From star-spangled motifs at Chanel to outrageous gemstones at David Morris, the high jewellery presentations at Couture Week 2026 were an energetic riot of creativity and colour. Read more about them below.
Each summer, VIP clients (and the world’s jewellery press) flock to the storied boutiques around Place Vendôme in Paris to gaze at their latest feats of creativity. Using the finest gemstones, precious metals and innovative materials, these high jewellery confections take years to produce, and showcase the very pinnacle of a house’s capabilities, storytelling, and craftsmanship.
Here, a round-up of our favourites from this year…
MIKIMOTO
Entitled ‘Eclat’, Mikimoto‘s high jewellery collection for 2026 looked to the heavens for inspiration.
Dramatic bib necklaces, brooches, shoulder jewels and even a glorious headpiece (which took thousands of hours to produce) fused the Maison’s signature Akoya pearls with brilliant white diamonds and vivid gemstones such as tourmalines, emeralds, and sapphires, their starburst silhouettes and swirling, galaxy-like motifs paying homage to the beauty of the cosmos.
GRAFF
Normally releasing just one or two suites during Couture week, Graff instead unveiled a limited collection of 12 high jewellery butterfly brooches. Each transformable pin was similarly outlined with two pear shaped and two marquise-cut stones but showcased different coloured gems to spectacular effect, underlining the house’s dedication to the finest and rarest stones in the world.
HERMÈS
Honouring its roots as a maker of equestrian harnesses and saddles, Hermès once again looked to the world of horses and horsemanship for its latest biennial collection. “The horse itself is barely seen, but its symbolism lives within each piece, sometimes even taking on a metaphorical quality,” said Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewellery.
Cue a huge variety of sculptural pieces inspired by horse bits, bridles and stirrups, brooches with lassoes and cowboy boots, and sensual loops of gold and diamonds resembling coiled whips, belts and buckled straps, all adorned with shimmering diamonds and accented with sensual-coloured gemstones.
CHANEL
Chanel’s latest High Jewellery collection, Signes & Symboles, is a glittering celebration of the design codes first conceived by Gabrielle Chanel herself: the lion, the star, the sun and the camellia. Signes & Symboles takes these four emblems and weaves them into a heady, gemstone-rich collection (one of the most colourful ever created by the Maison) infused with playfulness, creative freedom and notions of protection.
Think fluid collars, plastron necklaces, statement rings and pendant earrings with the camellia, star and sun are arranged in graphic lines, sparkling stars suspended from a white gold necklace and bracelet like lucky charms, or picked out in diamonds and set in front of protective, shield-like forms on rings and earrings, and Chanel’s favourite camellias recreated as brooches embellished with enamel, rock crystal or pink sapphires.
CHAUMET
Chaumet’s ‘A Journey Through Nature’ collection serves as a tribute to luscious botanicals – particularly those found within the greenhouse of its most famous patron, the French Empress Josephine, which once held the largest collection of plant species in Paris.
Divided into three chapters (Botanic Freshness, Spicy Sweetness, and Aromatic Warmth), its numerous suites are replete with glittering references to leaves, petals and even exotics such as pepper, vanilla and coffee. One highlight, the Vanilla Flower necklace transforms the flower’s iconic pods into curvaceous, diamond-studded motifs framing a singular 10.71-carat D FL type II-A diamond.
PIAGET
The final chapter of Piaget’s ‘Extraleganza’ high jewellery collection – a tribute to the Maison’s heritage and used of dazzling coloured gemstones in the 1960s and 70s, plus its extraordinary in-house gold-smithing – features 65 joyful new creations centred around precious gold and accented with kaleidoscopic gemstones like emeralds, rubies, opals, tiger’s eye and mother of pearl.
“What I’ve focused on in this collection, more than the gems themselves, is their chromatic power – namely their presence, the energy they exude, and the unique qualities they express when combined with others,” observes creative director Stéphanie Sivrière. In this vein, lightning-bright black opal is framed with cushion-cut Madagascan sapphires and Paraiba tourmalines, to bring out the blueness of its internal reflections, while rose gold artfully encircles smooth tiger’s eye and mandarin garnets to bring out their sunset-like warmth.
BOUCHERON
Having tackled themes including royalty and the impermanence of nature, Boucheron has dedicated its annual ‘Carte Blanche’ High Jewellery collection to what it considers our most precious resource: humanity itself. Five extraordinary new necklace and jewellery sets share similar-looking silhouettes, but feature entirely different creative approaches, to highlight “what connects us, and what sets us apart,” says creative director Claire Choisne.
Entitled Rain, Flower, Light, Tattoo and Checkers, each parure makes use of unique materials and artistic techniques, all painstakingly researched and designed by Boucheron’s artisans, with help from specialist craftspeople who deployed their skilled savoir-faire and rare handcrafts to bring each jewel to life. The Flower set, for example, was decorated with the help of an expert painter of micro-miniatures, who adorned each piece of rose quartz with a microscopic floral motif – a feat requiring over 1,200 hours of work.
Likewise, the Tattoo set is decorated with motifs inspired by actual Victorian tattoos, translated into intricate carvings done on the reverse of each piece of smoky quartz by an expert glyptician, who had to invent their own specialist tools (over 200 of them in total) to get the job done.
DIOR
Dior’s latest high jewellery collection, Diorissima, is a tribute to the art of collage, and to the artists admired by Monsieur Dior himself. Throughout its three glistening chapters (with a total of 141 pieces), the collection makes thorough use of ‘doublets’, a complex technique where one gemstone is carefully layered over another to produce colours that would be impossible to achieve naturally: slices of opal set over chrysoprase, for example, or green chalcedony laid over turquoise. Meanwhile, another long-standing Dior Joaillerie signature, lacquer, introduces bold flashes of colour that feel playful, rather than poised. The effect is whimsical, irreverent and very, very, Dior.
TIFFANY & CO.
Tiffany’s Blue Book 2026 collection: Hidden Garden is a celebration of vibrant gemstones and sculptural designs that bring to life the beauty of nature, with reinterpretations of iconic motifs first presented by Tiffany & Co.’s legendary designer, Jean Schlumberger.
Its five sections (Raffia, Blossom, Daisy, Paradise Bird Brooches, and a Paradise Bird Toucan Watch) each feature a silhouette inspired by specific flora or fauna, and centre around one richly-hued gemstone. The Blossom pieces, for example showcase cabochon rubellites which the House expressed were: “selected for their rich, juicy red hue, [which] evokes the heart of a rare, blooming flower.”
Elsewhere, the Daisy chapter features emerald-cut blue zircons alongside emerald cabochons, while the Paradise Bird Brooches feature fantastical birds atop bold gemstones like Australian boulder opals, chrysoprase, American chrysocolla and Nigerian spessartine, and were all inspired by the House’s emblematic Bird on a Rock motif.
MESSIKA
Messika’s latest high jewellery collection, Terres Des Contrastes, continues its celebration of the African landscapes that gave rise to its signature diamonds. This time, founder and artistic director Valerie Messika takes us on an imaginative flight over Botswana, with sparkling jewels inspired by the rich topography and geology of the southern African region.
Shimmering rivers, verdant deltas, sun-drenched Kalahari sands and even the animalic skins of crocodiles, cheetahs and pythons are painstakingly articulated in bold volumes and mesmeric patterns of polished gold, specially-cut diamonds and colourful gemstones, highlighting show-stopping feature stones such as a fiery 16.98-carat Australian black opal, a Fancy Deep Brownish Yellow pear-cut diamond, a 12.81-carat emerald drop and, in one spectacular necklace, the 20.46-carat Okavango Blue diamond -the largest and rarest blue diamond ever to emerge from Botswana.
DAVID MORRIS
Exceptional gemstones have been the order of the day at London jeweller David Morris since the 1960s, and this year, the house’s one-of-a-kind creations continue that exploration of show-stopping rarity and vivid colour. “Colour has always been about instinct for me,” says Jeremy Morris. “Sometimes a combination reveals itself immediately, and other times it can take years to find the stones that belong together.” The 108-carats of Colombian emeralds in the Kalamos high jewellery necklace and earrings, for example, took five yeas to assemble, then set into voluminous, lattice-like constructions that evoke the traditional reed baskets seen in Greece.
Elsewhere, the Riviera Necklace features an incredible, collector-quality 184.15-carat unheated Sri Lankan sapphire, its intense, velvety blue hue, only matched by the 16.79-carat sapphire in its matching Levity ring, which is accented with the house’s signature blush-pink diamonds. The ultimate expression of David Morris’ legacy, however, must be the Fantasia ring, which sees a 4.42-carat Fancy Intense Green diamond, one of the rarest such stones in existence, framed by Fancy Pink and baguette-cut white diamonds.
DE BEERS
De Beers has looked to its bestselling house codes for inspiration this season, revealing two different high jewellery lines that nod to its Lotus and its Talisman collections. Lotus sees precious white gold pieces bearing intricate openwork design, the flowers of each signature motif set with carefully graduated diamonds in a rhythmic formation that gives the illusion of energy and movement, as if the flowers are unfurling. The Talisman collection, meanwhile, comprises four new high jewellery pieces crafted from handworked 18K yellow gold in bold and voluminous silhouettes, studded with desert-hued rough diamonds – each a statement piece, yet all surprisingly wearable.
POMELLATO
Entitled Stile Libero, Pomellato’s vibrant new collection is intended as a colourful tribute to a sense of freedom and creative expression. Both of these concepts have been central to the raison d’être of Pomellato since its earliest days. Founded by Pino Rabolini in 1967, the Milanese jewellery house has since made bold, convention-defying silhouettes, fabulous gold chains and vibrant gemstones key parts of its signature style.
The line up of 65 pieces is rooted in the eclecticism of Milan in the 1960s, when Rabolini and his creative set broke away from the strict fashion, art and style conventions of the day. Pomellato’s Creative Director, Vincenzo Castaldo, has paid homage to this freewheeling spirit with a diverse range of colourful gemstones, artistic techniques and materials within the collection – a masterclass in what can happen when designers are given freedom to be daring.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
Van Cleef & Arpels Fascinating Egypt collection draws from more than 3,000 years of history, mythology and symbolism. Its 180 high jewellery creations explore everything from pharaohs and scarabs to sacred animals and hieroglyphics, wrought in a wealth of vibrant stones including coral, turquoise and lapis lazuli.
Among the standout pieces is the Paysage Secret bracelet, a flexible gold cuff whose architectural columns conceal a hieroglyphic inscription translating as “horizon of eternity”, whilst another, the Princesse du Nil, is inspired by a historic collaret created created by the Maison and worn Princess Faiza of Egypt herself.
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