Diorama, Dior’s new 172-piece high jewellery collection, takes you into the world of dreamy fairy tales

Since 1999, Dior Joaillerie’s artistic director, Victoire de Castellane, has created an array of fine and high jewellery collections that reflects the universe of its founder, Christian Dior, drawing from his love of gardens and flowers, especially roses. After all, Monsieur Dior once wrote: “Real jewellery is the highest point in luxury”.

This season, and a first for de Castellane, she reimagines Toile de Jouy – an enduring Dior code since 1947 – for the house’s first chapter of its new haute joaillerie collection. Named Diorama, it weaves a tapestry of dreamy foliage, where animals frolic, forage, and even sleep. It is a love letter to the maison’s rich heritage, capturing the essence of femininity and fantasy that Dior is known for. A labour of love that took two years to complete, the 172-piece Diorama features the largest number of gemstones ever dedicated to a single Dior jewellery collection.

The Toile de Jouy motif has a long history that predates the maison. English for “cloth from Jouy-en-Josas”, Toile de Jouy originated in 18th-century France and typically depicted intricate, repeated patterns of scenes printed in a single colour (usually blue, black, or red) against a white background. Depending on what the textile maker fancied, each toile print told a story, and would feature a different motifs, including florals, geometric patterns, botanicals, mythological subjects, and even popular culture or current events.

Its production began at a fabric factory in a small French town named Jouy-en-Josas. Thanks to its owner and founder, German industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, he popularised this style by working with artists, such as Jean-Baptiste Hue. The printed fabrics quickly caught the attention of the era’s style-setters such as Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadou, and soon, the trend spread like wildfire across Europe and the US. Toile de Jouy made a big comeback in the 20th century, particularly in fashion and interior design.

The motif held such a special place in Monsieur Dior’s heart that in 1946, when he established his first boutique Colifichets at 30 Avenue Montaigne, he dressed the walls, counters, and even the canopy in the ornamental fabric. The print went on to become an integral part of Dior’s aesthetic, and continues to inspire the maison's designers, like de Castellane.

A FAIRY TALE WORLD

Beyond the clever play on the maison’s name, Diorama’s jewels illustrate exactly what the word suggests: Fairy tale-like scenes of three-dimensional flora and fauna that reimagine Toile de Jouy’s whimsical illustrations. In a video interview, De Castellane said: “This is the first time I’ve introduced animals, which are in the forest.” Imagine, a gold rabbit leaping into a bush paved with scintillating diamonds; birds collecting branches adorned with flamboyant rubies; or swans on a pond bordered by sparkling blue sapphires. Each jewel tells a story, inviting its beholder to take a stroll through Milly-la-Foret, a quaint town of gardens near Paris beloved by Monsieur Dior.

De Castellane’s creativity and the savoir faire of the Dior atelier take the spotlight here. Employing traditional hand-crafting techniques like glyptics – the carving of ornamental stones or precious gems – artisans breathed life into the miniature frescoes replete with a precious bestiary inhabiting an Eden embellished with vibrant gemstones. Dior Joaillerie’s signature laquer also brought out the nuances of these fantastical scenes, revealing vibrant shades, such as the deep green of emeralds that harmonised with the softer verdant tones of tsavorite garnets. Each necklace also highlights a single colour, for instance, the shades of red see the combination of rubies, spinels, and pink sapphires.

The piece de resistance is the Foret Enchantee necklace that flaunts a tableau of a fox, squirrel, and deer, all sculpted from intense green chrysoprase. Completing this display are yellow- and rose-gold foliage that mingle with luxuriant shrubbery and flowerbeds festooned with 1,300 white diamonds, yellow sapphires, green tsavorites, emeralds, and cultured pearls. A 16.16-carat emerald-cut emerald set among tiny branches tops off this piece, which took 6,500 hours and the skills of several artisans, including a master gem-carver and gem-engraver to finish. “I liked the idea of figurative animals in a dream world. The jewellery piece is integrated all around the sculptures of animals. It was important to fit them into the landscape in a way that looks as if they’re hiding in the vegetation. You can see all the sophistication that goes into the craft of jewellery-making,” elaborated de Castallane on the necklace’s design.

WHEN HAUTE JOAILLERIE AND COUTURE MEET

In May this year, the maison unveiled Diorama in the cloister of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.

Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of womenswear at Dior, and its ateliers specially designed 25 haute couture outfits with neo-1960s silhouettes that complemented Diorama’s splendour. Models walked down the runway in capri pants, Bar bustiers, woven jacquards, and skirts and pants in shimmering hues that matched the jewellery collection. In addition to the earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings, there were unexpected pieces, such as ear cuffs, anklets, belts, and tiaras. “I take advantage of the catwalk show to get the models to wear the jewellery in a slightly atypical way,” explained de Castellane.

The final pieces of the show offered a glimpse into the second chapter of the high jewellery collection, Diorigami, which, as its name suggests, draws from the Japanese art of paper folding. “We have these plays on folding, with metal and animals like rabbits and ladybugs, and there is little lily of the valley bells with diamond kites,” hinted de Castellane at the more graphic and geometric line.