Cartier just showed its new Nature Sauvage high jewellery collection in Vienna: the ‘timely yet timeless’ range features a menagerie of animals, from zebras to the iconic panther, in diamonds and gold

May 30 , 2024

Kimberley Anne Woltemas attends the unveiling of Nature Sauvage, Cartier’s high jewellery collection, in Vienna, in May. Photo: @kimmmy_kimberley/Instagram

The 87-piece collection offers a new take on Cartier’s signature animals, with necklaces, brooches, earrings, rings and striking jewels evoking turtles, flamingoes, and other beasts and birds

Sofia Coppola, Elle Fanning, Kimberley Anne Woltemas and Anna Sawai descended upon Vienna for a soirée – the culmination of 2 days of waltzes, ballets and evening cocktails

For its latest high jewellery collection, just unveiled in Vienna yesterday with a star-studded event at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Cartier paid homage to its menagerie of creatures.

Named Nature Sauvage (meaning savage nature), the 87-piece collection offers a new take on Cartier’s signature animals – chief among them the celebrated panther – with pieces that blur the lines between figurative and abstract.

While previewing the creations in the Austrian capital, editors and VIP guests had a lot of fun trying to figure out which fierce beasts or delicate birds were the inspirations behind necklaces, brooches, earrings, rings and more striking jewels evoking animals ranging from turtles to flamingoes.

The Koaga necklace, in white gold, rubellite, onyx and diamonds, depicts a zebra. Photos: Handout

The Koaga necklace, for instance, is a clear yet subtle reinterpretation of the zebra, its stripes re-created with diamonds and shiny black onyx. Graphic and bold, the necklace features an emerald-cut diamond and a 6.25-carat pear-shaped rubellite as its centrepieces.

Given the theme of the range, it’s no surprise that the panther, the animal most closely associated with Cartier, reigns supreme. The stunning Panthère Jaillissante, a hybrid hand jewel, depicts a panther that’s docile yet “ready to pounce”, holding an 8.63-carat Zambian emerald.

Cartier ambassador Deepika Padukone wearing the Panthère Jaillissante bracelet/ring

As Jacqueline Karachi, Cartier’s director of high jewellery creation, explained in an interview in Vienna, the inspiration from nature or the animal kingdom is never too literal. The focus is always on timeless and modern designs that are also uniquely Cartier. The Scutelia ring, for instance, at first sight appears like a very graphic and geometric piece – but look closely and you’ll realise how it subtly re-creates the scales of a crocodile, with its combination of diamonds in different cuts.

The Mochelys necklace conceals a turtle, which can be removed and worn as a brooch. It is made of pink gold, rubellites and diamonds

The choice of Vienna for the debut of the range also reflects Cartier’s belief in paying homage to history and tradition, all while celebrating the contemporary and modern design ethos that makes its pieces “timely yet timeless”, as Cartier’s international marketing and communications director Arnaud Carrez aptly put it at the event. You just have to look at the brand’s heritage pieces, with some dating back more than a century, to see how relevant they still are today. An entire section of the Vienna presentation was devoted to heritage items that clients can also acquire.