Chopard and Guo Pei presents Silkroad High Jewellery Collection

Lines and movement, architecture and light, details and majesty are the core principles of the High Jewellery and Couture artistic crafts, exercised at the highest level by Caroline Scheufele and Guo Pei. Together, they have created a joint collection in which jewellery and apparel meet and mingle to embroider some truly exceptional pieces. Chopard sets the stage for its most prestigious gems, in turn inspiring the most extravagant gowns.

High Jewellery and Couture

Guided by prolific creativity, a tireless quest for perfection and an aspiration towards the sublime, Caroline Scheufele has given rise to a vast and opulent collection of High Jewellery themed around a dreamy vision of Asia, in which colours and fabrics weave their magic spell. It was based on these models that Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei continued the creative adventure, embarking the jewellery on a journey into her own world and putting together a Couture collection tailored to the same high standards. The transition from jewellery to garments is driven by an innovative spirit in which subtle minds, high ideals and unique talents combine in fashioning extraordinary achievements. An artistic approach that will be showcased on the catwalk, since the Silk Road collection will be presented at a runway show orchestrated by Chopard and Guo Pei. A glowing tribute to the grace and movement that bring jewellery to life – and in its favourite field of expression, where it lights up women and sets the perfect finishing touch to their elegance.

An encounter between two women

It was in 2015 that Chopard Co-President and Creative Director Caroline Scheufele first met the Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei in Cannes, where they discovered a reciprocal admiration for each other’s work. These two passionate dedicated artists are engaged in a permanent quest to create exceptional works. In September that year, Guo Pei took up Caroline Scheufele’s invitation to visit the Chopard High Jewellery workshops in Geneva. This occasion sparked the idea of a collaboration between the two, in which a lively dialogue between jewellery and apparel would mutually illuminate their respective worlds. Since January 2015, Chopard has been a “Jewellery” member of the Fédération Française de la Couture, and is regularly invited to exhibit its creations during the official calendar of presentations during the Paris Couture Week. On her side, Guo Pei became a “Guest” member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in 2016. Two powerful feminine career paths whose destinies are interwoven by shared artistic horizons.

Silk Road Collection, style elements

Caroline Scheufele has given life to a full-fledged jewellery “wardrobe”. A delightful, vibrant, strong and beautifully structured collection brimming with aesthetic references. Caroline Scheufele and Guo Pei share an inherent sense of tradition firmly propelled into modern times: well acquainted with fashion history, they are both capable of drawing upon an existing legacy so as to offer dazzling and constantly renewed contemporary interpretations. Architecture, carefully mastered volumes, flowing lines and lightness lie at the core of their work. Constantly inspired by the stunning beauties of nature, both women express their sensitivity to plant life through infinitely poetic creations. Floral beauties depicted through gemsetting, the delicate fold of a gown, or the motif of a finely sculpted ‘secret’ watch: all contribute to weaving fresh ties between their two worlds and revealing the common threads running through this joint collection. Asia is another major influence and unfolds its imaginary world, its aesthetic characteristics, its colour spectrum and its scent of opulence.

Spectacular creations

Among the most spectacular creations in the collection is an open necklace in blackened silver, white gold and rubies. Delicately placed around the neck, it opens and then resumes its initial shape thanks to the suppleness and technical nature of the materials. Its two ruby pompons create a spectacular graphic effect. One other necklace picks up the dainty lacework, stone-cut and setting characteristics that have become hallmarks of the Maison Chopard: this exquisitely precious, finely crafted ribbon of light creates a stunning effect, setting off the beautiful rose-cut heart-shaped diamonds to their best advantage.

Elsewhere, on other models, unexpected colour combinations offer a new jewellery discourse: diamonds, emeralds and Paraiba tourmalines, the two latter being rarely combined in jewellery, set the stage for new chromatic horizons. Alongside its new shapes and new uses, representing dainty stitches interweaving High Jewellery with Couture, the Silk Road collection also reveals the common ground between these two worlds in shaping a silhouette. Witness the diamond lacework Peter Pan collar necklace with its detachable central emerald: perfect lines, candid charm and a dazzling effect. Another stellar model in the collection showcases the ever finer boundaries between High Jewellery and Couture: a gorgeous set composed of a necklace and earrings. Made of aluminium, rose gold and gems, it is the highlight of the wedding dress designed by Guo Pei and inspired by this jewellery creation.

The collection continues with other coloured gems and with singular materials such as jade; it also provides renewed interpretations of stunning yet essentially intimate objects, such as this “secret” watch topped by an opal cover. A number of prêt-à-porter models round off the collection, expressing the Chopard spirit and aesthetic codes right the way through to the wonderful simplicity of a diamond sautoir necklace and a Happy Sport watch: as ever, excellence lies in details.

A truly spectacular collection, interpreting elegance and goldsmith expertise with seamless dexterity. More than ever, Chopard epitomises peerless creativity and testifies to the inspirational strength it embodies on the international scene. The majestic and vibrant stage-setting of the Silk Road collection, through a joint runway show with Guo Pei, also expresses an innovative and promising form of feminine solidarity: women are never as strong as when they combine their talents.

High Jewellery at Chopard

The Geneva Manufacture: it is here that the most spectacular one-of-a-kind creations are designed and crafted. For the past 15 years or so, the Maison Chopard has been steadily developing the High Jewellery sector. Caroline Scheufele’s impetus that has led to the creation of dazzling collections: Animal World, Red Carpet and Green Carpet in particular reveal the full measure of the artistic crafts dedicated to incredibly modern artistic inspiration. From design through to production, High Jewellery is a centre of excellence for the Geneva-based Maison. Driven by the passion and the guidelines established by Caroline Scheufele, artisans pool their talents and skills in giving rise to authentic works of art, in which traditional techniques rub shoulders with cutting-edge technologies.

These exceptional models call upon the full spectrum of High Jewellery professions: designers, wax jeweller sculptors, jewellers, stone-cutters, gemsetters, polishers… From lines to volumes, from crafting gold to precious stones, they give life to these jewellery creations by associating their talents. This natural flow and complementary interaction between the various skills is made possible by regrouping of more than 30 crafts under one roof. An asset that the Scheufele family is determined to perpetuate through a firm commitment to the transmission of expertise between successive generations as well as to training.