Every year, jewelry houses go to extraordinary lengths to source the most exclusive gems so they can surprise clients with creations that are entirely novel. Yet sometimes clients desire the familiar — designs they have admired and coveted for years, styles steeped in the history of prestigious maisons, representative of their timelessness and likely to hold long-term value precisely because they are classics.
“Familiar motifs strengthen the storytelling around the design and the brand,” explains Laurent François, managing partner at Paris-based creative agency 180 Global.
It is in this spirit that around five years ago, Boucheron introduced its Histoire de Style series, in which it unveils a new high-jewelry capsule collection each January. These collections draw inspiration from the house’s archives, reinterpreting iconic motifs from its rich heritage with a contemporary twist. Past editions have celebrated Boucheron’s Question Mark necklace, as well as an aquamarine double brooch that Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II famously wore. Last year’s opus, The Power of Couture, revisited military insignia with a new touch of softness and elegance in what creative director Claire Choisne called a “synthesis of the maison’s archives.” This year, the theme is Untamed Nature, featuring 28 pieces that redefine “the boundaries between the body and the ecosystem that surrounds it,” according to the company.
A sweeping trend
Luxury buyers value a brand’s history, quality and timelessness, affirms a study by the Boston Consulting Group, and Boucheron’s approach has steadily gained traction among other houses.
Last summer in Venice, alongside its new high-jewelry collection En Scène, Chaumet unveiled the Signatures capsule collection. It features classic designs from the maison, like the arching line of the Joséphine collection — named after the first wife of famed client Napoleon Bonaparte — and the fil couteau setting, which uses tiny bars of metal to hold clusters of diamonds together. The pieces predominantly contain extraordinary gems, including an 11.30-carat, type IIa diamond and a 27.08-carat Madagascan sapphire.
“As Chaumet gains popularity, more and more customers are asking for the classic styles that define our signature, so because of this demand, we decided to create a proper collection to cater to this specific need,” CEO Charles Leung explained at the event.
Elsewhere in Italy, Dior presented a selection of beloved motifs in Florence last May — including its Abstract, Couture, and Gardens designs — alongside its new Diorama & Diorigami high-jewelry ensemble. These motifs have proven popular with the brand’s clients in the past. For a luxury house like Dior, which is a newcomer in the jewelry landscape, such offerings provide an opportunity to solidify its presence in that space, elevate its status, and establish iconic jewelry lines like the storied maisons with which the LVMH-owned company competes.
In September, Cartier debuted Tutti Tutti, a capsule collection that revisits — and plays on the name of — the tutti frutti design that was so popular among figures like the duchess of Windsor and socialite Daisy Fellowes. Tutti Tutti draws on the bold mix of colored gemstones in tutti frutti, setting them in seemingly haphazard combinations with new gemstones, colors and geometric motifs — an approach that yields a modern aesthetic with a touch of sprezzatura.
And while Bulgari does not formally categorize its Serpenti creations as a signature collection, the snake-inspired designs remain an enduring presence in every new high-jewelry offering. Why? “Clients simply love them,” explains Bulgari creative director Lucia Silvestri.
Hammering home the point
These capsule collections tick multiple boxes. For devoted collectors, they offer a chance to own reinterpreted versions of their favorite designs. For new customers, the recognizable motifs act as a gateway into the brand’s high-jewelry universe, opening a path to its more imaginative and not-immediately-recognizable creations. Additionally, timeless motifs inspire buyers’ confidence in their purchases’ investment value. Styles like Serpenti or Van Cleef & Arpels’s Zip necklaces — which the French jewelry house still produces occasionally — consistently fetch high prices at auction.
For example, in November last year, Christie’s sold an emerald and diamond Zip necklace with a tassel of cultured pearls and emerald beads for CHF 819,000 (over $925,000) — more than three times its high estimate of CHF 260,000 ($293,800). At Sotheby’s, a Cartier tutti frutti brooch beat its CHF 20,000 ($22,600) high estimate with an achieved price of CHF 57,150 (about $64,580) in May 2023, and a classic Bulgari Serpenti diamond and ruby necklace brought in HKD 1.7 million ($210,945) that summer against an upper estimate of HKD 550,000 ($70,272).
The demand is so strong that even jewelry houses looking to buy back their own creations to build heritage collections for museums face fierce competition from private collectors and have sometimes withdrawn from bidding — proving that in the world of jewelry, the hottest pieces are not necessarily the newest ones.
Main image: Cartier Tutti Tutti ring and bracelet in 18-karat yellow and white gold with diamonds. (Cartier)
