Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne talks about the design process, defying convention and adventuring in Iceland for the water-inspired Or Bleu

Sep 11 , 2024

Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne talks about the design process, from defying convention with Carte Blanche to adventuring in Iceland for the water-inspired Or Bleu – producing pieces including the rings shown here. Photos: Handout

More is More was a response to the release of restrictions post-pandemic, while Histoire de Style is a classic collection drawing heavily on the brand’s archives

Founded in 1858, Boucheron is the oldest jewellery house still operating on Place Vendôme in Paris, an address synonymous with fine jewellery

Every year Claire Choisne, the creative director of Boucheron, is given free rein to create a high jewellery collection for the storied Parisian jeweller.

While this sounds like a dream come true for anyone working in a creative field, it is also a very challenging – albeit exciting – undertaking.

Aptly named Carte Blanche, the collection is always a highlight of Haute Couture Week in Paris and the talk of the town among editors. In jewellery circles, Choisne is known and highly respected for her creativity and approach. Over the last decade or so, she’s wowed connoisseurs with out-of-the-box collections that are not easy to categorise, defying expectations of what high jewellery should look like and how it should be worn.

Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne seeking inspiration in Iceland

“Carte Blanche is my happiness, my dream, what I love the most in my work – but it can be scary,” Choisne said in an interview in Paris after presenting her latest effort, Or Bleu (“Blue Gold” in English), to a group of journalists. “It’s great to have freedom but every year you have to think of what you want to say, how you want to express it. Even though it’s scary, I love it and I’m not afraid – I’m used to it now. I try to be as sincere as possible and it’s always a dream, something that I want to express.

I think about what is precious for me.”

Choisne came out of the pandemic’s lockdowns and limited possibilities for travel with the goal of celebrating joy. Colourful and whimsical, the resulting collection, More is More, was a tour de force of creativity, featuring jewels inspired by items such as iron-on badges and hair scrunchies.

Picture taken in Iceland and used as inspiration for Boucheron’s Or Bleu collection

For Or Bleu, Choisne chose a very different source of inspiration: water. “The idea was to highlight the fact that water is vital and precious, which is obvious – but not everybody thinks that way, so I wanted to show the beauty and preciousness of water,” she says.

“Then I [realised] that water has no colour or shape and is transparent and I thought about what kind of water I wanted to represent,” she continues, adding that she wanted to show that it was “strong and powerful”, rather than something that has been seen far more in jewellery: “turquoise blue water with fish”.