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Dior Unveils Its Latest High Jewellery Collection: Diorexquis
Unveiled at Dior's cherished Château de La Colle Noire, Victoire De Castellane transforms Monsieur Dior's private passions – for flora, fauna, and the pursuit of beauty – into poetic, emotionally charged High Jewellery
Château de La Colle Noire in Provence was where Monsieur Christian Dior, as he wrote in his memoirs, could set aside his public persona and 'become just Christian again.' It is precisely in this intimate, storied retreat that Victoire de Castellane, creative director of Dior Joaillerie, chose to unveil Diorexquis – a collection that distils Dior's visionary aesthetics for the ladies of the beau monde and blends it with his passions for nature, fantasy, and fairy tales. A deeply personal tribute, it may well be the most 'Christian' collection yet.
Victoire, who has helmed Dior's jewellery division since its inception in 1999, has long entertained an imaginary correspondence with the couturier – her eternal muse. She describes Diorexquis as a three-act reverie drawn from Monsieur Dior's inner world. 'Diorexquis unfolds in three chapters: delightful landscapes, delicate bouquets, and fabulous balls,' she explains. 'Each expresses a different facet of the word exquis – French for 'exquisite'.'
In creating the pieces, Victoire once again challenges many of the unwritten rules of High Jewellery. In her compositions, a centre stone need not sit squarely at the centre – it may float off to the side or rest at a slant. Gems are not always meant to dazzle outwardly; they may be hidden, reserved for private delight or to achieve a subtle, unexpected visual effect.
'In this collection I played with layering different stones,' says Victoire, 'such as opal or mother-of-pearl, to achieve an iridescent effect with a different result. It's a colour that you don't find in nature, but to achieve it, you have to superimpose many layers of stones. This way I got a very electric blue, for example, in a brooch with night landscapes.'
This technique, called the opale doublet, involves mounting a translucent layer of opal on a darker substrate like onyx or mother-of-pearl to achieve a depth and iridescence. It's a meticulous process – requiring both craftsmanship and a painter's eye – that allows colours to bloom from within, rather than sit on the surface.
Another, equally enchanting technique is plique-à-jour, an ancient enamelling method revived and reimagined at Dior. 'It adds a new dimension to the bouquets,' she explained. 'Like a miniature stained-glass window, it lets the light shine through and magnify the floral ensembles.' At Dior, where lacquer has long been a signature, this open-backed treatment lends a delicate transparency
Inspired by the stained-glass windows in churches, which were once entrusted with translating faith into visual narratives that stirred the soul, Diorexquis unfolds as a series of miniature theatrical compositions. Here, squirrels and deer play hide-and-seek in meadows of diamond and pearl-petalled flowers, while blossoms float across ponds of vivid opals in hues of lavender, mint, and rose. These endearing vignettes come to life across necklaces, bracelets, and asymmetrical earrings that don't simply mirror each other but instead engage in dialogue – each piece revealing a different moment in the fairytale, while also serving as a most unexpected stage for extraordinary gemstones.
'This new High Jewellery collection features several exceptional centrepiece stones with unique shapes and colours, says Victoire, 'including a 25.85-carat sapphire from Sri Lanka, a 10.59-carat Colombian emerald, and a 7.03-carat ruby from Mozambique, as well as an intense yellow diamond of 33.88 carats and two pure diamonds of 8.88 carats each, recalling Monsieur Dior's attraction to this lucky number.'
But while the technical wizardry is impressive, Diorexquis excels at bringing to the fore a more intimate facet of Monsieur Christian Dior. His whimsy, his reverence for beauty and the emotions his private pursuits stirred in him, all the while respecting the house's long-established codes – nature, flowers, and femininity.
With each high jewellery collection she has imagined over the past 26 years, Victoire has stitched together a fabric of fantasy, part-Dior-heritage-inspired-part-imagination, always rendered with exquisite – or should we say, Diorexquis – elegance.
'Each of my collections leads to the next,' she says. 'I adore the idea of going even further – going where I am least expected.'
