With celestial themes, Louis Vuitton is tapping into with its new high jewelry collection called Stellar Times. Conceived and created by Francesca Amfitheatrof, the house’s artistic director for jewelry and watches.

Stellar Times fuses art and science, the rational and instinctive, the physical and metaphysical. Amfitheatrof wanted the collection to explore the mysteries of the universe, to conjure a feeling of wonder and awe – as if felt by a child stargazing for the first time. “The effect it has on you, when you try to comprehend the vastness of the cosmos and our place in it – it’s impossible to grasp.” In her characteristic method-acting-type process, Amfitheatrof studied the solar system, the colors of gases and how the Milky Way acts as a nursery for newborn stars.

Colur and light are the guiding stars of the collection, with different gemstones used to represent seven different themes: ruby for Astre Rouge, the red planet; sapphire and emerald for Planète Bleue, Earth; heavenly light-green-blue indicolite tourmaline for Apogée; or a hazy, melting watercolor-toned constellation of colored spinels for Interstellaire. These colors were then transformed into sculptural jewels – 90 pieces in total – which are graphic, sleek and contemporary yet infused with the majesty of the planets.

To create the effect of cosmic luminosity, the collection plays with cuts of diamonds, making extensive use of baguettes to generate the impression of dynamic movement. The diamond-set structures of sumptuously bombé-shaped rings, topped with single stones of arresting color, are traced in fine geometric lines that also cunningly incorporate the LV initials. The design, says Amfitheatrof, is intended to capture the equilibrium on Earth between water and vegetation, while the elongated baguettes shimmer like moonlight on water.

This Vuitton jewelry signature, and the whole collection, points to the company’s big push onto the upper echelons of high jewelry – the innermost sanctum of the diamond world – highlighted by the house’s high-profile acquisition this year of the 1758 carat Sewelô diamond, the second-­largest rough-gem diamond in the world.