Louis Vuitton Unveils Its Most Extravagant High-Jewellery Collection Ahead of Olympics
3 min
As the world turns its eyes to Paris for the start of the Summer Olympics next month, Louis Vuitton pulled out all the stops for its largest, most extravagant, and expensive high-jewellery collection with the title Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds.
Making its debut in St. Tropez on Wednesday night, the collection will encompass 13 themes and 220 pieces, some of which have yet to be unveiled. Of the 100 unique pieces that were exhibited as the first chapter, one overarching theme is clear: French pride and the celebration of the remarkably transformative period in 19th-century France, which witnessed an explosion of French influence and inventiveness.
“France in the 19th century was a phenomenal time of incredible change, and when Paris really became the centre of the world,” says Francesca Amfitheatrof, artistic director for watches and jewellery, in a news release. “The design language of Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds reflects that—all its intricacies, complications, and innovations—turned into incredible jewels.”
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The collection explores a journey through that century, beginning with the end of royal court rule, which resulted in a surge of creativity and talent as France’s ateliers and master craftsmen explored and experimented without limits. Among those influenced by this vibrant zeitgeist was a 16-year-old Louis Vuitton, who arrived in Paris in 1837. The apprentice developed his own unique trunkmaking métier, devising a flat and stackable trunk specifically designed for travel.
“Craftsmanship becomes the currency of this country,” Amfitheatrof said. “It is the birth of France’s Art de Vivre —and the birth of what we know as luxury today.”
The collection’s Splendeur suite took inspiration from an imperial bed embellished with low-relief woodwork in lace-like floral patterns. But the luxury brand is looking to compete for consumers with more than just aesthetics: The jewels feature more than 110 perfectly matched rubies from Mozambique, all fully traceable through blockchain technology, making Louis Vuitton the first to offer traceability of coloured stones.
Louis Vuitton’s iconic LV Monogram Flower is the chosen theme. The symbol was designed by Louis Vuitton’s son Georges in 1896 in memory of his late father. The flower is portrayed in gold and diamonds with a large centre ruby in earrings that complement a high collar, transformable necklace set with 52 rubies framed with an intricate, woven mesh of carved gold flowers. Among the collection’s most complex creations, the Splendeur necklace required the workmanship of 17 setters and 30 jewellers, who spent a total of 3,217 hours on its creation.
Louis Vuitton’s passion for travel is explored in the Vision necklace, which plays on the rivets of Louis Vuitton trunks. Crafted in platinum, yellow gold, diamonds, and yellow sapphires, the disruptive design interlaces V-shaped structures, highlighted with two octagonal-cut yellow sapphires measuring 13.47 carats and 11.79 carats. The piece occupied five jewellers, who mounted and set the necklace section by section over the course of 2,504 hours.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The masterpiece of the entire collection is the Cœur de Paris, the most expensive high-jewellery piece the maison has ever produced.
The necklace pays homage to the Eiffel Tower, which was unveiled to the world at the 1899 Exposition Universelle as a beacon of modernity and ingenuity. The Cœur de Paris offers a new perspective on the structure, as if you are viewing it from underneath looking up. Pink gold rods embrace a grid of baguette settings and diamond-lit arrows, which frame the jewel’s centrepiece: a captivating 56.23-carat diamond christened the Cœur de Paris. The collection’s rarest and most important master stone radiates a unique colour with an intense pink hue complemented with unusual tones of orange and brown. It is set in a medallion that can be detached to wear as a brooch.
The centrepiece dangles from a 5.73-carat LV Monogram Star-cut diamond interlinked with 26 LV Monogram Star-cut diamonds in an opulent rivière creation that is a first for the house. A companion ring features a complementary 12.67-carat, museum-quality diamond that emanates a fancy deep, brownish pink and orange hue.
“Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds tells a story that’s very close to who we are,” Amfitheatrof said. “By showing this mixture of craftsmanship, engineering, invention, and bravery, we are really talking about Louis Vuitton. … we couldn’t celebrate in a better way.”
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The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.
4 min
It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.
On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.
Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.
“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.
“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”
Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
What are the goals for Artemis II?
The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.
The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.
Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.
SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .
How is the mission expected to unfold?
Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.
The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.
After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.
Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.
Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?
Yes.
For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.
Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?
The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.
Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.
Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.
Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.
What will the astronauts do during the flight?
The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.
Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.
On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.
The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.
What happens after Artemis II?
Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.
NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.
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