Behind the scenes of the creation of Louis Vuitton Bravery jewelry
In 1832, a 10-year-old boy from the Jura region of France lost his mother. His farmer father remarried a cruel woman and died shortly after. The boy, then 13 years old, left home to seek his fortune in Paris. Living on odd jobs along the way, it took him more than 2 years to travel the 500 kilometers separating him from the capital. This child was Louis Vuitton. 20 years after his departure, he would become the craftsman behind trunks made for the Empress of France. 200 years later, he is one of the world's luxury benchmarks.
The exceptional story of Louis Vuitton
"It's like a fairy tale," said Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton's artistic director for jewelry and watches. Vuitton's youthful journey was her inspiration for this year's high jewelry collection. An incredible series of 90 pieces named Bravery, released specially to celebrate the bicentennial of this epic story.
Amfitheatrof lives far from Vuitton's France, in Connecticut. She lives there with her husband Ben Curwin, a managing partner of an investment consulting firm, and her teenage children. The Litchfield County property, built in 1880, spans nearly 15 acres and includes a small cluster of white buildings, including Amfitheatrof's studio.
Louis Vuitton's push into luxury jewelry
The legend that is Louis Vuitton has long served as a symbol of wealth in popular culture, albeit in reference to the brand's iconic leather goods. But recently, the brand has intensified its investments in its jewelry division. Amfitheatrof's hiring in 2018 was the starting point. In early 2020, Vuitton made waves in the gemstone world by purchasing the second-largest rough diamond in history. The 1758-carat Sewelô diamond, mined the previous year, is so large it reportedly could not fit in a human mouth.
If popular culture is a barometer, it is telling that the first episode of Netflix's reality show, Bling Empire, doesn't focus on a Vuitton bag, but on jewelry. Titled "Necklacegate 90210," the climactic scene of this episode features two Beverly Hills millionaires wearing the same pink sapphire necklace from Vuitton's 2012 high jewelry collection, even though the piece is unique.
Louis Vuitton Jewelry: The Amfitheatrof Style
Amfitheatrof's designs for the brand's high jewelry collections are dynamic and modern. She describes her technique as painting with gemstones. "I tend to use a lot of stones," she said. "Given that I'm not a gemologist, I'm a bit more radical about it." Her team was "perplexed" when she arrived. "This is Place Vendôme," she explains, referring to the location of Vuitton's flagship Parisian store, located in the famous square built in honor of Louis XIV. "It's very classic."
Yet, Amfitheatrof's "more is more" ethos suits a brand whose definition is probably not framed classicism. Le Mythe, a multi-row luxury necklace in sapphire and emerald adorned with a central Vuitton fleur-de-lis, "contains 3 enormous stones," explains Amfitheatrof. "Most people would make 3 necklaces out of them. Whereas I want them all on the same piece." Another Louis Vuitton necklace, named La Constellation d'Hercule, because it was inspired by the stars visible at the time of Vuitton's birth, includes over 30 beetle-sized tanzanites, tsavorites, and opals, like an uploaded image from Hubble, plus 15 diamonds with Vuitton's patented Fleur and Étoile cuts.
"No other house has patented a diamond cut," said Amfitheatrof. She credits Vuitton CEO Michael Burke, who personally approves every stone purchase, with building the brand's top gemologist team. Her favorite piece from the Bravery collection is actually a pair. These are brilliant bracelets with twin central stones, a diamond and a Muzo Colombian emerald. Named L'Aventure, this Louis Vuitton bracelet can be worn as a cuff with its 2 components, or individually, one on each wrist. "It's so balanced," she says, "there's nothing to change."
Francesca Amfitheatrof's creative process
How does Francesca Amfitheatrof work? "I go to our CEO and say: I have this idea," she said describing her creative process. "And then I step back." She builds a mood board and divides her main narrative into stories. In the example of Bravery, Louis, the teenager's, more than 2-year trek was split into thematic chapters. "I can't just say, oh here we have beautiful stars," she mimics theatrically referring to the constellation of Hercules. "Let's repeat them everywhere, and that will be the inspiration for the collection. That would be boring."
Storytelling is now a buzzword in sales. But for Amfitheatrof, it's simply how her brain works. Her father was the bureau chief for Russia for Time magazine. Her mother was public relations manager for Valentino and Armani. Her paternal grandfather was the composer and conductor responsible for the music of Lassie Come Home, and his father was a Russian novelist. As she puts it, "I've always been surrounded by a certain depth of mind."
The Dichotomy of Luxury
Last year was not easy for the luxury sector. LVMH's revenue decreased from over 53 billion euros in 2019 to about 44.7 billion in 2020. But, according to Amfitheatrof, "high jewelry was truly re-evaluated during COVID. People were struggling, especially very wealthy people, to be satisfied because they could no longer, all of a sudden, indulge their passions. Jewelry was no longer just incredible investments. You can also wear and enjoy them, husbands can see them on their wives. The world is full of shocking disparities, and the pandemic highlighted this in a particularly striking way." Is this dichotomy something Amfitheatrof has fought? "No," she says. "No. You see, my sector is not a fast-evolving industry. I know that what I create will outlive me. So I really have to think timelessly."
Louis Vuitton: an exceptional destiny for exceptional jewelry
Rarity in fashion is almost always orchestrated. In the world of high jewelry, supply cannot truly be increased; one can only give the illusion of a broader supply. It is believed that most of the gold extracted from the Earth's depths was deposited, like invaluable space debris, by a meteorite that collided with our planet in its early days. Our diamonds are mysterious, forming 150 kilometers beneath the Earth's surface over hundreds of millions of years. In this sense, time is truly a luxury commodity. And to preserve its value, a Vuitton gemstone must never have been treated with oil (with the exception of some emeralds) or heat (which alters the color). Nor should it have been lab-grown. In a way, this philosophy is consistent with Louis Vuitton's story.
"He could have taken 2 weeks to get to Paris," said Amfitheatrof of Vuitton, whose home region is perhaps better known for the Large Hadron Collider, which straddles the Swiss border not far from the Jura mountains. "He chose that moment to become the man he wanted to be. And I think that's phenomenal," she concluded.
