In white gold set with mother-of-pearl or diamond pavé, in yellow gold with onyx or lapis lazuli, the jewels from the Christian Dior Rose des Vents collection designed by Victoire de Castellane are precious talismans, inspired by the designers’s lucky star and the rose, his favorite flower.

“Rose des Vents is also a metaphor for creation,” explains Victoire de Castellane. “Creating is about searching, turning things over, and then finding ones cardinal point and setting off on a journey. Creation is the product of a stationary voyage.”

It’s by tapping into this inspiration and using a gouache sketch as a starting point that the artisan jeweler makes the initial model of the jewel by hand in an easily malleable green resin. Then, using the eons-old lost-wax technique, the wax is replaced by gold. The gold is then carefully worked by hand by the artisan who refines the ouece’s details. The edges display the same level of care given to the inside of a couture garment, where Victoire de Castellane, echoing naval rigging and the call of the open seas, designed a twisted gold rice grain cable to encircle the medallion.

Whether showing the hardstone or wind rose side, constantly changing as the body moves, the finesse lent to the star in relief is just as delicately judged as the selection of nuances of lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, turquoise, pink opal and onyx.

With bracelets, necklaces long and short, the collection develops the motif and broadens the horizons of the medallion jewel.

Discover the secrets behind the making of the Rose des Vents collection, in the private world of the jewelry ateliers.