Take a back seat, polished gold. Your shiny and reflective surface has been looking a bit too brash recently as the matte, low-key look of brushed gold has been catching everyone’s eye.
At the high jewelry presentations in January in Paris, for example, Chaumet used brushed gold to great effect in Un Air de Chaumet, a collection that was an ode to lightness and movement. The Plumes d’or tiara featured a burst of brushed and textured rose gold feathers that alternated with diamond-set white gold ones, the contrast creating a play of light. The tiara could be transformed into a brooch or a head ornament, with an asymmetrically set 2.30-carat pear-shape diamond offering a figurative interpretation of a bird. Matching ear cuffs would create a set.
Un Air was not Chaumet’s first exploration with brushed gold. Last year, the house introduced the finish in a pendant design for its signature fine jewelry line, Liens, which features a crisscross motif.
And in September the Cartier Love bracelet, which has become one of jewelry’s most recognizable designs since it was created in 1969 by the designer Aldo Cipullo, debuted in brushed gold, but with its signature screws retaining their polished finish.
“The contrast between polished and brushed surfaces is really in our aesthetic vocabulary,” said Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage, who noted that the house often combines polished and satin finishes in its watches. “The mix of the two effects is very interesting — the way it plays with light differently.”
