Boucheron breaks the codes of jewelry with its new More is More collection
The quote "less is more" is attributed to Coco Chanel. At Boucheron, the decision was made to take the opposite approach to this other mythical French house with the More is More collection. These daring "jewels" (clutches, hair clips, etc.) redefine what contemporary jewelry can offer.
More is More: Daring Boucheron Jewelry Born in Confinement Anxiety
Claire Choisne, creative director of Boucheron jewelry since 2011, stated that she decided to break all the rules with the house's new 30-piece high jewelry collection. Titled More is More, its presentation takes place by appointment during the first week of July at the headquarters of the jewelry house's private mansion, Place Vendôme in Paris.
- The Power of Couture by Boucheron
"We started working on it in 2020, during the second lockdown," Ms. Choisne recently told the NY Times in an email interview. "Anxiety was omnipresent, so I felt the need to completely free ourselves from any creative constraints."
She said she wanted "to give happiness by creating a sense of joy and comfort" through simple volumes, high contrasts, oversizing, and optical illusions inspired by the world of comics and cartoons.
She had decided not to create traditional high jewelry sets, meaning the usual ensembles of necklaces, luxury bracelets, earrings, rings, and other matching pieces. This approach gave her the opportunity to completely rethink her creative process. "We invented new designs that would never have occurred to us in normal times," she said.
Boucheron's More is More Creations
Among the creations in Boucheron's More is More collection are:
- Pull Me: a hooded adornment with citrine accents
- This is Not a Ring and This is Not a Scrunchie: 6 rings that can be worn in 2 ways
- In the Pocket: a functional clutch made of onyx and brilliant-cut diamond strips with mother-of-pearl and gray lacquer accents. This jewelry clutch can be attached to clothing with magnets
- An Apple A Day: a Boucheron bracelet with a spherical Pop Art-inspired design in tsavorite, black lacquer, titanium, and white gold. It can be worn as is or separated into a cuff and two rings
- Solve Me: a necklace inspired by children's building cubes
Explaining her idea of the trompe-l'oeil concept to the artisans in Boucheron's Parisian workshop proved more complicated than she had anticipated. "I told them it's 2D," she wrote. "But it has to give the illusion of being 3D even though it's 2D," said Claire Choisne.
In the pocket: a luxury jewelry clutch
Designing a high jewelry clutch proved very different from designing a necklace, she explained. The jewelry clutch had to be able to attach securely to clothing, but also be able to support the weight of a phone and the jolts of our movements.
Ms. Choisne and her team found the solution. The trick? Combining Lycra, the athletic textile known for its elasticity, with titanium, lighter than gold. The clutch may appear rigid, but it is actually articulated. This was possible thanks to its plates manufactured with a 3D printer and held together by titanium screws.
Do Not Iron: Ultra-modern Boucheron brooches
This 2D style is particularly visible in Do Not Iron, 6 creations that look more like iron-on patches than one-centimeter-thick brooches, which they are. Among the motifs of these Boucheron brooches are:
- A pansy
- A cicada
- A wave
- The house's jack motif, inspired by audio connection plugs introduced to Boucheron style by Claire Choisne in 2019
The Boucheron More is More "jewels" undoubtedly represent an unbridled vision of high jewelry.
