The best high jewellery collections for spring 2022, from Chanel’s camellia motif pieces and Van Cleef & Arpels’ Le Secret, to Chopard’s Garden of Kalahari and Harry Winston’s Cluster

Jun 1 , 2022

The Camélia takes inspiration from its floral namesake. Photo: Chanel

Chopard steps into spring with its Garden of Kalahari, jokingly referred to by artistic director Scheufele as ‘very expensive Lego’ with its removable elements

Mikimoto celebrates Japanese heritage with its Cherry Blossom set, using Akoya cultured pearls, while Chanel’s signature camellia motif evokes its famed founder Coco Chanel

After the long winter of the soul we’ve all experienced over the past two years, we can’t help but hope that a metaphorical spring may finally be upon us. In keeping with this spirit of renewal, numerous recent high jewellery collections embrace joyous spring bloom motifs.

One of the most impressive of the succession of floral-influenced haute joaillerie is Chopard’s Garden of Kalahari.

Seven years in the making, this exquisite US$75 million suite uses gems cut from a 342-carat rough diamond discovered in Botswana in 2015. A truly remarkable find, the stone possessed F grade flawless clarity and a D colour grade – the most sought-after. It was painstakingly cut by Chopard’s artisans into a set of 23 dazzling diamonds, five of them weighing in at over 20 carats each.

Chopard earrings from the Garden of Kalahari Collection. Photo: Chopard

At the request of Chopard’s artistic director Caroline Scheufele, the five stand-out gems were hewn to each of the main diamond cuts: cushion, brilliant, heart, emerald and pear. “We could have cut two big diamonds, of let’s say like 100 carats,” Scheufele said when explaining this decision.

“But for me as a creator and designer I wanted to have a choice of diamonds. And I said I would like to have all the shapes of diamonds.”

Scheufele had Chopard’s artisans position them in a variety of garden-inspired settings. The 50-carat brilliant-cut gem took the guise of a sunflower, the 26-carat heart was presented as a pansy, the 25-carat pear assumed the form of a banana tree flower, the 20-carat cushion-cut stone channelled a poppy, and the 21-carat emerald-cut diamond adorns a water lily.

In standard configuration, the suite comprises a necklace, earrings and a ring. However, the pieces can be separated or placed together and worn in numerous different ways – elements of the necklace may be removed to serve as brooches, for example. Scheufele has jokingly likened the Garden of Kalahari to “very expensive Lego”.

The ultimate goal was to honour the historic 342-carat diamond by transforming it into an expansive collection, rather than having it remain as a single piece that perhaps would’ve languished in the darkness of a vault. “We did not wish to treat it as a mere trophy, but instead to prepare it for a destiny worthy of its stature,” Scheufele said.

Floral shapes rendered in rubellite, pink and yellow sapphires, spessartite garnets and diamonds. Photo: Harry Winston

Spring has also clearly sprung at iconic New York jeweller Harry Winston. One of the house’s most recent jewellery collections draws inspiration from carefree, sunny days in an immaculately manicured country garden.

Eye-catching pieces include a matching set of earrings and necklace bursts with floral colours courtesy of cabochon-cut rubellites, pear-shaped and round pink sapphires, pear-shaped yellow sapphires, marquise and round spessartite garnets, and marquise and round brilliant diamonds, all set in platinum, 18k yellow gold and white gold.