Chopard’s 2017 Red Carpet collection is worth a queen’s ransom

If it seems like we're showing Chopard more love than usual, that would be due to the maison commandeering the limelight with the Cannes Film Festival and the Mille Miglia 2017 Edition — both of which are happening concurrently as you're reading this line. With so much prestige your spidey-senses could pick up on the paparazzi looking over your shoulder, the Red Carpet collection is everything you'd expect from an haute joaillerie lineup inspired by the divas that grace the Cannes Festival.

Featuring 70 amazingly exquisite creations (a number intended to tie-in with the festival editions), this year's Red Carpet series reimagines the passion, vivacity and glamour of the film world. Born from the imagination of Chopard's creative director Caroline Scheufele — who has seen the collection reinvented annually since its conception in 2007 to represent the maison's partnership with Cannes — a rich palette of vividly coloured stones dazzles the eye. Cuff bracelets in richly brocaded arabesque motifs set with a kaleidoscope of gemstones are matched with chandelier earrings that suspend from the lobes like glittering waterfalls. Completing the parure are majestic necklaces crafted with audacious volume, such as the tanzanite-beaded chain that bears an exceptional pear-shaped 150-carat azure stone, surrounded by brilliant and pear-cut white diamonds meant to drape oh-so-stunningly over the neck. Even the rings are nothing short of show stopping, adorned with coloured stones of all cuts and centred by a single beautifully faceted gem shaped like a heart.

A bejewelled fantasy brought to life by fusing the ancestral skills and cutting-edge techniques of Chopard, the Red Carpet collection is a phantasmagoria of high jewellery that perfectly mirrors the glamour of the Cannes Film Festival — one that will beguile even the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Wallis Simpson.

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The 2017 Red Carpet collection debuts during the 70th Cannes Film Festival, running from 18 to 28 May