At the annual SIHH event held in Geneva, jeweller Piaget celebrated the launch of its Rose Passion High Jewellery Collection with CEO Philippe Léopold-Metzger unveiled the collection to an international guest list including supermodel Bar Refaeli and Italian fashion muse Bianca Brandolini d’Adda.
The cocktail party was hosted at the Château de Penthes, which overlooks Lake Geneva and the Alps. One of the highlights of the event was a performance by Grammy-nominated American jazz singer and Piaget ambassador Melody Gardot.
The Rose Passion High Jewellery Collection comprising an astonishing 75 pieces of jewellery and 25 watches that echo Yves Piaget's love of roses, was fittingly displayed amidst large lithographs of the Château de Malmaison and vibrant pink Yves Piaget roses.
Piaget CEO Philippe Léopold-Metzger with Piaget ambassador Melody Gardot
The delicate rose flower has graced Piaget's collections with its diamond-set petals since the 1960s, when scion of the watchmaking house, Yves Piaget, created the trophy for the Geneva International New Rose competition in 1979, and there is even a rose named after him.
The rose has been a constant motif in Piaget's jewellery, and it now take on exotic forms in vibrant colours that reflect the Caribbean childhood of Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France and wife of Napoléon Bonaparte. Born in Martinique, Joséphine was brought up surrounded by the colours and exuberant flowers of the Caribbean that are reflected in this new collection. Later in life, Joséphine dedicated many years to the cultivation of one of the largest collections of roses in the gardens of her Château de Malmaison near Paris.
Made entirely in Piaget's jewellery workshops, with a luminous choice of precious stones, the Rose Passion collection features pieces that can be worn in many different ways, from combs and tiaras to the brand's iconic cuff-watches.
Reflecting the colour of the rose, pink stones are predominant throughout the collection, with green gems adding a fresh flourish. Laurel branches, with their leaves daintily represented by a marquise-cut diamond, are reminiscent of the embroidered dresses worn by the Empress.
Refaeli wore a 34mm white gold Limelight Blooming Rose watch, a white gold Rose Passion necklace set with 676 brilliant-cut diamonds, a white gold and diamond Rose ring, and white gold Rose Passion earrings set with 281 brilliant-cut diamonds while d’Adda wore a 34mm Limelight Blooming Rose watch, a white gold Rose Passion headband set with 341 brilliant-cut diamonds and 1 pear-shaped diamond, and a white and diamond gold Piaget ring.
Keeping history alive and as a tribute to the elegant rose that has pervaded so much of its history, Piaget has taken on a project to restore the Château's iconic rose garden to its former glory.
While this botanical treasure was damaged over the years and little remains of the original garden, with Piaget's support the museum at Malmaison is planting 750 old roses to revive the legacy of an extraordinary woman.
