Editor’s Note
This article highlights the intensifying competition in the luxury jewelry sector, with LVMH brands unveiling significant new collections. It focuses on Louis Vuitton’s latest high jewelry launch, positioning it within the group’s broader strategic push.
2024 has been a fiercely competitive year in the jewelry industry. As a behemoth in the luxury sector, LVMH has invested more effort into its jewelry business this year. Over the past six months, its brands BVLGARI, Tiffany & Co., Chaumet, and Dior have all released groundbreaking new collections.
On June 5th, Louis Vuitton, the group’s flagship and the world’s largest luxury brand by volume, launched its most extensive high jewelry collection to date, “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds,” in Saint-Tropez, France.
This is the sixth high jewelry collection created for the brand by Francesca Amfitheatrof, Louis Vuitton’s Creative Director of Watches and Jewelry. It encompasses 13 themes, comprising over 610 pieces with a total value exceeding 370 million euros (including jewelry, watches, and loose stones). The number of pieces surpasses that of BVLGARI, which is currently celebrating its 140th anniversary.
The most eye-catching piece is a diamond necklace named “Cœur de Paris” (Heart of Paris), featuring a 56.23-carat deep brownish-pink VS1 clarity diamond as its centerpiece. This is the most important and rarest diamond in the entire collection, possessing a unique hue: a deep pink tone with unusual hints of orange and brown.
Francesca Amfitheatrof bestowed upon this diamond the beautiful name “Heart of Paris.” Its distinctive cut and large facets were inspired by her observation of the Eiffel Tower:
This also signifies that Louis Vuitton’s high jewelry collection has reached an unprecedented height compared to its creations over the past 15 years.
For a brand that launched its high jewelry business only 15 years ago, Louis Vuitton’s evolution in the jewelry field has been rapid. Since introducing its first high jewelry collection in 2009, Louis Vuitton has been strategically planning its ascent to the pinnacle of the high jewelry world.
A real change began in 2018 when Louis Vuitton appointed Francesca Amfitheatrof, a leading figure in jewelry design, as Creative Director of Watches and Jewelry. Subsequently, the brand began consistently releasing high jewelry collections annually, competing with established jewelry houses.
In 2020, Louis Vuitton acquired the world’s second-largest rough diamond, signaling the brand’s entry into the ranks of top jewelry players. This also marked Louis Vuitton’s capability and technical prowess in diamond cutting.
The “Cœur de Paris” diamond necklace in the “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” collection represents Louis Vuitton’s diamond cutting craftsmanship. In addition to the 56.23-carat square emerald-cut deep brownish-pink diamond, it includes a chain composed of 26 LV Monogram star-cut diamonds totaling 21.8 carats, and a 5.73-carat LV Monogram star-cut diamond.
Gem connoisseurs often refer to the discovery of colored diamonds as “one in ten thousand.” Natural fancy color diamonds get their color from carbon atom misplacements or lattice distortions, with pink diamonds being one of the rarest colors on the market. Only about 0.001% of diamonds mined globally each year are natural pink diamonds.
Large-carat, high-quality, rare pink diamonds possess extremely high collectible value due to their scarcity.
Louis Vuitton’s 56.23-carat deep brownish-pink diamond is a unique and rare centerpiece. This signet-style set diamond, along with a 5.73-carat LV Monogram star-cut diamond, hangs from a necklace strung with 26 V Monogram star-cut diamonds, worthy of museum-collection status. Its future value is promising.
Another noteworthy point is that this is the first time Louis Vuitton has used a fancy color diamond in a high jewelry collection. For Louis Vuitton, colored diamonds were once the domain of companies like DeBeers, Graff, and Tiffany & Co.
The “Heart of Paris” represents Louis Vuitton’s determination to climb higher in the jewelry business.
In the “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” collection, we can also see Louis Vuitton’s ambition in the colored gemstone business.
While companies like DeBeers, Graff, and Tiffany & Co. have their own mines, Louis Vuitton is overtaking them through new technologies and close collaboration with miners, securing more stable raw material output and selecting the best stones.
Louis Vuitton used yellow diamonds for the first time in the “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” collection, including a 3.02-carat yellow LV MONOGRAM star-cut Fancy Yellow VVS1 clarity diamond.
Leveraging the diamond traceability function of the Aura blockchain, Louis Vuitton collaborated with Bellerophon on ruby traceability technology, filling a technical gap in the colored gemstone field.
In the core piece of the “Splendeur” theme—a high-collar necklace with convertible wearing styles—52 rubies are set, all sourced from Fura Gems’ Mozambique mine in Dubai, totaling 57.85 carats. Each ruby utilizes this technology. This will be a means to redefine the colored gemstone business.
This is also the single piece of Louis Vuitton jewelry with the highest number of rubies set to date.
All colored gemstones in the “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” collection come from the most prestigious origins: rubies from Mozambique, yellow sapphires from the legendary Sri Lankan mine “Island of Paradise,” emeralds from Zambia, and sapphires from Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and Madagascar—almost a map of the world’s important sapphire mining locations.
The personalized colors of colored gemstones have fueled the rapid growth of this market in recent years. As supply struggles to keep up with hot demand, colored gemstone prices continue to reach new highs.
High-quality colored gemstones are highly sought after in recent auction markets.
Dev Shetty, CEO of Dubai-based gem miner Fura Gems, which has a long-term deep collaboration with Louis Vuitton, estimates that by 2030, the colored gemstone market will reach $5 billion, 2.5 times that of 2012 ($2 billion). He also noted that the natural rough diamond market size has stagnated at $15 billion since then.
Some analysts believe the return of colored gemstones may signal the beginning of a rebalancing. DeBeers has long dominated the global jewelry market through successful diamond marketing, a situation that may be disrupted by the colored gemstone business. Louis Vuitton may be a newcomer seizing this opportunity.
Compared to the abstract concepts expressed in Francesca Amfitheatrof’s previous series—Riders of the Knights, Stella Times, Bravery, Spirit, Deep Time—the new series “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” points to the core of the Louis Vuitton brand: What is Louis Vuitton? What is Paris?
In the year of the Paris Olympics, Louis Vuitton re-examines its relationship with the land that gave it birth, pondering where Louis Vuitton came from and how it became Louis Vuitton.
In the 19th century, royal authority ended in Paris, exquisite craftsmanship flowed from the top down, French handicrafts flourished, forming new lifestyles and the concept of luxury as we know it today. Subsequently, the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution drove tremendous changes in France. Paris became the center of the world at that time, forming the雏形 of modern France.
Francesca Amfitheatrof transformed the Paris of that “Belle Époque” into the “Awakened Hands Awakened Minds” high jewelry collection, unveiling the first chapter on June 5th through 11 themes and 100 jewelry pieces. Amfitheatrof divided it into two chapters to tell this epic: “Awakened Hands” and “Awakened Minds.”
“Awakened Hands” is a homage to antiquity, a depiction of the intricate ornaments and patterns once used to decorate the French royal court. This chapter can be seen as an exploration of Louis Vuitton’s DNA. Louis Vuitton’s earliest Parisian memories are associated with French royal life.
In the 19th century, brand founder Louis Vuitton started as an apprentice in the luggage team of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. He developed unique trunk-making techniques,首次推出 a specially designed flat, stackable hard trunk for travel, becoming a supplier of royal luggage.
This part of the jewelry presents the beauty of 19th-century traditional craftsmanship and the pinnacle represented by the court through four themes: “Splendeur,” inspired by宫廷床榻木雕技艺; “Séduction,”再现奢华织锦工艺; “Phenomenal,” drawing inspiration from 19th-century porcelain art; and “Elegance,”回溯彼时珠宝装饰艺术中独特的 trembler 工艺.
Rare gemstones,借助精湛匠艺 and开创性设计,构成了 Louis Vuitton’s画卷 of 19th-century手工艺之美.