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100 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016 101 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016

The XXX

FLOWERCoupling the rare beauty of a flowering cactus with the arid

conditions in which it flourishes, this year’s most enticing jewellery launch plays on the contradictions of attraction. Louise Nichol

meets Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage, Pierre Rainero, to discover how the Middle East beats

at the heart of the house’s inspiration

Styling by KATIE TROTTER

Photography by MAZEN ABUSROUR

DESERT The JEWELS

Earrings, POA, 18-carat yellow gold, emeralds,

carnelians, each set with 11 brilliant-cut

diamonds; Ring, POA, 18K yellow gold,

emeralds, carnelians, diamonds; Bracelet,

18K yellow gold, chrysoprases, emeralds,

carnelians, set diamonds, all Cactus de

Cartier. Top, Dhs2,625, Simone Rocha.

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103 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016

The XXX“ T H E R E ’ S A S E N S E O F

J E W E L L E R Y A M O N G

P E O P L E F R O M T H E

M I D D L E E A S T W H I C H I S

V E R Y I M P O R T A N T .

B E C A U S E O F T H E W A Y

T H E Y D R E S S ,

J E W E L L E R Y M A K E S

E V E N M O R E O F A

D I F F E R E N C E T H A N I N

A N Y O T H E R C U L T U R E ”

P i e r r e R a i n e r o , d i r e c t o r o f i m a g e , s t y l e a n d

h e r i t a g e , C a r t i e r

Opposite: Earring, Dhs118,000, 18K yellow gold, set with diamonds; Ring, Dhs 52,500, 18K yellow gold, set with diamondsall Cactus de Cartier.Top, Dhs3,780, Alexander Wang.This page: Earring, Dhs118,000, 18K yellow gold, set with diamonds; Necklace, Dhs70,000, Rings (from left to right) Dhs74,500 and Dhs52,500, all Cactus de Cartier; Dress, Dhs8,270, Mary Katrantzou.

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104 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016 105 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016

The XXX

Jewellery instinctively carries with it notions of hearts and flowers, of a romance often verging on

the saccharine. But step back to analyse one of the most enduring jewellery marques of all time, Cartier,

and its most iconic creations are mired in far stronger stuff.

Currently circling my wrist is the ubiquitous Love bracelet, a blunt-edged gold bangle punctuated with industrial screws. Were that imagery not potent enough, true to legend, my husband literally locked it onto my wrist using the accompanying gold key. That’s a wealth of symbolism right there, enough to keep Freud occupied for days. Next to it lies the 2012 reissue of the ‘70s design Juste un Clou, literally ‘just a nail’, a precious reinterpretation of this most basic of building materials warped into a Dhs25,000-plus treasure. As a Valentine’s gift, it’s hardly the stuff of sonnets and sunsets, yet far more enduring than any other February 14 token.

If Cartier’s classicism in part stems from its rejection of the obvious and the clichéd, then its newest opus, Cactus de Cartier, steps up this fine tradition. Launching this month, the 13-piece [ck with Ehab] collection takes its design cues from the spiky desert flower whose silhouette is worked into unexpected, yet wondrous pieces. Ranging from a convention-defying floating ring to a dramatic emerald and gold necklace whose asymmetric placing of 204 diamonds mirrors the reflection of the sun, the familiar structure of a golden barrel cactus – colloquially known as mother-in-law’s cushion – is topped with a succulent array of gemstone flowers cast in emerald, chrysoprase or carnelian. Like its botanical nickname it is spiky; a character trait also reserved by its wearer. This is jewellery that semaphores an instruction to look but don’t touch.

“It is part of our culture to look for beauty in fields where most other people will not look,” Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage, Pierre Rainero, tells me. “The cactus flower is not an obvious flower. It’s very rare. The cactus flourishes in difficult circumstances and we liked the idea of contrast between this flower and the context in which it grows; the extreme conditions of heat, sand and dryness.” As Pierre adds, “Cartier is about being different.” Like the maison’s other creations before it, Cactus de Cartier is a far cry from the flowers, fairies and frivolities of fine jewellery’s more predictable inspirations. “It is true that we go our own way. It is part of our identity. We cultivate our own path,” he agrees.

The design process is not calculated, the xx-year-old Frenchman explains, but merely an extension of “living in the contemporary world and having a feeling about the women of today”. It is instinctive. From which we can perhaps imply that Cartier’s customer does not want to be patronised with peonies but totally gets the brittle beauty of a plant cheekily known as matriarchal cushioning. She is a woman unafraid to harness her audacity, her strength of character and quite literally present herself as ‘prickling with diamonds’, to borrow from the collection’s publicity material.

“ I T I S P A R T O F O U R

C U L T U R E T O L O O K

F O R B E A U T Y I N

F I E L D S W H E R E M O S T

O T H E R P E O P L E W I L L

N O T L O O K ”

P i e r r e R a i n e r o , d i r e c t o r o f i m a g e ,

s t y l e a n d h e r i t a g e , C a r t i e r

“Our objective is to create really beautiful jewellery that attracts the eyes and that people want to touch, to wear and to play with,” Pierre explains. “We always think: how can a woman live with this object and wear it? Is the gesture right?”

The beauty of Cartier’s creations isn’t always immediately apparent; it can take time for the eye to adjust. Not everyone falls in love with brutish nail-shaped jewellery in an instant, for example. But in contrast to fleeting puppy love, the romance proposed by Cartier matures over time into something more eternally enduring. When an informed understanding of the aesthetics at play is allowed to develop over time, the wearer develops a deep-seated appreciation of the design that grows, rather than diminishes, as the years march on. This sense of anticipating appreciation runs through Cartier’s design modus operandi. “Not only should you think it is beautiful, when we create something we want people one generation from now to still think it’s beautiful,” says Pierre of the house’s rejection of immediacy or current tastes. “We avoid everything that is too obvious,” he muses, admitting that, “I am not sure we have a recipe,” when it comes to formulating permanence in design. “We think of Cartier style over time and creating an object in the Cartier way. People can immediately recognise the eye of Cartier, which is a guarantee to clients of the future that the object will be seen in the very same way,” he explains.

While the notion of women buying serious jewellery for themselves, rather than receiving it as a gift from a paramour or wealthy benefactor, has gathered steam only relatively recently, Cartier has a long tradition of independent female clients who absolutely do not need a man to furnish their diamond habit. “Even at the beginning of the 20th century women were buying Cartier on their own. It was the consequence of the way we were looking at the creation. We were quite daring, or at least a

free spirit. Since the very beginning of the house we attracted women that were quite independent,” Pierre smiles.

Key among its strong-minded female clientele are Middle Eastern women who pay homage to the brand not only in the region but also from homes in London, Paris, Geneva and the like. “There’s a sense of jewellery among people from the Middle East which is very important,” Pierre notes. “Because the way women dress in public and in private is different, jewellery has a different role. Also, because of the way they dress, jewellery makes even more of a difference than in any other culture. When it’s left visible in a very discreet way, just enough to be seen, that little detail changes the entire appearance.”

The house’s relationship with the Middle East harks back over a century, to when Louis Cartier filled a library with books on Islamic culture and

art – his notes still legible today – for his designers to be inspired by. “Islamic art is key in the conception of our style,” Pierre affirms, “very early in the 20th century, Cartier went into abstract shapes and it’s difficult to separate that work from Islamic art. Even in contemporary creations that apparently have no link with Islamic culture, you can still find those influences in some part of our vocabulary.” To wit: “Cartier was the first to associate blue and green and that came directly from Islamic tiles.”

Now, Cartier’s celebration of a desert flower provides a fitting metaphor for its love affair with women descended from a long history of heat and sand; whose allure flourishes in the face of the harshness of her environment. Bold, striking and rare, Cartier’s ode to beauty without borders sings out across the Middle East.

The JEWELS

Bracelet, POA, 18K yellow gold, emeralds, set with diamonds, Cactus de Cartier; Dress, Dhs10,850, Gucci.

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107 HarpersBazaarArabia.com September 2016

The XXX The JEWELS

“ T H E C A C T U S

F L O W E R I S N O T

O B V I O U S . I T ’ S V E R Y

R A R E . T H E C A C T U S

F L O U R I S H E S I N

D I F F I C U L T

C I R C U M S T A N C E S A N D

W E L I K E D T H E I D E A

O F C O N T R A S T

B E T W E E N T H I S

F L O W E R A N D T H E

C O N T E X T I N W H I C H

I T G R O W S ; T H E

E X T R E M E

C O N D I T I O N S O F

H E A T , S A N D A N D

D R Y N E S S ”

P i e r r e R a i n e r o , d i r e c t o r o f i m a g e ,

s t y l e a n d h e r i t a g e , C a r t i e r

Necklace, Dhs132,000, 18K yellow gold, lapis lazuli, set with diamonds; Ring, Dhs92,000, 18-carat yellow gold, lapis lazuli, set with 55 brilliant-cut diamonds; Bracelet, Dhs271,000, 18K yellow gold, lapis lazuli, set with diamonds, all Cactus de Cartier. Swimsuit, Dhs1,800, Lisa Marie Fernandez. Opposite: Necklace, POA, 18-carat yellow gold, emeralds, set with 204 brilliant-cut diamonds, Cactus de Catier. Top, Dhs3,780, Alexander Wang.

Photo – Mazen AbusrourStyling – Katie Trotter Makeup – Toni Malt Hair – Angel Montague-SayersShot at 1M2 Studio DubaiFashion Assistant - Omar Salama