Arm Candy
1
High Society
Coco Chanel resided at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris for more than 30 years, so you can imagine that she must have seen the sun rise over the Place Vendôme at least once or twice. No less eye-popping a sight is this Morning in Vendôme bracelet, part of the Chanel Café Society Jewelry Collection. The white diamonds and the carved-onyx design, which echoes the plaza’s layout, surrounds a blazing yellow diamond as big as, well, you know.
Chanel Fine Jewelry bracelet.
2
That ’60s Show
Though Piaget has been around for 140 years, the brand considers the 1960s to have been its golden age of creativity. It looked back to that period to design the Extremely Piaget collection, including this cuff that reprises many of the signature motifs from the time. The 18-karat rose gold base has the texture of raw silk, the diamonds are marquise cut, and the Arizona turquoise is richly saturated. The piece required more than 150 hours to make. Extreme, indeed.
Piaget cuff.
3
To a “T”
Agate was a favorite of the ancient Greeks, who, in the third and fourth centuries BC commonly used it for adornment. But Francesca Amfitheatrof, the recently appointed design director at Tiffany & Co., didn’t go back quite that far to find the inspiration for this bracelet from her debut Tiffany T collection. Instead, she took cues from the house’s archives circa 1920, as well as from the New York skyline, pairing hand-carved panels of white agate with 18-karat gold and princess- and rose-cut diamonds in square bezel settings. Perfect for a modern-day goddess.
Tiffany & Co. bracelet.
4
Raising the Bar
Though he never designed any buildings, Christian Dior had aspirations of becoming an architect, a desire that was evident in his elaborately constructed garments. Drawing on this quality, Dior Fine Jewelry artistic director Victoire de Castellane created the Archi Dior collection, inspired by archetypal pieces from Dior’s inaugural 1947 Corolle haute couture show: The dazzling shape of this Bar en Corolle Emeraude bracelet mimics the cinch-waist silhouette of Dior’s Bar ensemble. Comprising white gold, diamonds, pink and purple sapphires, emeralds, demantoid and tsavorite garnets, and orange-pink spinels (more than 4,500 stones in all), it’s proof that if you build it, they will come—at least to ogle.
Dior Fine Jewelry bracelet.