As a high jewellery Maison, Cartier’s heritage is often what sets it apart from other jewellery brands. Spanning more than 150 years, Cartier’s history is impressive, written in both memorable and iconic jewels. The Maison’s latest offering, the Nature Sauvage Collection is no different.
Nature Sauvage Collection
Consisting of 87 handcrafted high jewellery pieces, which include necklaces, brooches, rings and earrings, Nature Sauvage (which means savage nature in French) is an unexpected but refreshing take on the brand’s precious animal iconography. A reimagining of sorts, the collection offers both subtlety and boldness, a feat few jewellery Maisons have accomplished with such ease and flair, as does Cartier.
A jewelled menagerie, the Nature Sauvage collection features the brand’s beloved wild animals – flamingo, turtles, zebra, snakes, and the iconic panther. But the animals don’t leap out at you. Instead, the designs are considered and sit in an imaginative space between literal and figurative.
Each piece is a transformative experience for the jewellery wearer. Nothing is taken for granted.
Commenting on the inspiration behind the collection, Jacqueline Karachi, Director of High Jewellery for Cartier notes that the collection gives “a new perspective on the Cartier animals to surprise, amaze and bring modernity by way of unexpected encounters.”
Taming of the Panthère
The Panthère Jaillisante is a hybrid hand jewel. A fully articulated bracelet-ring, the jewel features a diamond and sapphire encrusted panther, the quintessential Cartier animal. Here, however, we catch this magnificent beast in a breathtaking moment where it playfully holds on to an 8.63 carat cushion-cut Zambian emerald. But make no mistake. This deceptively docile cat is ready to pounce at any moment.
A Zebra and Its Stripes
The Koaga necklace is a piece that stops you in your tracks. You notice the stripes before the zebra appears, almost as if by magic, fully formed in your vision. The necklace is a marvel of jewellery design and craftsmanship. It’s black and white colour palette is not just a sincere depiction of a zebra’s stripes, but also an homage to the Art Deco style, long associated with Cartier.
The alternating glossy, black onyx and diamond stripes seamlessly merge into an open-work design of breathtaking precision. Koaga also features a pendant featuring a pear-shaped rubellite and an emerald cut diamond, suspended from the mouth of the zebra. Who else, but Cartier could reimagine the magnetism of the zebra in such a remarkable way?
Divine Celestun
Another heart-stopping piece from the Nature Sauvage collection, the Celestun necklace is a jewelled nod to the flamingo, another famous Cartier design motif. The necklace is an abstract rendering, where amidst a stylized landscape of emerald green reeds and pristine pools of blue aquamarines, the silhouette of a diamond-set water fowl emerges. Its black lacquer and rose gold beak, as well as its bright yellow diamond eye are the only pops of colour within its body. Poetic, like a fantasy being depicted as a jewel, Celestun has an enchantment about it that is difficult to capture in words.
Serpentine Symphony
The Amphista necklace is another piece that cannot be ignored. Two intricately detailed serpents sinuously wrap around the neck and gracefully settle side-by-side at the base of the wearer’s throat. A marvel of design and craftsmanship, this necklace is a medley of geometry and jewelled lyricism, where the two snakes are as chilling as they are elegant. The starkness of the colour palette, deep green and white, allows you to focus on the beauty of the diamond-shaped scales and the sinewy volume of the piece .
“Expressive jewellery showcases the attitudes and personality of an animal, its vitality. Like an actor, it plays with graphics, with volume and optical illusions, blending into an imaginary landscape. This is the spirit of Nature Sauvage,” Karachi explains about the collection. As a collection, it is a masterpiece of sensuous creativity.
Aligning Nature Sauvage with Cartier’s Brand Story
Cartier have been crafting animal-themed jewellery since the mid-1800s, when their animal motif jewels became popular among jewellery aficionados. Over the years, the Maison has continued to charm and amaze jewellery lovers with exceptional depictions of fauna in its jewels.
As a brand, therefore, animal themed jewellery has been an integral part of Cartier’s story.
What is a Brand Story?
A brand’s story is a compelling narrative about its history, accomplishments, and values. Telling a brand’s story is a powerful way to get an audience’s attention. And it helps with association and recall. Weaving a compelling brand story is an important pillar of any brand marketing strategy.
When brands use storytelling as a means of connecting with their customers, they create a strong emotional bond. This helps customers identify with the brand and creates loyalty.
Nature Sauvage – A New Chapter
King Edward VII once described Cartier as the “Jeweller of Kings and the king of jewellers.” And their brand story has certainly lived up to it. From the Duchess of Windsor, King Farouk of Egypt and Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco to Clark Gable and Elizabeth Taylor, the Maison’s story includes an impressive roster of clients.
With the Nature Sauvage collection, Cartier has written a new chapter of its this story. The design motifs of the collection reference the glorious past of the Maison, while the contemporary and impressionistic designs usher in a new, equally magnificent era for the brand.
As jewellery lovers we identify the familiar motifs but are thrilled by this altogether refreshing iteration of them. A whiff of whimsy cleverly disguising agile strength, underlines the Maison’s Panthère icon in the Jaillisante hand jewel. Jean Toussaint’s flamingo brooch is reimagined as a graceful water fowl in an extravagant, jewelled setting.
This new chapter of Cartier’s brand story is forward-looking. We, as jewellery lovers, are urged to see the brand’s iconic motifs in a brand new light.
Nature Sauvage embodies a bold and confident evolution. The brand’s story continues in the form of this new adventure, and simply picks up where the older adventure ended.
