The Best Clothing and Jewelry of Pairs Haute Couture 2014

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Bulgari

Creative director Lucia Silvestri looked to tales in Greek mythology for her latest Bulgari high jewelry collection; the result is Musa, a series of nine necklaces that tell their own stories via unforgettable stones. Here, the Harmonia necklace features a 28.21-carat cabochon-cut Colombian emerald surrounded by 54 round emeralds totaling 86.5 carats and 45 round rubies totaling 49.99 carats, set in white gold and accented with diamonds. bulgari.com

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Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Atelier Versace

Donatella Versace kicked off the haute couture shows with a white-hot celebrity in her front row: Jennifer Lopez, who turned up wearing Donatella’s latest concept, a rumination on the architecture of clothes. Versace’s thoughtful designs explored structure via one-shouldered jackets or skirts constructed to expose a leg that was either bare or covered with a half-trouser (or, in the case of the look seen here, a combination of the two). Corset boning also evoked notions of what happens beneath the fabric. This being Versace, it was employed in sheer panels that accented the curves on womanly bodies. versace.com

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Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Louis Vuitton

For the label’s fifth high jewelry collection, artistic director Lorenz Baumer put a clever spin on that number with Acte V, a title that also allowed him to make subtle use of Vuitton’s initial in designs that assume an air of art deco sophistication. Here, the Apotheosis white gold and diamond necklace showcases beneath the V a 7.93-carat Paraiba tourmaline and .41-carat emerald. louisvuitton.com

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Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Dior

Victoire de Castellane has mastered the art of delving into Dior’s archives for inspiration—for her latest high jewelry collection, she turned to Christian Dior’s sketches as the inspiration for pieces that celebrate the structure and details of his most iconic designs. Here, the Bar en Corolle Émeraude bracelet mirrors the shape and folds of Dior’s Bar jacket, rendered here in white gold with diamonds, pink sapphires, emeralds, demantoid garnets, purple sapphires, tsavorite garnets and orangy-pink spinels. dior.com

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Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Schiaparelli

Put the word “haute” in front of “couture” and the instant message is that this is a collection designed not merely to dazzle, but more importantly to showcase a house’s savoir faire. That phrase is employed often in conversations during this week in Paris, as immense pride is taken in highlighting a house’s know-how and skills. This preface is in place only to set up the idea that none of this was more true than at the house of Schiaparelli, recently revived by Diego Della Valle and, under the exceptional direction of Marco Zanini, a fantastic example of haute couture as an art form. For this, his second collection for the couture-only atelier located on Place Vendome, Zanini employed needlework that evoked some of Elsa Schiaparelli’s most iconic elements, most notably her love of surrealism. The result was a pleasure to explore, a reminder that the passion of haute couture very much starts with the hands. schiparelli.com

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Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Alexandre Reza

There’s a marvelous phrase in jewelry, en tremblant, or designs that, thanks to the wonders of handcraft, tremble ever so slightly when worn. At Alexandre Reza, one of the many iconic jewelry houses splashed across the Place Vendome, Reza’s son Olivier has taken up the mantle of his father, designing pieces that combine old-world ideals with modern thinking. He’s the only one we visited, for example, who offered up cufflinks as high jewelry; why should women have all the fun? Here, these Trembleur Coeur earrings feature two heart-shaped diamonds weighing 3.77 carats and 4.01 carats, respectively, and are surrounded by pear-shaped diamonds totaling 9.40 carats, marquise-shaped diamonds totaling 3.88 carats and brilliant-cut diamonds totaling 2.29 carats, all set in white gold. alexandrereza.com

Tags:

Paris When It Sizzles

Once a year, handmade clothes and one-of-a-kind jewels combine to create what is roundly agreed to be the most luxurious week on the planet. Here, 12 haute moments in the City of Light

Written by Laurie Brookins

Tags: