder Frédéric Boucheron. His philosophy was to apply creativity to design and technology as well, and to empower women the freedom to wear jewellery. Today, we believe in the same philosophy; it is a big part of who we are as a high jewellery maison.

For example, in Contemplation High Jewellery Collection, the arrow-shaped Flèche du Temps earring refers to a motif found in the archives of Boucheron in the past. Even though it was an old piece, its very modern design was impressive. While maintaining the basic design, I created it to be worn in a variety of styles and ways.

As the world is in difficult times, does “Contemplation” represent the mood we collectively feel?

In fact, I was so confused when the coronavirus arrived, as I chose the theme of this collection three years ago. At that time, I really felt I needed to take some time, to recharge my batteries, to slow down from this crazy rhythm in which we all live in our work. I had the feeling that nature could help me and help others to calm down, that nature could do good to us. Now I am sure of my conviction. People all need nature, to look outside. It was quite strange to finish the collection at that time. Weird coincidence. I am sure I will focus on nature even more now.

What was the timetable for making the Scarf Necklace?

The production of the Fenêtre sur Ciel necklace took 2,000 hours.

Aerogel is a high-tech material, why use technology in jewellery design?

For me, technology or innovation are not an end in themselves. I always start from a dream, here to offer a piece of heaven to the woman. What inspires and fascinates me is the freedom of the means used to achieve this dream. Sometimes the dream can be achieved with simple techniques and in this case, we will not reinvent a technique. However, we allow ourselves the possibility to test and play with new materials or techniques never used in High Jewellery as long as they help us to express this creative dream. Here aerogel is the material that could best express the sky, so we took the liberty of using it even if it is not initially associated with high jewellery.

The intricate details of the cloud necklace is unique. What was the inspiration of the design?

For Nuage en Apesanteur necklace, my dream was to have a cloud of diamonds levitating around a woman’s neck and not only represent one literally. We wanted to have the real aerial effect of a cloud and to wonder its extreme delicateness and lightness. To create this piece, we didn’t start from a drawing but from a mock-up, a cotton cloud on a bust. We had the chance to meet a programmer and after some discussions with him about what a cloud meant to us, he created an algorithm that allowed us to create clouds of points in 3D. At the creative studio, we then worked with this algorithm to create tons of clouds. When we found the right algorithm for our necklace, each point of the 3D was replaced by diamonds and we added very small glass balls to enhance the brilliance of our diamond cloud. Extraordinarily light, the necklace made with titanium wires appears to be in levitation. There are 5,000 diamonds floating around the neck.

For Middle East clients who are particular about adornment, what piece of the collection would you recommend?

Middle East women have the audacity to wear pieces that can be voluminous and very creative. I would even say that they almost have an innate sense of how they will be able to wear them and associate them with their styles. Considering this, I would probably choose these three: Goutte de Ciel, Fenetre sur Ciel and Nuage en Apesanteur. They all start from an idea, almost like a dream that seems impossible to realise, but thanks to innovation we managed to achieve a dream. They perfectly represent innovation at the service of poetry, which is really what we try to do at Boucheron. Middle East clients really understand this approach and who we are as a high jewellery brand.