Holographyque by Boucheron

The company’s Creative Director, Claire Choisne, already took our breath away last year when she presented the Contemplation collection which gave voice to an intimate world through an assertive and sensational aesthetic dialogue. But it was only the beginning of an experimentation strategy placed at the service of high jewelry, a sector that usually takes shelter from excessive technological risks. However, with the new Holographyque collection, Boucheron not only reveals the result of studies that its team has been striving to materialize for some time, it also outperforms the Olympus of jewelry’s creative masterminds by applying the concept of holography to precious stones and metals. In this new and gripping adventure, Claire Choisne starts from a basic assumption borrowed from the founder, Frédéric Boucheron: “The freedom to create comes before everything.” Not just in reference to metals, which are not the key players here, but by accepting a challenge that implies relinquishing total control over the final result. With Holographyque, the jewels become mutating structures that change according to the light refraction, the brightness, viewing angle and contrast with the skin. There are no precise color choices because, with holography as the collection’s central theme, the rays of the sun disperse into a myriad of electric atoms creating effects that almost shimmer on the stones. Inspired by the work of artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Luis Barragan, Choisne has created nine sets for a total of 25 unique pieces that become the precious allies of this holographic phenomenon, aided by the glow of opals, the candor of rock crystal and the purity of ceramic. While on the one hand, the iridescent reliefs of Australian and Ethiopian opal define the outlines of natural hyper-pigmentation, the Boucheron designers have had to go further to explore the richness of this mirage. By first spraying the precious metals onto ceramic and rock crystal, they have managed to recreate a magic that goes beyond any rational control. The Opalescence line rotates everything around a white Ethiopian opal and a multi-strand of opal pearls treated with the lacquer, while Ondes offers an opalescent effect through the use of mother-of-pearl. Then there is Illusion, with a spectacular trio of rings sculptured around maxi Ethiopian and Australian opals, embellished with fancy sapphires, tsavorites, garnets, emeralds, tourmalines and diamonds. Chromatique reaches the peak of Boucheron’s creative “transgression” with white ceramic flowers surrounded by a blend of precious metal micro-particles, sprayed at high temperature to give a shimmering and almost surreal chromatic effect. Then Faisceaux, Halo, Laser and Prisme further strengthen the accomplishment with brooches, cuffs, rings, rigid necklaces and drop earrings in which rock crystal and ceramic guarantee a game of volumes and vibrations that recall some of the designer’s favorite shapes. The pinnacle of the collection is the Holographyque set whose lacquered necklace with its holographic coating, celebrates the magic of matter thanks to the fine blades of crystal of which it is made. A unique item, generated by challenging the light that reigned in the company’s creative workshops on the day of its creation.