Lindsey Wixson Soars in ZARA South 2022 Campaign by Elivaveta Porodina July 2022 AOC Jewelry News

Creative Director of Hermès Jewelry Pierre Hardy discusses House’s latest high jewelry collection ‘Les Jeux de L’ombre’, created by Hardy to give “form to the elusive”. It relates the movement of shadow and its relationship with light, and the contrasts that connect them..

Such a cerebral concept requires an equally conceptual photographer with an inner vision and signature technique to translate Hardy’s splendid jewelry pieces beyond their origins in a study of Caravaggio’s painting techniques and his chiaroscuros.

Elizaveta Porodina [IG] quickly emerged as the perfect photographer to create a totally-modern, 21st century visual dialogue around the new collection, modeled by Alyda Grace. Victoire Simonney styled the Hermes ad campaign with set design by Sophear Van Froment. / Hair by Olivier Schawalder; makeup by Cecile Paravina

“We always talk about light and sparkle in jewelery, so I wanted to take the opposite approach,” Hardy explains. “In the performing arts I’ve always loved the incandescent effect of the spotlights as well as the shadows they cast on the stage floor. I find this distortion of light very appealing.”

“Yes, the triptych necklaces, or light boxes, as I like to call them,” Hardy says. “I designed them to be like altarpieces, with sliding mother-of-pearl panels that open up to reveal a hidden medallion. They can be worn open or closed, depending on whether you want to keep their sunlight to yourself or share it with others. Shadows have an inner light. I had this intuition one day when I was looking at Caravaggio’s painting and his chiaroscuros. So I designed these pieces to be tiny theatres that could both hide and show off this light.”

Among the innovations in Pierre Hardy’s Hermès high jewelry collection ‘Les Jeux de L’ombre’, is a unique approach to pavé setting. Conceptually, Hardy approached the setting like a solid — almost industrial —material with its own form and volume. “On the Chaînes d’ombre necklace above, the juxtaposition of flat-cut white diamonds shadowed by dégradés of black spinels and blue sapphires gives the Chaîne d’ancre chain link its volume. Gracefully flexing across the skin, this necklace required each individual stone to be meticulously gemset.”

Functional esthetics are fundamental to Hermès high jewelry collections, and they soar with the ‘Coulers du Jour’ necklace [above]. The triptych opens and closes, concealing its treasures one moment, then displaying them to the light in the next.