Jewelry at the Cannes Festival 2025: A Return to Classicism

Coordinated sets, white diamonds, timeless design. The tone conveyed by the jewelry gracing the numerous red carpets of the Cannes Festival premieres, from May 13 to 24, 2025, highlights the enduring vitality of classicism, a style that still has plenty to say. Although this year’s much-discussed festival dress code imposed stricter rules (sometimes bent), even in jewelry choices, where creativity might have pushed boundaries, a measured return to traditional codes prevailed, favoring a timeless elegance that reassures rather than shocks. Exuberance was certainly present, but what dominated were coherent pairings, refined craftsmanship, and pure gemstones. It’s no coincidence that the parure, the complete, symbolic ensemble of matched jewelry pieces, made a powerful comeback. Born in European courts between the 17th and 18th centuries, the parure stood for centuries as an expression of power and status, a symbol of adherence to a codified taste and elite belonging. On the Croisette, that same impeccable formula of matching reemerged, as if to reaffirm the strength of a legible beauty: the right choice to assert, then as now, a solid and recognizable status. Few abandoned princely collars, rigid or semi-rigid, adorned with prominent drops of rubies or emeralds, strictly paired with matching earrings or rings. Many opted for the ethereal, immaculate brilliance of diamonds, arranged in coordinated sets that perfectly reflect solidity, continuity, and value. This choice aligns with new market trajectories. After years of slowdown, with a significant drop in prices particularly for medium and large natural diamonds, 2024 marked the first signs of recovery: tentative but meaningful. Geopolitical tensions, economic instability, and growing attention to ethics and transparency have reaffirmed diamonds as a safe haven asset. Sales grew by about 1%, modest, yes, but indicative. Medium-term forecasts confirm this new course. According to Allied Market Research, the global diamond market could reach $155.5 billion by 2032, with an estimated annual growth rate around 4.5%. Meanwhile, historic maisons are dusting off their archives, mirroring trends in luxury prêt-à-porter. Heritage has become a strategic lever to strengthen brand narrative coherence and offer an increasingly informed and conscious audience a sense of continuity and authenticity. Not nostalgia, then, but a cultural positioning before an aesthetic one that restores jewelry’s original aspirational function.