Victoire de Castellane is the woman behind the Dior Joaillerie new masterpieces,a collection inspired on the grand sumptuous Versailles, and the notorious femme Marie Antoinette. Living up to that source of inspiration is no easy task, and yet, miss Castellane achieved it in an exquisite manner.

Starting with one of the star pieces, a ring which she refers to as “a little diamond gift box”, the ring opens up and reveals smaller jewels within. This ring consists of nine separate stones, a diamond, four baguettes and four cut corner stones, making a large flawless rectangle.

This ring and the rest of the pieces are covered in gold and hold blackened silver in the core, inspired by the layering technique from the 18th century, the time of Marie Antoinette. The creative director used this traditional technique and combined it with contemporary cuts in order to make the 60 piece collection, 29 of them being completely unique pieces.

Dior à Versailles is not only inspired in the jewellery of the time, as it also takes a drop of the peculiarities that makes Versailles unique, the château’s interiors, from the woodwork to the curtains can all be found in the in the lines and mysteriousness of the collection, each piece named after one of the rooms – Chambre de la Reine (Queen’s Chamber), Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) and Salon de Diane (Diana Salon).

The whole collection took two years to complete, from the design room to the searching of the stones and the craft of each individual piece. The result of not only Castellane but the myriad gem buyers and artisans who then create it – the goldsmiths, the stone cutters, the stone setters, the polishers. Dior à Versailles is a collection of french treasures, one that lives up to the expectations of a House like Dior and its collectors.

Image Credit- Dior