Amandine LhosteIt was designed for the Paris fair that gave the period its name, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. It has all the hallmarks of the style: bold geometry, a sense of a newfound freedom, a fearless use of unexpected materials. Its maker’s name was far less wordy than the aforementioned fair. It was, simply, Boucheron.
The address, at 747 Madison Avenue, will mark the house’s first residence in Manhattan, but Boucheron has long known its way around New Yorkers. One hundred sixty-six years of history have seen plenty of them come and go with Boucheron boxes in hand. Inside? Marie Louise Mackay’s made-to-order necklace. Caroline Astor’s diamond bow brooch. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s wedding gift to his daughter Gertrude. (It was a diamond and feather headdress.) If your Vanderbilt invite got lost in the mail back in 1896, take heart that these historic pieces have been recreated for the new store.
They are part of a larger story, which the Boucheron collection of the 21st century continues. In addition to signatures like the Question Mark necklace, the feather rings, and the Quatre earrings, selections from creative director Claire Choisne’s scene-stealing High Jewelry collections will be there too.
Any editor or high jewelry client who has been witness to the presentations of these pieces in Paris will urge you to see them for yourself. There is a direct line from that 1925 Art Deco brooch to today: brooches of rock crystal braided like epaulettes, an enormous collar of woven bamboo and diamonds, a necklace made of the smoothest handpicked white pebbles studded with stones. It’s jewelry that demands curiosity, that you cannot see without asking, “Wait, what is that?”—and then holding on to every word of the answer.
Choisne’s most recent High Jewelry collection was inspired by the dramatic landscapes of Iceland: Black volcanic sand becomes a necklace made from the same material. There are also enormous discs of rock crystal, a cuff of obsidian and diamonds, earrings and rings made of marble.
How will these creations live alongside Boucheron’s more classic Quatre pieces of polished and ribbed multicolored gold? For Choisne, who is one of two women currently leading the historic house (Hélène Poulit-Duquesne is the CEO), the pairings are completely natural. “There are not two Boucherons,” she says. “Our archives are incredibly rich. There is a place for all of it.”
She is prepared to continue to populate the Boucheron history books—and the vitrines in its stores—with jewels that prove that heritage and a maverick imagination can coexist. Where will the next concept come from? Choisne does not stop too long to consider the question. It will come.
“I don’t get blocked,” she says. “You train your mind to have ideas. Creativity, I believe, is like a sport.” And with this new home, and other U.S. locations to follow, it’s game on.
Madeline Fass
Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Catherine Zielinski
