Kendrick Lamar wears a custom Crown of Thorns at Glastonbury by Tiffany & Co.

By Kim Parker

The legendary Tiffany & Co designer, Jean Schlumberger, has inspired many creative spirits with the jewels he crafted for the New York jeweller during the 1950s and 60s. But one of his pieces, the Thorns brooch which he created in 1947 just prior to joining Tiffany & Co., has now inspired one of today’s leading musicians, Kendrick Lamar. The Pulitzer Prize-winning artist wore a custom-designed crown of thorns modelled on the brooch to headline Glastonbury this week. It was also clearly a reference to Christ’s crown of thorns, worn to the crucifixion.

The crown was born out of a creative partnership between Tiffany & Co., Lamar and Lamar’s longtime creative collaborator, Dave Free. The pair commissioned the jeweller to create the bespoke titanium and pavé diamond crown – a process that took four of Tiffany’s artisans 10 months to complete. A twisted base of ‘vines’ with 50 spiky metallic thorns was assembled from 14 separate components, and the piece is set with over 8,000 white diamonds (weighing over 137 carats in total) in a cobblestone micro-pavé arrangement, so that it glittered. Each diamond was hand set, and secured with prongs usually reserved for the high jewellery making process.

Lamar, who closed his Glastonbury set with an urgent plea for defending women’s rights, actually gave a sneak preview of his precious crown of thorns a few days previously, when he appeared at Louis Vuitton’s men’s catwalk show in Paris. He performed four songs from his latest album, ‘Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers’ whilst wearing the crown, and remained seated amongst the show attendees during his set.

“Kendrick Lamar represents the artistry, risk-taking, creativity and relentless innovation that has also defined Tiffany & Co. for nearly two centuries,” said Alexandre Arnault, Executive Vice President of Product and Communication at the jeweller, which is currently mounting an ambitious retrospective of its designs at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Like this? Read all about Kendrick Lamar’s watch and jewellery collection