Dior Diorissima High Jewellery: Victoire de Castellane in Full Fantasy Mode
Diorissima – or “extremely Dior”, as it loosely translates – is the name of Victoire de Castellane’s latest High Jewellery collection, with every jewel determined to prove that point. We have come to expect exuberance, florals and whimsy, colour, the cosmos and couture references, from the artistic director of Dior Joaillerie, and with Diorissima, she delivers on every front.
Diorissima revels in excess. Flowers bloom in profusion across necklaces and rings, precious clouds float beside celestial motifs, and gemstones are combined with a fearless disregard for convention that has become a de Castellane signature. Somewhere among the colour, lacquer and oversized stones, there is even a hidden bunny concealed behind a ring.
Just like 2025’s Diorexquis, Diorissima looks to Monsieur Dior’s personal world for inspiration. This time, Victoire de Castellane references artists the couturier admired, from Matisse to Picasso, through jewels that splice vivid gemstones with lacquer, building compositions that resemble miniature collages.
When Dior unveiled the first chapter of Diorissima in Venice last month, more than 100 high jewellery creations were revealed at the Palazzo del Casinò alongside bespoke couture looks designed by Jonathan Anderson. The presentation offered a first glimpse into a collection conceived as an exploration of three distinct worlds – botanical, aquatic and celestial – to be released in two chapters, with the second arriving in October. For now, it is the botanical realm that dominates, with blossoms spilling across necklaces, rings, earrings, brooches and bracelets, and leaves and petals multiplying in what Dior describes as “superimposed patterns”.
Throughout Diorissima, Dior returns to its use of doublets, layering one stone over another – including opal on chrysoprase, green chalcedony on turquoise, and chrysoprase on cacholong opal – intensifying the stones’ hues, and colour becomes a form of embellishment in itself. The Policot suite features charming pink and red floral motifs overlaid with pear-shaped diamonds arranged as petals. Beneath the diamond blooms, lacquered mother-of-pearl lends the flowers a rich, iridescent lustre.
In the Poppink ring, an oval pink sapphire is framed by clusters of diamond daisies. Every detail, from the yellow sapphires at the centre of each daisy to the tiny pearls surrounding the main stone, speaks to de Castellane’s couture-level obsession with embellishment.
The necklaces in Diorissima are especially noteworthy because they give de Castellane space to indulge her more maximalist instincts. Reimagined in de Castellane’s clashing palette of stones, there is something quite courtly about the silhouette of the Très Cher Dior necklace, with its cascading drops and clustered settings. And I love the nod to abstraction in the Fleur Aquatique necklace, with its layers of diamonds outlined in blue lacquer that suggest rather than faithfully depict aquatic forms.
Celestial motifs first introduced in January’s Belle Dior high jewellery collection are revisited in Diorissima, specifically the opal Moons and stars of the Soleil Céleste suite. This time, however, de Castellane broadens the narrative beyond the night sky, with clouds and rising suns appearing alongside the cosmic imagery. Opal doublet clouds drift across the Nuage Heureux necklace, earrings and brooch, while turquoise-and-diamond designs feature a rising sun rendered in yellow diamonds. With subtle echoes of Egyptian Revival jewellery, the radiant-cut centre stones are framed with pearls and marquise-cut yellow diamonds arranged in sunburst formations.
The line between jewellery and fashion has long been blurred in de Castellane’s vision for Dior High Jewellery. In Diorissima, brooches become hair clips and belts transform into necklaces, with fashion-forward pieces including anklets and jewelled headbands. Rather than evoking formal tiaras, the headbands allow delicate pink and yellow sapphire flowers and lacquer-and-diamond leaves to trail lightly through the hair in loose, asymmetrical arrangements.
Dior has described Diorissima as “the very essence of the Dior dream”, and there is certainly something dreamlike about the way de Castellane layers clouds, flowers and cosmic motifs into a world where fantasy and couture coexist. More than two decades after founding Dior Joaillerie, she continues to treat High Jewellery as a space for imagination and experimentation, and Place Vendôme is all the better for it.
WORDS
Claire Roberts has been writing about jewellery and watches for more than 20 years. She is a seasoned journalist who joined the team 5 years ago as a contributing writer and a newsletter editor.
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