This season’s catwalk jewellery shows flashes of genius

Left, earrings, £885, by Lanvin. Right, earrings, £1,025, by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Hair: Takuya Uchiyama. Make-up: Nicola Moores-Brittin at Coffin Inc using Kiehl’s. Model: Naomi van Kampen at Milk Management

(Image credit: Marc Hibbert)

There’s renewed verve in catwalk jewellery. Giant diamanté earrings, with all the glisten and gleam of a mirrorball, are the showstoppers this season. Scale is key – the performance aspect of the catwalk requires some theatricality in the jewellery. Lanvin’s over-long strands of diamanté tumbled from the ear like a waterfall, cascading in a fringe, from a bar that reached all the way across the lobe. At Saint Laurent, traditional cuts – round, emerald, baguette – were blown way out of proportion in off-kilter danglers, referencing the glamour of the 1980s. Marni altered the tone with a figurative take: mixed gold and blackened metal gave an antique chandelier effect when clashed with voluminous white paste floral motifs. Chanel, riffing on its classic Maltese cross designs in sizeable white metal pavé frames, displayed a lighter touch but that didn’t make its earrings any less bold and brilliantly playful, as the best catwalk jewellery design should be.

As originally featured in the April 2017 issue of Wallpaper (W*217)

Left, earrings, &pound;460, by Marni; bodysuit (worn throughout), &pound;140, by Wolford. Right, earrings, &pound;715, by Chanel — Left, earrings, £460, by Marni; bodysuit (worn throughout), £140, by Wolford. Right, earrings, £715, by Chanel

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Caragh McKay is a contributing editor at Wallpaper* and was watches & jewellery director at the magazine between 2011 and 2019. Caragh’s current remit is cross-cultural and her recent stories include the curious tale of how Muhammad Ali met his poetic match in Robert Burns and how a Martin Scorsese Martin film revived a forgotten Osage art.