High jewellery continues to boom in Paris

At the high jewellery presentations in Paris high jewellery continues to be a bright spot in the luxury world.

A model wears the Chaumet clover and fern necklace in emeralds and diamonds.

On Place Vendome, all that glitters may well be gold. Or at least, judging by the high jewellery presentations held during haute couture week at Paris’s fanciest square, those spending big on baubles are doing just fine.

Home to 20 jewellers including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and some of Paris’s oldest jewellers, such as Boucheron and Mellerio, Place Vendome has long been the physical and spiritual home of jewellery.

Many of the brands stage presentations during haute couture week – making the most of press and clients in town for the shows – some of them repeat views of the collections launched in far-flung locales such as Marbella, Barcelona and Kyoto.

The importance of the jewellery category amid a global luxury slowdown has been emphasised in new research from global consultancy Bain suggesting it has become the most resilient, with top-tier clients still willing to invest.

While the luxury market as a whole declined 1 per cent in 2024, jewellery grew 2 per cent, with high jewellery performing particularly well.

A piece from Monili, the collaboration between Graff and Pomellato, featuring leather and pave diamonds.

The Piaget Waves of Illusion ring with stripes of coloured gemstones and diamond.

Luca Solca, senior analyst at Bernstein covering global luxury goods, says high jewellery – its clients mostly cocooned from financial pressures – is still doing well and high-net-worth individuals remain in spending mode. Yet straitened times mean new perspectives and Solca thinks the willingness to spend comes down in part to the fact jewellery – with its precious materials and relative price stability – is seen as a value-for-money investment.

“Jewellery is doing better than leather goods because jewellery has seen materially lower price inflation in the past five years – in other words, jewellery is today a lot cheaper than handbags, in relative terms,” says Solca. He points to Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels as the two brands at the top of the jewellery category in terms of consumer desirability.

Chaumet Wild Rose transformable necklace featuring an 8.23 carat yellow diamond and brilliant diamonds in yellow gold.

Last week Citi analyst Thomas Chauvet noted the particular sales momentum of Richemont, owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.

However, Chauvet expects fiscal 2026 to be a year of growth normalisation and margin pressures. “This is due to deteriorating demand for watches, a slowdown in tourist spending in Japan and Europe, significant currency and precious metals headwinds, and uncertainty around tariffs,” he said in a research note. Still, he said, “Richemont seems to be a fundamentally stronger business than in the past.”

A necklace from Chopard's Red Carpet Collection 25, featuring an emerald cabochon weighing 129 carats as well as pear-shaped and brilliant-cut diamonds.

But what of the jewels, then? At the presentations in Paris there was a sense of glorious maximalism, such as gobstopper gemstones, especially emeralds, at Jessica McCormack, the London-based jeweller making her high jewellery debut, and Chopard, which showed its latest Red Carpet collection in its private hotel above its boutique on Place Vendome. Then there were the exuberant combinations of gemstones such as the pop colours of those in Piaget’s exceptional Waved Illusion suite.

Nature was, for many, a source of inspiration. Perhaps none so much as at Chaumet, one of Place Vendome’s most storied jewellers, where a realistic, even botanical take on nature could be found. One such example is the Oat and Field Star earrings, the goldsmithing capturing the delicate texture of the plant and set with yellow and white diamonds, and so too the Wild Rose pieces. Like many pieces in the collection, all are transformable – a necklace able to become a brooch or an earring a hair ornament.

This feeling for maximalism could also be seen in Gucci’s first collaboration with Italian jewellery brand Pomellato; the result a sculptural showcase for each brand’s savoir faire and a distinctly Italian take on style.

Annie Brown