Vicenzaoro Highlights, September 2024: The Creative Act at Louis Vuitton

What is your suspended time in the creative process?
Creativity cannot be explained with logic. It is an irrational moment; it is pure instinct made up of the first markings on the paper. It is magic and its beauty leads to doing magical things. But method comes before the markings. In my daily work, suspended time is all that gestation period that begins with research. It is a time in which many emotions live and coexist, a time made up of anxieties, fears, excitement, inspiration. Then the suspended time stops and real time begins with the fear of a blank sheet of paper and the first stroke of a moving pencil.

Heart, business, stones, materials, heritage, market. How do they influence in your work?
There are elements that are always present in suspended time. Company’s codes that come into play in the first phase of thought and research. Then of course, there are the laws of the market, the method and the experience that characterizes each of us. High jewelry starts with a creative process, but stones always play a primary role. High jewelry is born with exceptional stones. The aim is to enhance them with design, creativity and craftmanship, to highlight what nature has created over billions of years. All these elements must be made to fit together, they have to become magical with creativity.

What distinguishes your artistic trait?
Creating means making something that didn’t exist before. Whatever I make, I always look at it with respect and responsibility, because creating also means taking risks. Companies keep archives that you have to consult, but you must find the courage to always go one step further. You have to take risks in order to create the archives of tomorrow and that is an essential aspect. In general, from an aesthetic point of view, I believe the concept of “less is more” always applies. I always strive for the essential, for an aesthetic of purity and balance, which in high jewelry, is fundamental. When a piece is well thought out and balanced in all its parts, it immediately evokes my emotions. I feel it inside because I know what lies behind it. It’s a very strong feeling.

How has high jewelry evolved in recent years?
The term high jewelry does not really exist. These items are complex, important and unique pieces: works of art. It is an extreme concept of jewelry in which everything is exceptional, from the stones to the workmanship and the creativity. Nowadays, the intervention of multiple players in the market has made everything stimulating and competitive because great creativity has taken over…

Let's talk about experimentation. How far can one go? Is everything allowed?
From a creative point of view, experimentation should have no limits. It is the responsibility of the creative artist to raise the bar higher and higher. But in the real world, experimentation goes hand in hand with the client, in other words, with the company, with the CEO, with his vision. The theme of experimentation can also be linked to a micro detail that you cannot see at first glance, perhaps a hinge. Something you can’t see but is there. In high jewelry, it is the most invisible detail, the micro technique, that makes that piece innovative. For example, Louis Vuitton's Monogram cut was extremely innovative. It took years and years of work to arrive at a diamond with that shape and shine.