Simply Abu Dhabi XXVII

6 8 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I DIOR Dior’s latest high jewellery collection, Dior à Versailles, is dedicated to the flourishing gardens of Versailles. The stunning pieces transport the beholder on a botanical journey inspired by those magnificently manicured and verdant gardens. There are 66 jewels in the collection comprising a delicate display of the famous chateau’s emblematic garden designs, distinguished by its methodical design decorated with overflowing flashes of vibrant blooms. Dior’s Jewellery Creative Director, Victoire de Castellane, explains, “I wanted that, in each jewel, we rediscover the paradoxical combining of nature and culture, so characteristic of Le Nôtre’s work and of the park of Versailles.” Emeralds, diamonds and coloured sapphires form trees, petals and flowers. Rings in sculpted amazonite or agate echo the depths of the ornamental lakes. In its magnificence, the collection is a potpourri of beauty and opulence. Dior has created intricate works of art that recreate the romantic and nostalgic destination of Versailles. The necklaces were monumental masterpieces in which the opulence of the famous palace are embodied. Much like the gardens themselves, each piece was designed with architecture in mind, with supreme emphasis on form and design. Victoire de Castellane dreamed of an idealised Versailles, true to its roots yet contemporary, fresh and vibrant as the sunlight reflected on the leaves and petals of the flowers and trees in that flourishing oasis. NOOR FARES Noor Fares is one of the most appreciated contemporary jewellery designers whose star is deservedly in the ascendant. Flavie Audi is an exciting new face in the contemporary art world, and the two have formed an alliance to create Superlunary – a jewellery collection that combines their two ways of thinking and approaching things in life. Audi and Fares combine digital technology with traditional craftsmanship techniques, working with highly skilled artisans to create unique new jewellery pieces which double as works of art. In Audi’s words, her “Dazzling world enters Noor’s esoteric geometry to result in a new collection of jewels for Noor Fares.” The Superlunary collection fuses Audi’s exploration into the symbiosis of the synthetic and the natural with Fares’s minimal aesthetic, creating pieces echoing lunar bodies transfixed in a seemingly eternal fluidity that hover between the realm of the real and the synthesised. The fluid geometry of the pieces is created through different processes: hand carved stone requiring high levels of craftsmanship inlaid with artificial and natural gems, synthetic resin swallowing natural stones to form ethereal clouds, silver and resin moulded by a 3D printer. The collection balances on the relationship between artificial and natural. Craftsmanship and machine work, precious and synthetic materials, defined geometry and curved lines that look like a moon – the Superlunary collection is a meditation on duality and a reflection of the values and authenticity within these materials. s s