Unlock the Secret Sparkle: How Haute Couture’s High Jewelry Will Transform Your Style Game Forever

Paris couture week sparkled brighter than ever, didn’t it? From nature’s delicate whispers at Boucheron to Dior’s celestial dreams, this season’s high jewelry wasn’t just about gems—it was storytelling at its finest . Ever wondered how a city drenched in romance elevates jewels to fairy tale status? Well, prepare to dive into a world where stones aren’t just stones—they’re the heartbeats of love stories, myths, and bold new beginnings. Starting with Balenciaga, where the iconic Lorraine Schwartz teamed up with creative mastermind Demna for her debut in fashion collabs, this roundup is a treasure trove of brilliance and innovation. So, buckle up for a dazzling journey through the most jaw-dropping pieces that made couture week an unforgettable glitter fest! LEARN MORE

From nature-inspired brooches at Boucheron to celestial pendants at Dior, couture week in Paris was a glittery affair. In a city with romance entrenched in its bones, unique gems brought fairytales and love stories to life. Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorites, starting with Balenciaga, where legendary designer Lorraine Schwartz teamed up with creative director Demna for her first collection ever with a fashion brand.

Balenciaga

Balenciaga Fall 2025 Couture / Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry

Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry

At his final couture show before departing the Spanish brand, Demna paid tribute to his muse Elizabeth Taylor, cosplayed by Kim Kardashian in one-of-a-kind pieces by Lorraine Schwarz worth approximately $50 million in exquisite gemstones.

“[Elizabeth] knew every piece she owned,” Schwartz tells Bazaar. “She told her story through her jewels.” Schwartz loaned Balenciaga the Mike Todd earrings from her personal collection as an ode to Taylor, but she also designed new pieces inspired by her dear friend, including a choker featuring 134 carats of pear and oval-shaped diamonds, and a necklace with 32 carats of diamonds and a 30 carat oval-shaped diamond drop—the later designed after a necklace Taylor famously owned.

The pieces spoke to Taylor’s genuine love of jewels, which Schwartz says would bring a “twinkle” to her eye. “She would be calling me the next morning to say, ‘Lorraine, I want them—either who’s going to buy them for me, or I’m going to buy them for myself!” Schwartz said.

Balenciaga Fall 2025 Couture / Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry

Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry 

An undercurrent of Hollywood’s Golden Age ran throughout Demna’s final collection. A pink “Debutante” gown worn with a “Pink Odyssey” suite—a necklace, tiara and earrings, collectively featuring 140 carats of Padparadscha sapphires and 16 carats of natural pink diamonds—exemplified the designer’s approach to couture tradition as told through a fresh lens.

While Schwartz’s reputation as jeweler to the stars endures as brilliantly as the gemstones that bear her signature, this collaboration with Balenciaga marked the designer’s first creative venture with a fashion house. “Demna is very much an innovator, and I feel like he really wanted to bring back old-world glamor, which I think is really needed in this world right now, but in a modern sense,” she said.

The harmony between Demna and Schwartz was palpable—each artist holds a reverence for glamor as a sacred conduit of self expression and an application of craft. In his 10 years at Balenciaga’s helm, Demna has honored its heritage while leaning into subversive dress codes as modes of identity. A jet-black suit in scuba wool paired with paparazzi-proof sunglasses and 50 carats worth of Colombian Lorraine Schwartz emerald earrings exemplified his aesthetic: elusive elegance bitten with that Demna air of cool.

Schwartz’s ability to conjure up bespoke masterpieces from exquisite gems is sought after by clientele from Beyoncé to the Ambani family. The jewels she created for Demna’s cast of characters spoke to her commitment to highlighting individualism. Considered elements, such as diamond earrings with removable white gold jackets, tapped into a modern spirit.

“We’re not just taking a piece, saying, ‘You wear this because we want to promote it.’ We want them to have that moment,” Schwartz said. “The authenticity really came through, and that was really very important to me.”

Balenciaga Couture Fall 2025 / Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry

Balenciaga Couture Fall 2025 / Lorraine Schwartz Jewelry

Mellerio

Mellerio High Jewelry

For its couture collection, the house of Mellerio—founded in France in 1613 and still going—revisited the Grand Ananas tapestry that once adorned Marie-Antoinette’s private apartments at Versailles. Inspired by the piece’s central pineapple motif, creative director Laure-Isabelle Mellerio designed the “Garden of Dreams” necklace, which encapsulates the queen’s love of beauty. The necklace features over 22 precious gemstones and a removable pineapple pendant that can also be worn as an earring. Mellerio once crafted jewels for the Queen of Versailles herself (see here a cameo bracelet that was on view at Bergdorf Goodman last spring), and her infatuation with pretty things coupled with the splendor of Versailles have been a leitmotif for the atelier since its founding. Other botanical pieces, such as Jardin Pierreries wreath necklaces and Belazza Giardino lavaliers, reinforced the house’s romantic codes.

Gucci

Plants and their creatures crept out from the woodwork from more workshops than one this season. Case in point: Gucci debuted a sequel to its Labrinti Gucci high jewelry collection, which first debuted in 2024. Vibrant Italian gardens were the blueprint for romantic creations, impressed with Paraibas, azure blue tanzanite, and aquamarine stones. Of the pieces that showed at the Gucci Montaigne Flagship, one included a necklace composed of a trail of diamonds that bloomed into a round-cut 24.75ct tanzanite, punctuated by a cushion-cut 5.94ct Paraiba tourmaline.

Boucheron

Boucheron High Jewelry

Boucheron High Jewelry

This season, the Parisian house embraced natural wonders with a sense of hyperrealism. Pavé diamonds and vivid stones took on a life of their own, cast into whisper-thin leaves, ornate flowers, and even fuzzy caterpillars. The Carte Blanche, Impermanence high jewelry collection consisted of six jewelry compositions made up of 28 pieces inspired by the ephemeral beauty of nature’s perennials and critters. From tulip and eucalyptus brooches molded from borosilicate glass with diamond dusted petals, to a caterpillar embellished with diamonds and black spinels coupled with a diamond encrusted butterfly, the collection captured moments of earth’s beauty suspended in time.

“In this new Carte Blanche collection, I’ve sought to capture the beauty of nature before it vanishes,” Claire Choisne, Boucheron creative director, wrote in a press release. Altogether, the pieces took 18,000 hours of work by skilled artisans to create.

Cindy Chao the Art Jewel and Pasquale Bruni

Cindy Chao, the Art Jewel

Pasquale Bruni High Jewelry

Nature-inspired novelties continued to emerge throughout the week, from Cindy Chao the Art Jewel to Pasquale Bruni. In the case of Cindy Chao, fallen leaves were impressed with combinations of diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and spinels, interspersed with delectable notes of marquise diamonds. The 20th anniversary collection was a reflection of Chao’s craft, which has focused on foliage-inspired pieces since she launched her brand with a distinct discipline in sculpture.

Meanwhile, Pasquale Bruni celebrated the rose as a symbol of feminine strength and resilience. Creative director Eugenia Bruni honored the memory of her Aunt Rosina with pavéd roses and petals, wielded into an opulent choker necklace, rings and earrings. Each pavé piece was engraved on the backside with heart and move engravings as a personal sentiment for the wearer.

Dries Criel

Dries Criel High Jewelry

Antwerp based jeweler Dries Criel has been imbuing botanical pieces with a brutalist twist since launching his brand in 2018. Angular rings, cuffs, and earrings embraced a unique friction between flow and constraint, such as his lotus bracelet. Modeled after the flower, it blossoms from the base before taking a sharp turn, then sloping into a curve at the top. For his first high jewelry collection, Criel reimagined this signature with a 10-carat natural fancy yellow radiant cut diamond and snow signature element with emeralds—along with six other pieces that expanded on core silhouettes from his arsenal.

Messika

Messika High Jewelry

Moving beyond the lore of enchanted gardens, other jewelers found inspiration in vast ecosystems. Valerie Messika crafted pieces inspired by Southern Africa for her namesake’s latest high jewelry collection, Terres D’Instinct. In both material and design, necklaces embodied the tapestry of the terrain and wildlife. Stripes of baguette diamonds on an onyx collar necklace mimicked zebra print, while golden slices cut out of a pavé diamond collar resembled the imprint of a lion’s claw.

De Beers

De Beers High Jewelry

Earthy textures branched into the most recent De Beers high jewelry pieces, too. Entitled Essence of Nature, Chapter 2, the collection was inspired by four core species of trees indigenous to diamond-producing countries. For example, the Baobab Magnitude pendant necklace features a center pendant carved out of jet stone and impressed with diamonds, including a yellow pear diamond center stone. Native to Botswana, the Baobab is known as the “Tree of Life.” Here, it has diamonds flowing abundantly from the center stone in all directions.

Dior

Dior High Jewelry

Dior High Jewelry

From untouched landscapes to dreamscapes, an encore presentation of the Diorexquis High Jewelry collection celebrated the sublime. While the maison as a whole has long celebrated ambrosial worlds, as seen in Raf Simons’s couture 2012 collection that featured bucolic fabrics teased from Sterling Ruby paintings, or Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Cruise 2026 collection that featured ethereal gowns inspired by Roman art, this is especially true of the jewelry. Creative director of fine and high jewelry Victoire de Castellane colored outside the lines with pieces that resembled galaxies, dropping pear-shaped diamonds and gem clusters like stars onto an opal stone canvas.

Mikimoto

Mikimoto High Jewelry

Mikimoto High Jewelry

From interstellar combinations to marine pearls, Mikimoto made waves with the unveiling of the Les Pétales high jewelry collection. As evidenced by the name, the collection celebrated the frail beauty of flowers. Pavé diamond rose petals danced across strings of pearls on necklaces and bracelets. Other petals fell from pearl posts into drop earrings and bloomed into cocktail rings.

Jessica McCormack

Jessica McCormack High Jewelry

Jessica McCormack High Jewelry

Speaking of ocean treasures, Jessica McCormack debuted her first high jewelry collection, entitled Tempest, which was inspired by the mystique of the sea. A favorite of Zoe Kravitz and the culprit behind Zendaya’s East-West oval engagement ring, McCormack has become known as the “Queen of Diamonds.” Best known for her button-back settings and antique cut gemstones, the jeweler embraced deep green emeralds and indigo sapphires in tandem with her “day diamonds” aesthetic. A key component of the collection was the Scale Stack chain helmed from a series of links and 360-degree diamonds. With the lithe construction, it captures the movement of an eel’s slither and luminescence of aquatic scales.

Nikos Koulis

Nikos Koulis High Jewelry

From one fantasy world to another, Nikos Koulis presented a 30-piece selling exhibition in partnership with Sotheby’s during the course of the Haute Couture shows. While some of the pieces were continued from his Wish high jewelry collection that debuted last year, additional one-of-a-kind pieces premiered at the exhibition. Highlighting Koulis’s design approach informed by his Greek heritage, new pieces incorporated movement and geometry that elevated the radiance of flawless diamonds, rubies and emeralds. A gleaming link bracelet helmed in mirror polished 18k gold amplified the brilliance of marquise-cut diamonds — a quintessential example of the designer’s distinctive command of sculpture that enables diamonds to catch light at every angle.

Gaia Repossi and David Morris

Repossi Haute Joaillerie

David Morris High Jewelry 

Further to the vein of sculpture, Gaia Repossi presented new pieces from her Haute Joallerie collection. Coined Blast, bold gold cuffs, collars, rings and earrings were encrusted with a smattering of pear shaped diamonds. Pieces were helmed from threads of gold, wielded into twisted rings, spiral earrings and substantial collar necklaces. The captivating shapes drew inspiration from ancestral cultures, including the Masai, Miao and peoples of the Indonesian archipelago, according to a press release on the collection. In another camp, gemstones drove the plot of David Morris’s high jewelry collection, Rare Perfection. The 12-piece collection harnessed the brilliance of internally flawless diamonds, royal blue sapphires, Mozambican rubies and Colombian emeralds to amplify the allure of exceptional gemstones.

Throughout the Haute Couture Fall 2025 presentations, high jewelry spotlighted a rare strain of ingenuity and artisanship. From multigenerational ateliers to new talents, jewelers not only produce aspirational heirlooms, but they preserve craft by employing artisans keeping tradition alive. In reflecting on her own creations, Lorraine Schwartz touched on her desire to preserve these historic skills for future generations. While Schwartz has championed opportunities for up-and-coming jewelry designers through the Beyoncé Knowles Carter x Lorraine Schwartz GIA Scholarship and the Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative in coalition with the Natural Diamond Council, she argues that fostering bench skills, from metalwork to setting precious stones, is critical to the art of jewelry.

“What I would love to do now is get more people into manufacturing because I think that’s an art that’s getting lost,” Schwartz said. “And I am looking into what I can do next to support that.”