Cartier has recently unveiled their new Grain de Cafe Collection featuring ambassador Elle Fanning, as the face of the campaign. Fanning has been aligned with Cartier since 2021.

This is not an ordinary high jewelry campaign but one that showcases Fanning as the iconic Hollywood actress and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly — a devoted lover of Cartier jewelry.

Elle Fanning became a Cartier ambassador on April 22, 2021, marking a new milestone for the talent, who has been making a name for herself as one of the most talented and versatile young actresses in Hollywood.

Fanning’s partnership with the brand has brought a fresh, youthful energy coupled with female competence, grace and old-school allure to Cartier’s brand's image.

If there is a future remake of a Grace Kelly film, Fanning is certain to get the part. People who have watched the Cartier Commercial for the relaunched Grain de Café Collection are quite astonished.

To pay tribute to Grace Kelly, the iconic Hollywood star, Cartier turned to American director Alex Prager whose sensitivity resonates with the codes of the collection.

In the new campaign shots, Fanning wears the important, yet discrete, diamond pieces from the Grain de Cafe collection, all featuring the signature bean motif.

The original story of the collection is embedded in a difficult time in world history when Cartier’s creative director Jeanne Toussaint had risen quickly to the coveted and rare for a woman design position in Paris.

AOC will detail her rise in a separate post, at a time when Cartier is honoring Toussaint in Hong Kong.

Grace Kelly and Cartier

Grace Kelly remains one of the most iconic figures in Hollywood history. Known for her timeless beauty, style, and talent, the Princess of Monaco was often seen wearing Cartier.

One of Grace Kelly's most famous moments in Cartier jewelry came on her wedding day. In 1956, she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco wearing a Cartier brooch that was studded with diamonds and three emeralds. The brooch remains one of the most iconic pieces of jewelry in history and is often referred to as the Princess Grace Kelly Leaf Brooch.

We might argue, however, that Princess Grace achieved true immortality wearing her Cartier coffee bean necklace on the official stamp of Monaco after the birth of her daughter Princess Caroline.

The Princess shared a love for elegance and sophistication, qualities that define both Cartier's designs and Grace Kelly's timeless beauty.

Simply put, Grace Kelly and Cartier were the perfect match.

Cartier’s Grain de Café Collection Born in 1938

The Grain de Café collection was first launched in 1938 by Cartier creative director Jeanne Toussaint. In touch with popular culture in 1938, Toussaint believed that every moment and every experience in life is like a grain of coffee, which when carefully roasted and brewed, releases its full flavor.

AOC has studied Jeanne Toussaint’s background in depth. The designer’s own family background in Belgium was a modest one, and it surely gave her a more instinctual understanding of the social balancing act of enormous wealth against simpler, more substantative values. The two are not mutually exclusive.

But in creating Cartier’s Grain de Café Collection, Toussaint tapped into her knowledge of global power and conflicts, economic suffering and rising authoritarianism. Quiet luxury was on her creative mind.

Toussaint saw the Grain de Café collection as a celebration of life's little joys and pleasures, such as the first sip of coffee in the morning or the warmth of the sun on a lazy afternoon. She believed that these simple moments were what made life worth living, and that the Grain de Café collection was a tribute to them.

Most certainly Grain de Café also channeled Café Society and the growing international intelligentsia of writers, artists, artisans and philosophers supported by the wealthy members of Café Society.

The collection featured delicate coffee bean-shaped designs crafted from exquisite materials, including diamonds, rubies, and gold. The pieces were meant to be worn and admired every day, serving as a constant reminder of life's beauty and simplicity.

With the Grain de Café collection, Toussaint aimed to make a jewelry statement in a tenuous international moment when the global economy was emerging from the US stock market crash in 1929, which quickly spread to Europe.

The ensuing Great Depression was marked by high unemployment rates, massive bank failures and a severe contraction of industry and trade worldwide. The global depression hit countries such as Germany, France and Britain the hardest, with each nation experiencing widespread unemployment and social unrest.

Adolf Hitler became Germany's new chancellor in January 1933 — five years before Cartier created their coffee bean collection.

The Great Depression created political instability and crises in these countries, which in turn led to the rise of far-right political movements and dictatorships.

Simpler and consciously discreet, the Grain de Café collection expressed values that were the exact opposite of the excessive and flaunted wealth of Café Society.

With the Grain de Café collection, Toussaint prioritized creating jewelry that was both elegant and meaningful, capturing the spirit of life in each and every piece.

With the enormous popularity in New York of classic spots like the Rainbow Room and Bemelman’s Bar, where young people are discovering their grandparents’ favorite hangouts, the moment seems very right for bringing back Cartier’s Grain de Café collection.

Yes, martinis. Gen Z is drinking martinis as a sign of the times. Buckle up. ~ Anne