Since taking the helm at Boucheron in 2011 (the oldest jewellery house on Place Vendôme, founded in 1893 by Frédéric Boucheron) creative director Claire Choisne has made it her mission to mine its archives for inspiration.
Using the brand’s extensive and fascinating history as a starting point, Choisne reinterprets designs from a storied past into high jewellery for the 21st century.
Boucheron’s new collection, titled New Maharajahs, which has been shot by David Abrahams and styled by Jessica Skeete-Cross for ES Magazine’s latest issue, is no different. The tale behind the collection begins on August 2nd 1928, when The Maharajah of Patiala arrived at The Ritz in Paris to much excitement. Although the royal measured 6 ft 7 inches tall, his love for jewels was… Well, notoriously immeasurable. So, the city was on tenterhooks as to where he would visit first to indulge his tastes. As it happens, Boucheron was his first choice, where he commissioned the largest special order in the history of Place VendoÌme – over one hundred pieces to be exact.
“This commission by the Maharajah of Patiala seemed like a fairytale, it is the stuff of dreams,” says Claire Choisne. “In our archives, we have kept the 149 original designs from which I got my inspiration for this collection.” Symbols of ancestral India, such as the lotus flower, are incorporated into Choisne’s designs, with the creative director choosing white and transparent stones to maintain a sense of purity. (The exception is the showstopping New Maharajah Necklace, which uses 40 carats of emeralds in a central motif that can also be worn as a brooch).
Crafted to be worn by all genders, the New Maharajah’s collection is, as the house says, “a new page of Boucheron’s History of Style”. It’s a story we can’t quite put down, that’s for sure.
