Welcome back to my day-by-day breakdown of notes and takeaways from the 2023 edition of The COUTURE Show, which recently returned to the Wynn Convention Center.  Here’s Day 1, during which I had appointments with Lydia Courteille, Amprapali London, LORD Jewelry, Sutra Jewels, Victor Velyan, and LALAoUNIS.  Enjoy!

Thursday, June 01: Day 1 (10:30am – 6pm)

LYDIA COURTEILLE:  Since COUTURE’s return from COVID in 2021, I’ve scheduled my first appointment of each day at noon, except for the morning of the first day, during which I meet with my (and, as I would come to learn, Karl Lagerfeld’s) favorite Parisian créateur de haute joaillerie, Lydia Courteille, promptly at 10:30am.  The antiquarian-turned-high jewelry designer presents a new collection of one-of-a-kind pieces each season that share a cohesive story (usually based on Courteille’s travels, with a deep, tongue-in-cheek dive into that region’s histories and mythologies).  Some of my favorite collections of Courteille’s have been ‘Scarlet Empress,’ ‘Nuevo Mundo,’ ‘Sahara,’ and ‘Un Autumn à Pékin.’  This year’s highlights included the ‘Love Story’ collection, with pieces featuring Morganite carved with intaglios of such pairings as Cleopatra, and Marc Antony, Jupiter and Ganymede, and Marilyn Monroe and President John F. Kennedy, as well as a ring of gold, enamel, Morganite, pink sapphire, and rubies, inspired by Maria Fitzherbert and George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) that I dubbed the Eye of the Illuminati.  Other pieces that struck my fancy came from Courteille’s recent ‘Caravan’ collection—following the journeys of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, the 17th-century adventurist and supplier of precious stones for Louis XIV—including a pair of museum-quality 12th-century Dinars set in a ring backed with floral mosaics of sapphires, tsavorites, and diamond; her ‘Aladdin’s Lamp’ ring covered in blue and golden sapphires and studded with cabochon turquoise, with a bejeweled button that, when pressed, releases the catch on the lid, revealing Aladdin, himself (who, when a second bejeweled button is pressed, is illuminated by fiber optics); as well as one of Courteille’s signature ‘Magic’ bracelets, this one depicting Darius the Great peering into a crystal ball to foretell his destiny.  I was gagged by the pair of statement bracelets (what a statement!!) from her ‘Indian Song’ collection inspired by the extraordinary colors and architecture of India, with floral gemstone motifs on the sides representing the era of Moghul splendor, each topped with a long 22.44ct baguette of Indicolite tourmaline evoking the geometry of India’s temples; and am still haunted by the darkly ornate double-finger ‘Black Tulip’ ring, set with scads of brown diamonds and orange sapphires, from her ‘Topkapi’ collection (which began the conversation continued by the ‘Caravan’ collection).  But the piece with which I remain utterly obsessed is Courteille’s Egyptian-themed take on the gent’s flip ring, for which she has taken a large figural sun inlaid with an ombre of stones going from dark crimson to pale yellow, centered by a round golden disc portraying a scarab and the sun (signifying daytime).  When flipped over (to represent night) the disc gives way to an enormous black sapphire.  Of course, being Lydia Courteille, the underside of the ring features a web of white diamonds, while both sides of the shank are engraved with an Eye of Horus and an Ankh.

AMRAPALI LONDON:  As the CEO of Amrapali London, Sameer Lilani oversees the UK arm of Amrapali—Rajasthan’s famed high jewelry house started in 1978, by cousins Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera—where he oversees collections that keep a firm grasp on Amrapali’s colorful spirit and Eastern DNA while focusing on the Maison’s Western clientele by presenting collections that celebrate the heritage of Indian jewelry design, by imbuing modern designs with the color, vibrancy, and joy of Jaipur.  Best of all, it’s incredibly wearable!  Some of the pieces with which I was most taken include a lengthy necklace of Graduated Carved Emeralds and Pearls (that requires being looped around the head at least once!), a fabulous one-of-a-kind Emerald ring (worn earlier, this month, by the inimitable Jennifer Coolidge for her conversation with Jeremy White, on S18 Ep6 of Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series), a sensational one-of-a-kind Sapphire ring with cheerful green enamel palm fronds on the bottom and the shank, and a pair of pearl and diamond earrings that come in either white or Tahitian pearls (though I think that a stylishly confident woman would look stunning wearing one of each).  Evoking the most joy, though, was Amrapali London’s submission to the COUTURE Awards in the ‘Pearls’ category, a bold, multi-strand pearl necklace festooned with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and carved emeralds (the smaller version of which Rihanna recently purchased and photographed on her baby son, posting the picture to her feed on the Instagrams.  Carry on, Riri!).

LORD JEWELRY:  In my estimation, nobody working with enamel—especially that most difficult of vitreous enamelling techniques, plique-à-jour (a technically challenging process for transparent enamel that can closely resemble stained glass and traces its origins back to the Byzantine Empire)—can come close to matching the skill wielded by Sinork Agdere.  That he and his daughter Lena are among the friendliest people you might ever meet at COUTURE just gilds the lily that is LORD Jewelry.  This year, the father/daughter duo had their cases brimming; one with brooches, necklaces, and rings featuring Sinork’s signature dragonflies and moths with plique-à-jour wings, naturally; a number of rings featuring enamel around vibrant Lightening Ridge opals (“We had a lot of fun, in Tucson this year!” quipped Lena, referring to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show); and swooping arabesque rings with enamel centered on large stones.  The other case mostly featured LORD Jewelry’s popular 'Rock Candy' collection (it’s so easy to wear!), interspersed with these adorable scarab pendants in bright bubblegum colors, some chubby, smile-inducing bee pendants, each with wings of green enamel and set with a diamond in the abdomen, and a golden bracelet evoking a nest upon which are set a pair of blackened gold and pave diamond butterflies surrounded by 16 enamel butterflies of varying sizes and colors, so that it's like wearing a miniature lepidopterarium on your wrist!  But if I had to give one of Agdere’s new pieces pride of place, it would be the vibrant figural 'Peacock' ring, featuring a fan-shaped tail of sapphires and emeralds from which extends a body of patterned green enamel that gracefully wraps around the finger to reveal a neck of bright, white diamonds that ends in an enameled head and face with a gold beak.

SUTRA JEWELS:  I’ve been a fan of Sutra Jewels from afar for many years but had never made an appointment with the Houston-based jewelry house foundedby Arpita and Divyanshu Navlakha in 2008, after the pair’s graduation from the GIA; so, after having being introduced to Divyanshu earlier that morning, when he graciously waved at me from his booth that afternoon, I jumped at the opportunity for an impromptu viewing.  Sutra, which takes its name from the Sanskrit for 'collection of sacred verses,' deftly blends the bold geometric lines of Art Deco with the sizzle of the Disco-era; but where classic Deco designs feature onyx, and more recent interpretations (like those by the incredibly talented Greek designer, Nikos Koulis) have utilized enamel, Sutra has leaned into more modern technologies, using ceramic, resulting in pieces that are at once lighter and more durable, while losing none of their luster or vibrance.  Further, Sutra—a favorite of Michelle Obama, Angela Bassett (who’s regally graced the red carpets of the Oscars and the Emmys, in Sutra Jewels), Lady Gaga, Katherine Hahn, Laura Dern, Idina Menzel, and Taylor Swift—not only sources some of the most vibrant and color-saturated stones around (most notably, this year, some deeply verdant Colombian emeralds!) but takes the time to set them ever-so precisely.  The pieces that really made my heart skip a beat included a positively regal Colombian emerald figural flower ring that had more diamonds set on its underside than most rings feature on top; a diamond and ceramic parure fit for a Deco Disco Glamazon looking to get her groove on; and a very fetching two-finger figural snake ring of diamonds featuring a pear-shaped Colombian emerald as the snake’s head.

VICTOR VELYAN:  To those who know him, Victor Velyan is equal parts mad professor, intrepid explorer, Wildman of Borneo, and (though he’d never describe himself as such), a true master jeweler.  Kind of like the Norman Mailer of the precious jewelry world, if Mailer had been as funny as he was fearless.  This year, in addition to one of Velyan’s signature Aragon-inspired cuffs—featuring a laterally-set oval Paraiba tourmaline amongst slabs of polished white cabochon cacholong opals separated by veins of 18K gold coated in blue rhodium and set with diamonds evoking river beds—being a finalist in the ‘Haute Couture' category of the annual COUTURE Awards; he continued his love affair with opals (of both Mexican and Australian origin) whether set hanging from a chain or set in a ring; debuted an accessible version of his signature rings and cuffs in a matte enamel sprinkled with diamonds (available in black, navy blue, and white versions); used these dreamy, opaque Brazilian Paraiba tourmalines (that I find to be far more wearable than the more intense, high-clarity version) in pendants and earrings and cuffs; presented an absolutely enormous sugarloaf Muzo emerald on a cocktail ring of gold and diamonds; and expanded his stories with unusual minerals such as Azurite and Congolese Turquoise Druse.  

LALAoUNIS:  Y’all know I loves me a good story, and few jewelry houses are as storied as the one founded by Greek goldsmith Ilias Lalaounis, that’s been ably brought into the 21st century by his four talented daughters.  Revered around the world as masters of such goldsmithing techniques from Atiquity as Hand-hammering (as they use on 22kt gold pieces), Granulation (an ancient process, also reserved for high-karat gold, tracing back to the Sumerians and Etruscans, and written about by Pliny the Elder, involving teeny tiny gold beads, usually placed in intricate geometric patterns), Hand-weaving (imagine knitting lace, only with fine gold wire), Repoussé (the Bronze Age technique for hammering the reverse side of the gold to create a bas-relief design on the front, famously used for both Tutankhamun’s golden funerary mask as well as the Statue of Liberty!), Filigree (wherein tiny beads or twisted threads of gold, or both, are soldered onto the surface of the gold jewel), and Opus interrasile (an early Byzantine technique of piercing metal to imitate lattice patterns wherein the negative space results in a light ethereal quality); the team at LALAoUNIS takes iconic Greek motifs (think: bulls, rams, chimeras, swans, the Herakles knot, square rings, snakes, tassels, etc.) and interprets them for today’s customers, explaining why their collectable designs are coveted by fans whether 18 or 80.  Highlights for me included a long and luscious sautoir of lapis lazuli, inspired by Hellenistic jewelry, with a long, braided necklace and a stunning detachable pendant crafted in 18k gold with intricate granulation and set with diamonds, ending in a long tassel; a trio of square rings topped with an orb, a bird, or a flower, from the ‘Earth and Nature’ series; a Byzantine-inspired 18k gold dome ring studded with cabochon emeralds and diamonds; and the 22k gold and lapis lazuli ‘Swan’ pendant, representing inner eternal beauty, which Demetra Lalaounis succinctly described to me as “a sculpture in minimalist form.”  I couldn't have said it better, so I'm not even gonna try.

COUTURE 2023: Day 1
Wynn Las Vegas
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