PARIS – Come October, there might be a brand new date so as to add to the annual excessive jewellery calendar – and it’s taking place in Monaco fairly than on Place Vendôme.
The Grand Prix de la Haute Joaillerie will make its debut on Oct. 25 with a gala night on the principality’s Monte-Carlo Sporting complicated the place the most effective designs from prime jewelers will obtain gongs from a jury of business specialists.
Cofounded by the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) and Jean-Philippe Braud, president of Paris-based occasions communication company Profirst France, the occasion is meant as an annual rendez-vous bringing collectively jewellery homes, collectors and craftspeople in addition to representatives of gem-producing nations.
Some 11 homes collaborating within the inaugural version and the 2025 jury was unveiled at a press convention in Paris on Tuesday.
“This undertaking was born from a easy remark,” mentioned Braud. “Excessive jewellery, as a serious artwork of luxurious, deserved its personal summit.”
It discovered an echo with the executives on the SBM, in alignment with its technique of bringing collectively the world’s main luxurious gamers inside our resort, mentioned Stéphane Valeri, managing director of the corporate which owns and manages a lot of the key properties in Monaco, together with the Monte Carlo On line casino and the principality’s Hôtel de Paris. Owned in majority by the federal government of the principality, the SBM counts LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton amongst its minority shareholders.
Requested if there had been any resistance to setting the occasion in Monaco fairly than in Paris, the standard epicenter of excessive jewellery, Braud mentioned there had been a lot enthusiasm throughout the board.
“All the homes are current in Monaco, the place they’ve an exercise with good performances,” he defined. “And it permits the SBM and types to additionally create a industrial second at this [latter] interval of the yr.”
The principality’s status for safety was additionally an asset, additionally for collectors interested by attending.
Homes who’ve thrown their tiaras within the ring embrace Anna Hu, Boucheron, Buccellati, Bulgari, Chanel, Chopard, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Messika and Tiffany & Co.
Every can current as much as three designs to a jury headed by veteran French editor and jewellery skilled Fabienne Reybaud, who’s its everlasting president.
Gongs embrace a Grand Prize, a particular jury prize in addition to distinctions for design, know-how and gems. There may even be an award for rising expertise and a public prize. To be eligible, items should have been produced between October 2024 and subsequent month.
For the patrimony prize, which covers jewellery remaining in a home’s patrimonial assortment, Raybaud selected 2020 because the closing date, to permit newer signatures to participate on an equal footing to their centuries-old predecessors.
To assist her decide which jewels deserve honors, she will depend on a jury comprising Valeri, the prize’s cofounder who can also be a everlasting member; architect and designer Tristan Auer, who designed the trophy that might be offered to the winners; François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe and Asia; Evelyne Possémé, honorary curator of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs; and Chayapa Chutrakul, founding father of inventive information advisory The Pink Lab and govt director of PR and occasions company Instructions Group Thailand.
Rounding out the 10-strong group are collector and artwork historian Brune de Margerie, who presently serves as vogue director of Elle France; Constance Assor, deputy editor in chief of French newspaper Le Level ; gemologist Emmanuel Piat, who’s chief govt officer of family-owned Maison Piat, and Philippe Scordia, a collector and gemologist.
In a joint interview forward of the press convention in Paris, Braud and Reybaud insisted on the jury’s deep business connections however an neutral outlook that prolonged to the selection of the occasion’s companions, chosen for his or her independance from the jewelers or their mother and father teams.
For the organizers, there’s extra to the undertaking than crowning the cream of the yr’s bejeweled crop.
Forward of the gala occasion on Oct. 25, which can see them offered on dwell fashions, collaborating items might be showcased for 3 days at every model’s Monaco handle or in an exhibition at Café de la Rotonde du On line casino open to the general public.
Every jewel could have an in depth clarification, a approach to fight the misunderstanding that top jewellery creations solely contact those that personal them, she mentioned.
“That’s false as a result of there’s a dreamlike, magical and artisanal dimension in these items which might be price tens of millions of euros however require 1000’s of hours of labor and perpetuate crafts that [jewelers on] Place Vendôme – and elsewhere – attempt to shield,” she continued. “The objective is absolutely to shine a highlight on excessive jewellery, which is directly acquainted and little-known.”
