NET-A-PORTER this month launches an invitation-only digital destination for our most loyal customers to discover the world’s most sought-after high jewelry and watch exclusives. Bringing the experience of the private jewelry salon to the digital realm, the private and personalized online space will offer the ultimate immersive and interactive experience for traditionally offline and highly renowned jewelry Maisons. Boehmer et Bassenge, Piaget, Boghossian, Bayco, Nadia Morgenthaler and Giampiero Bodino inaugurate the new luxury e-commerce destination.
With the help of a dedicated Personal Shopper on hand to inspire and delight NET-A-PORTER’s EIPs or “Extremely Important People”, the exquisitely curated area of high jewelry and watches is designed to take the customer on an online journey, exploring the most desirable pieces, designed to be genuinely and eternally cherished. Many of these pieces are shown only to a chosen few, take hundreds of hours of craftsmanship to produce, and are one-of-a-kind creations which won’t be repeated.
Along with private viewings of the newest standout, rare jewels and exclusive collections, the digital destination will provide access to personalised services including customization, bespoke requests and sourcing incredible, one-of-a-kind pieces. The dedicated team of Personal Shoppers will also be able to arrange private appointments, wherever the customer is in the world. Similar to the services currently offered to Fine Jewelry customers, the experience will offer secure pick up and hand delivery, “Try Before You Buy” services, and delivery to more than 170 countries.
Building on the success of our Fine Jewelry & Watch suite, we are delighted to introduce a special collection of exquisite, high jewelry pieces at NET-A-PORTER. The new destination will offer clients a truly unique opportunity to discover the world’s most exclusive high jewelry maisons through a highly personalised, invitation-only service.
Alison Loehnis, President NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER.
The digital destination will launch as an invitation only service in July, with further expansions into watches and men’s planned for late 2019, further establishing NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER as the go-to authorities in the high jewelry and watch space.
Further information on the high jewelry brands:
Piaget
Piaget has been creating timepieces since the mid 19th century, when founder and farmer Georges-Édouard Piaget began watchmaking as a pastime when Swiss mountain weather kept him indoors. 140 years of history aside, it’s the jewelry Piaget began creating in the 1960s that is most evocative of the maison’s now iconic look. What started as a bejeweled ode to the sun-soaked climes of the Mediterranean coast is now an homage to all of nature’s most spectacular displays, from the Northern Lights to the magic of frost.
In recent years the house’s high jewelry has become the ultimate dream – masterpieces combining the finest Swiss craftsmanship, now-rare artisanal skills and the use of extraordinary materials. The finest marquetry (precise layering of colored slivers of wood to create painterly effects), goldsmithing that renders metal into surfaces that sparkle like diamonds, stone-setting to place raw emerald crystals in ray-like patterns, and the use of materials like shimmering opal and gold-flecked blue hardstone lapis lazuli are all executed with a particular prowess by master craftspeople in the maison’s dedicated ateliers.
Bayco
New York-based jeweller Bayco is all about singularly important gemstones. Whether it’s a pair of unheated oval sapphires set into chandelier earrings, or a 13-carat mogul-carved emerald surrounded by white diamonds in a cocktail ring, each Bayco creation has, at its heart, a sensational gem.
Moris and Giacamo Hadjibay, the brothers behind Bayco, learned the gemstone trade from their father Amir, who, as a young man, would visit the maharajahs of India, purchasing pieces from their legendary jewelry collections replete with carved emeralds, rose-cut diamonds and important rubies. It was in the early 1980s that the brothers decided to start Bayco in New York City, commissioning and creating one-off pieces of jewelry to be made in their own atelier to showcase their collection of exquisite gemstones sourced from all over the world.
Giampero Bodino
If anyone could be described as an all-rounder for high jewelry and watches, it’s Giampero Bodino. The dapperly punk, bearded Italian designer has only been creating one-of-a-kind pieces under his own brand since 2011, but was creative director across the Richemont Group’s brands (think Panerai, Montblanc and more) for two decades prior to this, and equally prestigious luxury brands prior to that.
With Richemont’s blessing, he now designs and crafts opulent, oftentimes baroque jewels and jewelry watches steeped in Italian cultural heritage from his own studio, atelier and salon in Milan, the gloriously refurbished art deco landmark Villa Mozart.
From renaissance art to Milanese architecture, Bodino’s vast cultural knowledge informs his work, adding artful flourishes to every piece. Motifs are borrowed from nature and classical architecture and recreated in gemstones – large cabochon rubies, sapphires in graduating blues, swirls of diamonds and tassels of gleaming yellow gold tipped with black ceramic and white diamonds.
Nadia Morgenthaler
Utterly distinct but known mainly to serious jewelry collectors, Nadia Morgenthaler’s pieces are as exquisitely designed as they are astonishingly crafted, and all by the same person. Designer-makers are few and far between in the world of high jewelry, not because designers can’t be both, but because the time it takes to become a true master craftsperson is decades of devotion to ‘the bench.’
Born and bred in Geneva, Morgenthaler spent 25 years perfecting the craft of goldsmithing with the highest levels of training and education, going on to be trusted with the crafting of high jewelry for the world’s greatest maisons and independent houses. After taking over the high jewelry atelier she worked at in 2009, she began to design her own pieces, and discreetly launched her eponymous brand in 2013. Since then, she has become a whispered byword for pieces that combine feats of engineering with artistry, contemporary codes with historic tones. Previously only accessible by private appointment at her Geneva atelier and a handful of high end art and design fairs, Morgenthaler’s work is truly aspirational.
Boghossian
Boghossian jewelry reflects the rich history of this family company spanning over 100 years. Jewellers and gemstone traders for six generations, the roots of the family tree can be traced back to an ancient Armenian township on the Silk Road. The Boghossian maison is now settled in Geneva after generational pit stops in Turkey and Belgium, and an unbroken lineage of craftsmanship.
But what really sets this high jewelry house apart is their inlay technique, whereby precious stone is nestled into precious stone, as though lightly sinking into the other with the bare minimum of metal visible. Diamonds seem to float on the surface of larger aquamarines, tourmalines, or emeralds in a mesmerizing display of tone-on-tone gemstone combination. Elsewhere, dazzling combinations of deepest red rubies with colorless diamonds are engineered to be fully reversible, while complicated, swirling earrings are designed to be mesmerizing from every angle.
Boehmer et Bassenge
Boehmer et Bassenge is named after the two Parisian jewelers who made history when they created a stunning diamond necklace during the reign of King Louis XV in 1772. Paying homage to the historic duo’s uncompromising craftsmanship, the brand creates exceptional, regal jewels using the finest materials and techniques synonymous with high jewelry.
Drawing on centuries of culture and tradition dating back to the age of Versailles, every piece starts as a sketch. Gouache drawings are created by designers, which are then meticulously bought to life by master artisans. The label works exclusively with the most beautiful diamonds of D Flawless purity, each skilfully cut and polished by hand to enhance their brilliance and rare beauty.
