Luxury house Hermès introduced a new high jewelry collection ‘Les Jeux de l’Ombre’ designed by Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewelry. It was launched during the thrill of Paris Haute Couture Week, in an impressive display of theatre performance created by Lina Lapelytè. The fashion photographer Elizaveta Porodina cleverly captured the collection using editing techniques such as superimposition and saturation associated with psychedelics to give us a wondrous experience.
According to Hermès “the collection relates the movement of shadow and its relationship with light, and the contrasts that connect them.” Light plays a vital role in exhibiting jewelry by contributing to its overall beauty and vividness as it holds the ability to capture the countless hues, contours, and textures. Seldom do we hear mentioned its reverse side and shadow. Hardy’s encapsulated the themes of the intangible shadows and their relationship to light for his seventh collection. “We always talk about light and sparkle in jewelry, so I wanted to take the opposite approach,” Hardy explains.
As you move through the collection the introduction to light is done through gems in gradating or monochrome hues as seen on the ‘Miroir d’ombre’ necklace.
Hardy explores ideas of duality, the juxtaposition of light and dark, with pieces that are split in two as seen on the ‘Chaînes d’ombre’ necklace in the use of flat-cut white diamonds shadowed by dégradés of black spinels and blue sapphires.
Functional esthetics that are so essential to Hermès with ingenious jewelry mechanisms reach its zenith in the ‘Couleurs du jour’ necklace, a triptych that opens and closes, one minute hiding its treasures and the next revealing them to the light.
The beauty of the materials used is showcased in the ‘Lumières brutes’ a series of rings and earrings made from rough, uncut stones, chosen for their intensity. By filtering the light, yellow diamonds, brown diamonds, spessartite garnets, tsavorite garnets, and tourmalines produce variations of a single hue that take us back to their original splendor, as treasures of the earth.
Pierre Hardy, the house’s creative director of jewelry for over two decades, has yet again artfully created a collection of 53 pieces continuing Hermès’ legacy of fine craftsmanship dating all the way back to 1837.
‘Les jeux de l’ombre’ is showcased at the 24, Faubourg Saint-Honoré Store in Paris from July 7-30, 2022.
