Dior Joaillerie: The Dictionary of Victoire de Castellane

Description

As creative director of Dior Joaillerie since its beginnings in 1998, Victoire de Castellane is renowned for her fearless approach to jewellery. Crossing the boundary between natural and artificial, her fantastical jewels are inspired by global pop culture, Christian Dior's life and work, and the floral world and embody a timeless, poetic style. To fete twenty years of Victoire de Castellane's designs, this luxurious volume presents a dictionary of twenty-six chapters, each introduced with a dazzling drop cap embellished with an original photo collage. From the first collections to the acclaimed Excentriques necklaces and the celebrated floral gardens of Belladone Island, Dior Joaillerie's history is explored from its debut and up to the latest collection, Gem Dior, presented in Venice in June 2019 and exclusively shot for this publication. More than 300 images by renowned photographers such as Guido Mocafico and Erwan Frottin illustrate this original alphabetical journey. Through the dictionary entries penned by Olivier Gabet, director of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, readers uncover nonlinear, playful insights into the fascinating world of one of the world's foremost jewellery designers. Printed in Italy and with creative direction by Thomas Lenthal, this exquisite piece of bookmaking is a stunning homage to Victoire de Castellane's artistry and imagination.

Victoire de Castellane has been the creative director of Dior Joaillerie since 1998. Olivier Gabet is the director of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs (MAD) in Paris.

"Spanning de Castellane's colourful career at Dior so far, it is a voyage through her ground-breaking designs from the neon-bright, writhing, flower explosion of the Belladone Island collection shown at the Orangerie Museum in Paris in 2007 to her witty bejewelled skulls or the beautifully menacing Milly Carnivora blooms. Divided into two sections, the first is an alphabetical collection of her favourite words, concepts and ideas illustrated with her kooky pencil sketches, often featuring Mr Christian Dior himself. 'C' gives us carnivore, cocktail and crowns, a fitting welcome to the wonderful world of Victoire. The second half is dedicated to photographs of jewels which beam out from the glossy black pages and is almost as good seeing the real thing." - THEJEWELLERYEDITOR.COM "She enchants with her jewelry and evokes an immediate response that causes you to do a double-take and continue to examine the details as more and more are revealed in each piece. Dior Joaillerie: The Dictionary Of Victoire De Castellane By Victoire de Castellane with text by Olivier Gabet (Rizzoli New York , release date: December 2020) has captured all of this feeling and more." -FORBES.COM "Jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane has been at the helm of Dior Joaillerie since it began in 1998. Her whimsical taste melds with unimaginably magnificent jewels with fantasy and nature inspiring the collections. The book starts with a dictionary that takes you through the alphabet according to Dior. It consists of 158 words defined and each letter of the alphabet illustrated by Victoire, and over 300 images of her mesmerizing creations. It's an Alice in Wonderland meets Secret Garden picture book-the ideal gift for any sparkle chaser." - MEETTHEJEWELERS.COM "As a child, I loved dictionaries," and so begins this spirited book, a sort of autobiography in words and pictures of Victoire de Castellane.. de Castellane, who has been designing jewelry for the House of Dior for more than 20 years, offers bon mots, musings and sage advice in a riff on the alphabet. A is for asymmetry, which "is much more difficult than symmetry"; T is "trompe l'oeil, which "proves that realism does not prevent imagination,"; and perhaps best of all, N is for "no": "A word I never heard in our jewelry ateliers for everything is possible there."...There follows a word-free display of de Castellane's rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings-jewelry in all its colorful musings and imagination. At no surprise there is a feeling for texture and movement in her personal collection, a fitting nod to Dior's importance and legacy. de Castellane fuses gemstones with fashion in a way the great couturier would doubtless embrace." -NATURAL DIAMOND COUNCIL