Authentic and sparkly: The natural world according to Boucheron
The maison’s latest high jewellery collection is a master class in technical prowess, artistic finesse and boundless imagination
THE FINE VEIN OF A leaf, the slight tremble of a plant, and delicate wings about to take flight. Contemporary high jewellery has never looked so good – or realistic. While nature has always fired the imagination of jewellers, none have sought to represent it in as unique and life-like a way as Boucheron.
This astonishing realism is evident in Untamed Nature, the French jeweller’s Histoire de Style 2025 high jewellery collection. Through 28 new creations in white gold and diamonds across two chapters – plants and insects – creative director Claire Choisne expands the maison’s meticulous focus on detail to incorporate movement, precision, artistry and extraordinary finesse.
Her contemporary creations are rooted in founder Frederic Boucheron’s attention to nature. He built a library of more than 600 works to study and portray the natural world with great accuracy. At a time in the late 19th century when an idealised and symmetrical nature was celebrated among other jewellers, he preferred their untamed, fluid and organic forms, and eschewed the majestic for the domestic.
Boucheron was inspired by the ordinary and the humble, evident in his repertoire, which includes beetles and dragonflies dancing with clovers, daisies, wild roses and thistles. Even wind-swept plants, twisted leaves and wilted flowers were honoured with precious creations.
True to life and transformable
Building on that foundation, Choisne – who is herself known for pushing the boundaries with ultra-innovative jewellery – has added a new dimension by working versatility into the pieces. Clip systems, detachable parts and ingenious hidden mechanisms allow inventive wearing options. The jewellery can adorn the hair, sit over the ear, or spread across the shoulder just as comfortably as they can be worn on the neck, wrist or finger.
Take Airelles (lingonberries), for example, where the stems can be detached from the necklace to form a separate cascading brooch or smaller brooches. An intricate system of articulations ensures fluidity, so each stem is free to mould itself to the body’s contours.
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Meanwhile, the humble, wind-blown stalks of oat grass in Avoine (oats) look as if they’ve just been picked and tucked into the hair. With highly intricate craftsmanship and attention to minute detail, the delicate spikelets sway with the slightest movement. This hair jewellery can also be turned into fibula brooches.
Ensuring a prickly-looking thistle is still incredibly comfortable to wear is the magic of Chardon (thistle), which reinterprets an 1878 Boucheron archive piece. With computer-aided design, the details, outlines and three-dimensional contours of this hardy plant are vividly captured in a shimmering necklace and brooch.
This contrasts with the challenge of reproducing the weightlessness of a Fuchsia blossom, which calls for utmost flair and artistry. Here, each petal is individually crafted to mimic the flower’s asymmetry, while a fully articulated pistil sways, and new buds are formed with diamonds.
Be they plants or insects
Monsieur Boucheron’s favourite plant is given even more special treatment in this collection. Lierre (ivy) coils around the arm as a bracelet or spreads across the chest in a long, cascading brooch.
The branches can also be detached and transformed into a necklace, hair jewels or smaller brooches. More astoundingly, the leaves are mounted on customised tremblers so they quiver in a natural manner.
With Roseau (reed), the beauty is in capturing the fleeting moment when feathery panicles open and leaves unfurl. Each stem is also tipped wih a bead of dew, represented by a sparkly oval diamond.
Equally life-like are the pieces reinterpreting insects from Boucheron’s archives.
From the Scarabee Rhinoceros (rhinoceros beetle), Bourdon (bumblebee) and Papillon de Nuit (moth) to the Trio of Insects, each piece is testament to the unparalleled attention to detail and exceptional skill. How else can iridescent, transparent wings – mere millimetres thick – be fashioned from rock crystal and mother-of-pearl, complete with hand engraving to simulate veining?
All the while, technical genius and hidden mechanisms allow the pieces to easily switch between brooches and two-finger rings.
With Untamed Nature, Boucheron has outdone itself in hyperrealism, and shown itself to be a contemporary high jeweller extraordinaire.
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