Seeing Red: Fashion’s Hottest Colour Finds Its Match in Jewellery

Scarlet was the colour of choice of Nicole Kidman, too, when she wore a sequin and feathered gown by Chanel to this year’s art-themed Met Gala. Also on message was Gwendoline Christie holding a spookily surreal hand-painted doll mask, by the artist Gillian Wearing, and corseted in deep crimson designed by her partner, the fashion designer Giles Deacon.

From galas to the red carpet, the catwalk to the passionate reds of the jewellery world, red has become the colour of the season.  I first got wind of this trend last autumn during the presentations of the spring-summer 2026 fashion collections, when a palette of hot red shades from scarlet to poppy appeared on the runway.  In its most maximalist form, there were bright red party dresses at Simone Rocha and Stella McCartney, sensuous gowns at Valentino and Schiaparelli, and voluminous operatic dresses in wine red at Saint Laurent or vermilion at Givenchy.