Desert roses
‘Rebellious and resistant, tempting and haunting.’ That’s how Cartier describes its new Cactus de Cartier collection. While the choice of thorny flora might seem slightly incongruous, and possibly frowned up by feng shui experts, Cartier’s succulent ode to the desert is enchanting and beautiful.
Bold, bright and colourful, Cactus de Cartier is a collection of rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces that depict the cactus in playful, bulbous forms. Using chrysoprases, emeralds, carnelians, lapis lazuli and brilliant-cut diamonds, it captures the vivid shades of the spiky plants that dot the deserts. In squat, spherical shapes, beads of green chrysoprasea and emeralds are punctuated by brilliant red bulbs of carnelian, representing the cactus in full bloom, which only happens at night – which is an appropriate metaphor. Elsewhere, gold beads set with tiny diamond and emerald flowers capture the cactus at daybreak, still glistening with dew as it closes up at the sun’s rise.
This is not a collection for the shy wallflower. Coyer damsels may opt for Cartier’s more traditional floral blooms; Cactus de Cartier is a showy, grand statement of confidence that speaks volumes of its wearer – a beautiful tour de force of nature that has to be handled carefully.
The Cactus de Cartier collection will be available in Malaysia in October.
