Cartier expo to show high jewellery more than just an investment

A global event down under shows how luxury jewellers are seeing the opportunity in high jewellery.

Sarah Snook wears the Cartier Unda set at the Emmys. Picture: Getty Images

French jewellery house Cartier will cement Australia as a high jewellery destination with an exhibition in Sydney this month of some 300 precious creations displayed for select clients and invited university architecture, design and business students.

It will be the first time the once-dubbed “jeweller of kings”, established in 1847, has flown in international clients and press for an Australian event.

The exhibition includes pieces from Cartier Tradition – the jeweller’s “living heritage” pieces that are tracked down and authenticated from around the world using its archives, as well as pieces such as the Unda set worn by Sarah Snook at the 2024 Emmys.

Throughout history Cartier pieces have been worn by maharajahs and movie stars, “that woman” Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor and heiresses such as the notorious Daisy Fellowes, once known as the most wicked woman in high society.

Cartier Southeast Asia and Oceania chief executive Yanina Novitskaya says the exhibition represents the burgeoning interest in high jewellery as both a form of art and attractive investment.

Australia, she says, has seen a strong swell of wealth. They are “super well educated, they understand very well our aesthetic. Sometimes when I meet clients for the first time, I’m quite surprised by their interest in gemmology, their knowledge about stones”.

A Cartier high jewellery event in Florence. Picture: Nikita Shubnyi

All of the pieces in the exhibition are, of course, for sale at a price.

“[People] have started to consider high jewellery as art because we were communicating a lot this way,” she says.

“Art has become a very interesting subject for investment … those looking to diversify [their] investment and we see a craziness in stock markets and also what is happening with commodities, currencies, fluctuation, sanctions … So of course they consider high jewellery as an investment. Also because they know that behind our high jewellery collections, there is a very strong history. If you look at the result of [jewellery] auctions, it also speaks for itself.”

As Novitskaya notes though, jewellery comes with a certain sentiment and emotion that watching squiggly lines on a trading screen doesn’t typically evoke.

“There are several aspects which motivate people to invest in high jewellery. This is aesthetic and beauty … This is definitely an investment for many of them...and also [a way] to transmit your heritage to your grandchildren.”

Jewellery, she says, is something for the future that you can celebrate now. It’s something she says clients particularly embraced during the pandemic.

Pieces in the exhibition will reflect Cartier’s style and influences that include geometry, architecture, flora and fauna from around the world.

The Cartier Unda set with emerald cabochons and diamonds.

High jewellery is the finest expression of a jeweller’s work – one-of-a-kind pieces using its most precious and rare stones and handcrafted savoir-faire. It is becoming an increasingly competitive space with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Chanel entering the category in recent years.

“Today the shape of competition is very different and every luxury maison wants to demonstrate high-end and to show that we also have a legacy to produce and to propose to our clients high jewellery collections,” says Novitskaya.

The focus on high jewellery also chimes with shifts within the luxury industry to focus on the pointy end of the market as growth in luxury slows following several boom years post pandemic.

In a recent case study in industry publication the Business of Fashion it was reported that in 2022, the top 2 per cent of luxury customers drove 40 per cent of overall sales. This cohort of coveted clients are increasingly being courted by brands with lavish trips, experiences of the “money can’t buy” calibre. Though of course, money can, and does, buy.

As the Business of Fashion noted, “As growth of the broader luxury market slows, attracting the top 1 per cent of earners, whose well-padded budgets are more insulated from global uncertainty, will be key to driving sales”.

Courting them will become increasingly challenging as brands compete to lure clients – as reported in The Wall Street Journal this includes invitation-only boutiques, invitations to grand soirees in far-flung locations. Here it was reported too that Neiman Marcus is inviting its best customers on a trip to Australia, where guests will visit the Queensland showrooms of jeweller Margot McKinney and learn about pearl cultivation.

Novitskaya believes when the connection feels authentic, it resonates.

This, she says, is especially relevant to Cartier’s high jewellery event in Sydney and its other projects in the region.

Australia has long been a source of inspiration for Cartier designers –- koala and kangaroo pieces have long existed in its archives and so too pieces inspired by the unique flora and fauna of down under, the iridescence of our sunsets and with Australian opals. In March, the Sydney Biennale will present its collaboration with Fondation Cartier, the jeweller’s contemporary art museum, that centres the work of First Nations artists from around the world. Like its relatively new flagship in Sydney’s George Street, the exhibition this month will feature the art work of local artists.

“Australia was always on our map, but this is like a new chapter for us. And I think it’s also because of the history. Australia is always a kind of country which attracts everyone because it’s a bit mystical. It’s very far … and so there is this hidden interest or very strong curiosity towards this country. For our maison, Australia today is a big market already for us. And it’s successful not only in one category,” she says.

“We stay true to who we are, but also we pay deep tribute to the culture of Australia,” says Novitskaya, adding that she sees projects such as the high jewellery exhibition and the Biennale as a “dialogue.”