Louis Vuitton's Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds High Jewelry for SCMP Style
/
SCMP Style [South China Morning Post] [IG] September 2024 issue turns its attention to Louis Vuitton’s ‘Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds’ high jewelry collection.
The all Louis Vuitton fashions are styled by Brit Cato for models Biliny Mabil and Myriam Chenesseau. Photographer Marco Cella [IG] captures the high-minded jewelry in all its splendor. / Hair by Anne Sofia Begtrup; makeup by Anga Borodina
Artistic director Francesca Amfitheatrof’s sixth high jewelry collection for Louis Vuitton honors the maison’s French roots and its great craftsmen who melded innovation with a deep respect for French history and culture.
Explore the ‘Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds’ collection on the Louis Vuitton website.
“France in the 19th century was a phenomenal time of incredible change, and when Paris really became the centre of the world,” says Amfitheatrof. “The design language of Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds reflects that – all its intricacies, complications and innovations – expressed through incredible jewels.”
The first chapter — ‘Awakened Hands’ — is comprised of 100 unique pieces inspired by an important moment in world history. The French Revolution of 1789 brought down the Monarchy and the ancien régime, resulting in the beheading of King Louis XVI and his famous wife, Marie Antoinette.
The Revolution lasted until 1792, resulting in the National Assembly abolishing the monarchy and declaring the First Republic from 1792-1799.
With the end of royal court rule in France, artisans were free to explore their own creativity and ‘savoir faire’. This cultural explosion in artisan experimentation and free-thinking — coupled with an expanding wealthy clientele supporting their efforts — greeted 16-year-old Louis Vuitton when he arrived in Paris in 1837.
The second chapter of the new high jewelry collection— ‘Awakened Minds’ — embraces ideas of industrialization, mechanization, graphic repetition and balanced geometry.
In a very real sense, Paris was the center of this European awakening and the gradual but definitive secularization that accompanied it.
France has not wavered in its determination to honor and embrace the place of religion in the lives of its citizens. But unlike the United States, France does not fear becoming a theocracy. France has political divisions similar to those in other nations of the world. But no one is trying to abolish the French national government, to the best of AOC’s knowledge. ~ Anne
