In Les Formes de la Couleur, Hermès high jewellery splits the rainbow

In Les Formes de la Couleur, the latest range of high jewellery by Hermès, artistic director Pierre Hardy sought to give shape to colours. “I wanted to find a way to express this fundamental phenomenon,” he explains in press notes, to “build a strong, autonomous and independent identity.”At its most adventurous, the jewellery takes the abstract notion of colour—a phenomenon that arises from light—and gives it a physical, definite form.

Colour Flash bracelet in rose gold with rubies, blue and yellow sapphires, tsavorite and spessartite garnets, and amethysts. Courtesy of HermèsPortraits de la Couleur ring in rose gold, set with a square-cut 3.25ct rhodolite garnet, with rubies, garnets and red lacquer.

Courtesy of HermèsPortraits de la Couleur ring in white gold, set with a brilliant-cut 1.11ct sapphire, with blue chalcedony cabochons, sapphires and blue lacquer.Courtesy of HermèsA series dubbed Portraits de la Couleur, for example, connects certain shades with geometric shapes.

It’s not unlike Wassily Kandinsky’s theory that colours have a natural association with certain forms. Yellow and triangles, red and squares, and blue and circles, for example. It’s not, strictly speaking, scientific—but certainly a creative interpretation of the thought by Hardy.

As jewels, Hermès has elaborated red with a square, formed of baguette-cut garnets and rubies, and centred by a square-cut rhodolite garnet. Blue takes form as circles, in particular a round brilliant-cut blue sapphire of 1.11 carats framed by bulbous chalcedony cabochons.

Green, meanwhile, takes on a slick quality in a mono-earring, pictured above, fashioned after a fresh brushstroke of paint composed of monochromatic tsavorite garnets.Arc en Couleurs necklace in rose gold with blue, yellow and pink sapphires, tsavorite and spessartite garnets, tanzanites, amethysts, and diamonds.Courtesy of HermèsArc en Couleurs bracelet in rose gold with blue, yellow and pink sapphires, tsavorite and spessartite garnets, tanzanites, amethysts, and diamonds.

Courtesy of HermèsIn the chapter titled Arc en Couleurs, undulating shapes adapt and mould to the curves of the body. Gemstones, selected for a soft palette of colours, create a delicate effect. Not of blinding, statement shades against the skin, but enhancing hues that whisper their beauty.

Necklaces and bracelets are articulated with highly technical mesh structures, and in a plastron-style necklace features over 1,400 stones to create its colour gradient.Supracolour necklace in platinum and white gold, set with a triangle-cut 1.10ct diamond in a triangle-cut 18.

41ct rutilated quartz, with diamonds, white, orange and grey moonstone pearls, black and grey spinels, chalcedony, chrysoprase, rose quartz and pink tourmaline.Courtesy of HermèsIn the Supracolour chapter, light is explored through diffraction—when the spectrum is split into colours. The heart of the idea is embodied in a one-of-a-kind necklace with a rutilated quartz centre, set with a triangle-cut diamond, worn on ropes of black spinel, grey spinel and moonstone beads; and strands of coloured stone beads like moonstone, chalcedony, chrysoprase, rose quartz and pink tourmaline.

Perhaps the most spellbinding, and unusual design, in a collection that might be the most daring venture into colours in Hermès high jewellery yet.The September ‘Kitsch’ issue of Vogue Singapore is available online.The post In Les Formes de la Couleur, Hermès high jewellery splits the rainbow appeared first on Vogue Singapore.

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