Diamonds are celebrated for their size and sparkle, but until recently, their origin was an afterthought (provided the stones were guaranteed to be conflict-free). With its latest high jewellery collection, Reflections of Nature, De Beers is placing the source of its most magnificent gems front and centre.
Comprising five sets and a total of 39 exclusive high jewellery pieces that combine faceted and rough diamonds and stones in multiple fancy shapes and fancy colours, the range is inspired by the landscapes of De Beers’ diamond producing countries: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada.
“With this collection, we wanted to take everyone on a journey and escape to these locations that reside in the countries close to De Beers’ heart,” said De Beers Jewellers CEO Céline Assimon on a video promoting the new collection.
The dunes of the Namib Desert, the earth’s oldest desert, inspired the nine pieces in the Namib Wonder set, which features yellow and white diamonds in an undulating design. A number of its pieces are strung with rough gems in cap settings — aka “spectacle-set,” a De Beers signature — that allow the stones to move freely, creating the effect of swinging fringe.
The high jewellery Motlatse Marvel set — including a collar necklace that emanates “rays” of gem-set stones, a medallion-like cocktail ring and a colourful gem-encrusted take on the traditional line bracelet — renders the spectacular sunsets over Motlatse Canyon in South Africa in a motley array of coloured diamonds, including orange, pink and yellow gems in varying hues. Cooler accent stones are meant to evoke the canyon’s shadowy depths.
“The necklace is a sunburst of diamond light and energy,” Assimon says.
The watery wilderness of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, De Beers’ most important producing country, appears in the Okavango Grace set as an array of spectacular greenish diamonds in formations designed to evoke reeds.
In the necklace, “rough and polished diamonds suspended in organic strands move with the wearer,” Assimon said. “The climber earrings move like liquid light.”
The Landers Radiance set is an ode to the underwater world of South Africa’s Landers Reef. Boasting the collection’s largest mix of diamond cuts and colours, the pieces employ cushion-, marquise- and round brilliant-cut stones in beguiling juxtapositions. The Landers Radiance bracelet, a standout piece, is strung with spectacle-set rough yellow diamonds.
Finally, the Ellesmere Treasure set, a tribute to the ice-covered flora of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, stands apart as the only one to strictly feature white, or colourless, gems. “The necklace is quite a departure from the other sets,” Assimon said. “We wanted it to reflect the icy wilderness.”
Previously published on Robb Report.
