Little Wonders: The Trend for Scaled-Down Collections from High Jewellers

Is it a slumping economy, shifting tastes, or a sartorially sensitive moment? Rachael Taylor explores the current vogue for diffusion collections at luxury jewellery houses and asks why good things are now coming in even smaller packages.

When Karina Choudhrie launched her jewellery brand, she went straight in at the deep end in more ways than one. Creatively, she plumbed the depths of the ocean for inspiration for her Under the Sea Collection and also went all in on quality. This was not an accessibly priced first jewellery line from an emerging designer, but a seriously polished, heavyweight high jewellery collection. It was a somewhat backwards approach. Jewellery designers will often spend decades working up from silver designs to gold, semi-precious to precious, fine jewellery to high jewellery (should they ever reach that far). However, Choudhrie had already spent 15 years producing high jewellery for private clients, so it made sense that this is where she should start. Now, she’s exploring the other end of the market. 

I come from the world of high jewellery, the rare and unique, and I think it was around the pandemic when I decided to go into fine jewellery because I realised that my clients were wearing jewellery differently, says Choudhrie. 

They wanted to wear things morning to evening – from the house to the office, the gym, to lunch – and they started styling their everyday fine jewellery as part of their looks. Clients also started to mix in the evenings. They’d wear high jewellery earrings with fine jewellery bracelets.”

In answer to this shift, Choudhrie created two collections. Vitamin Pink is a playful nod to the jeweller’s belief that colour is restorative – especially pink, which is her brand’s signature hue. It uses the silhouette of a vitamin pill as a motif, reproducing it in gold and diamonds, with flashes of colour from enamel, hardstones, and mother of pearl. The second is Icon, which offers the designer’s take on classic jewels such as tennis bracelets, studs and diamond-set pendants. Prices start from £800 for Icon and £1,500 for Vitamin Pink, compared to a minimum buy-in of £35,000 for Karina Choudhrie high jewellery. 

The fine jewellery collections took four years to develop, which surprised Choudhrie, who describes the process as being more complex than creating high jewellery. “Designing fine jewellery, you have to be able to make the same thing over and over again, and that perfection takes a little more time because we have to test everything,” she explains. “We want to see the [potential areas of] wear and tear because these pieces are not going to just be worn occasionally; they’re going to be worn every day.” Both collections are crafted in the same workshops in Valenza and Jaipur that Karina Choudhrie uses for its high jewellery, to ensure the quality of the fine lines is just as good as the high. And this is important, because when jewellers known for high jewellery creations create diffusion lines, their customers will still expect a luxury experience. 

Luxury isn’t always about the highest price points, notes Sara Prentice, creative director at Garrard. Luxury at Garrard means the highest level of craftsmanship, the highest-quality precious materials and an exceptional customer experience.

The British jeweller has just released a new collection called Mini Icons, which takes its most famous designs, including Wings, Aloria, Fanfare, and Albermarle, and miniaturises them. Within Mini Icons you can find a gold Wings ring covered in diamond pavé for the half the price of its big sister in the main collection. It isn’t just about making designs more fiscally accessible but also easier to style. “I wanted our most-loved designs to be wearable for any time or place and with any outfit,” says Prentice. “The pared-back designs in precious metal and all-diamond offers versatility; pieces can be dressed up or down, and they can be layered and stacked to showcase the wearer’s individuality.”

Fernando Jorge has also been scaling down. The designer has long been revered for his sensual statement jewellery, and in recent years, collections have been increasingly lavish as the Brazilian-born designer has carved a name for himself on the red carpet. Yet, his latest launch, Celestial, a collection of mini gold pendants that chart star patterns of the zodiac in diamonds, is so minimalist that the hand of the artist is less obvious than in his previous designs. The new line features three different charm styles either with diamonds, gemstones or gold which can be worn on cords, gold trace chains or hoop earrings. Perhaps this collection was driven by the desire to pay tribute to astrology rather than follow the signature style. Being a Virgo, Fernando is a staunch believer in the influence of the stars and the pathways they reveal within our universe.

It is common knowledge that in the jewellery world you should always put your most daring pieces in the window, but have plenty of diamond studs in the back, as these are the designs that always sell. This is something that Louis Vuitton is experimenting with right now with the launch of LV Diamonds, a collection that offers simple designs set with a single diamond. The luxurious twist is that the diamond is a bespoke cut that mimics the four-petal shape seen in its monogram pattern. This is incredibly difficult to achieve, and so this collection fuses high jewellery with fine. 

Look to any major jewellery house and you will see diffusion lines. Dior has Rose des Vents. Van Cleef & Aprels has Alhambra. Boucheron has Quatre. All of these jewellers are capable of creating the world’s most astounding high jewellery, yet they also offer accessible lines. Marie Berthelon, chief executive of French jeweller Rouvenat (and former high jewellery director at Cartier), says the reason such collections exist is not because of market troubles. The top end of the jewellery market is doing just fine, she says. Accessible lines are about adding something extra, not providing an alternative. Her own brand has just launched an entry-level collection called Stamp, which centres on a motif used elsewhere in its collections. The motif, inspired by a seal, has been simplified to its essence and set with a recycled gemstone at the centre (Rouvenat does not use newly mined stones), ready to adorn rings, chains and bracelets.

“I believe that it’s very important to remain open to a wide audience,” says Berthelon. She muses that the lower price points might attract a younger shopper, but she says it is more likely that the designs will be bought by clients while shopping for more expensive Rouvenat pieces. “A mother coming to buy herself a Frame ring [Rouvenat’s bestselling design] will tend to also quickly buy a Stamp bracelet for her daughter. Or it could be an easy self-purchase on impulse. It comes very often as a complementary sale.” 

We so often try to split up and categorise what we see as a way of making sense of the world. It might seem confounding that the same store would offer you a piece of high jewellery set with rare gemstones and a simple pendant in the same sitting… but is it really? Just as our love of champagne doesn’t negate our need for water, we can also desire jewels that are extraordinary without forgetting those that we reach for every single day. So, in the spirit of embracing luxury in all its forms… bring on the minis.