Queen of Kalahari
Chopard started the year with an amazing highlight – the House unveiled the stones produced from the Queen of Kalahari. Originally it was a 342ct rough diamond, which is now transformed into 23 cut and polished diamonds. Among these 23 diamonds, five weigh more than 20 carats and each of the main stone cuts – cushion, brilliant, heart, emerald and pear – is represented.
Caroline Scheufele, Co-President and Artistic Director of Chopard was involved in every stage of buying and cutting the stone, from the mine to the workshop. She dreamed up the The Garden of Kalahari collection with a six-piece suite of jewels together with the master jewellers of the Maison. Discover the trailer of the “Queen of Kalahari” film here.
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The Garden of Kalahari earrings, photo: Chopard
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The Journey
We already introduced you to the great initiative of Chopard in sustainable luxury and we are always happy to see more and more pieces born in this spirit. The goal of the initiative is to promote the luxury sector’s responsibility for the people and for the environment where precious gemstones and metals are sourced from.
The Green Carpet collection was launched in 2014 to create high jewellery pieces from fairmined gold – from community mines in South America bearing the “FAIRMINED” certification – and from gemstones from Responsible Jewellery Council certified sources. Just like in jewellery, Chopard aims to use more fairmined gold in its timepieces too, like in the L.U.C Twist XPS Fairmined watch this year.
Chopard enriched the collection with responsibly mined emeralds too. The new line is decorated with beautiful stones from Gemfields’ Kagem mine in Zambia. Zambian emeralds range in colour from bright green with yellowish undertones to a vibrant green with bluish undertones.
It is very rare to find a “clean” emerald. Almost all contain inclusions that are visible even to the naked eye. These may be embedded crystals of other minerals, growth lines, cleavages or tiny fractures. Emerald is a relatively hard gemstone – about 7.5 or 8 on the industry-standard Mohs scale but is also brittle. These characteristics make it challenging to work with. Chopard nailed it, of course: the line consists of a white gold ring with marquise-cut emerald, earrings and a timepiece set with marquise-cut emerald, brilliant-cut diamonds and emeralds.
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Green Carpet watch
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The Precious
Chopard is a master of delicate and easily wearable High Jewellery. The new pieces in the Precious collection are not only exquisite but also light, delicate and comfortable.
The white gold necklace has open-worked lacelike motifs set with pear-shaped and brilliant-cut sapphires and diamonds. The dainty long earrings feature sapphires and diamonds -and look like a floral whiff of spring.
Ice Cube Pure
Chopard launched the Ice Cube collection in 1999. Among the first models was a white gold cube watch set with 76 square-cut diamonds on a full-pavé background. Many watch and jewellery versions have been created since.
Chopard presented smaller cubes this year, polished or diamond-set, in yellow, white and rose gold, all stackable. You can choose rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets or even anklets. Interestingly, the House decided to create this collection also from ‘Fairmined’ certified gold this year.
The current face of the collection is the French model and actress, Aymeline Valade, who sports a cool and a bit of tomboyish style in the campaign.
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Aymeline Valade wears Ice Cube Pure pieces, photo: Chopard
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Ice Cube Pure rings with diamonds
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Photo credits: Chopard, Loupiosity.com.
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