Mikimoto’s High Jewelry Pays Homage to the Sea
“Praise to the Sea” was unveiled earlier this month during Paris Haute Couture Week.
“Praise to the Sea” was announced earlier this month during Paris Haute Couture Week at the Mikimoto Paris Boutique, where numerous pieces from the collection were showcased.
Its unveiling also commemorates the 130th anniversary of Mikimoto founder Kokichi Mikimoto creating the world’s first cultured pearls. The brand released an anniversary collection earlier this year.
Mikimoto said inspiration for Praise to the Sea came from the “majestic waters” of the ocean.
Its designs mimic scenes like light on the water’s surface, the gradation of color from shallow water to the ocean’s depths, and clusters of fish in the open sea.
The curves created by schools of fish elegantly navigating the sea inspired a necklace featuring Akoya cultured pearls along with a variety of gemstones including diamond, beryl, tanzanite, tourmaline, amethyst, garnet, sapphire, spinel, alexandrite and aquamarine.
The corresponding ring and earrings feature white South Sea pearls, with the earrings also displaying a variety of cool-toned colored gems. A designer’s note reveals the sapphire and alexandrite were chosen to depict fish of various colors clustered together while gracefully swimming in circles.
The collection also incorporates imagery from the ocean’s diverse life forms, including colorful sea life and lively creatures.
A series of playful brooches feature many types of fish and ocean animals using a variety of pearl types and colored gemstones.
The Hermit Crab brooch depicts the creature emerging from its shell, a sizeable natural freshwater pearl surrounded by mixture of blue hues from sapphires, tourmaline, tanzanite and spinel.
The Clownfish and Sea Anemone brooch also features natural freshwater feather pearls, as well as nugget opals for the fish, which are expressed as darting in and out of the tentacles.
More tentacles are seen in the Amakusa Jellyfish, the Glass Octopus and the Firefly Squid brooches, all of which feature Akoya cultured pearls.
In the jellyfish, colored stones are set underneath a curved quartz to express a bobbing jellyfish.
The octopus features a translucent pearl body with diamond-studded tentacles and sapphire eyes, while the squid is made up of ocean-hued gems, a clear quartz mantle and appears to float in a bubbly sea of surrounding pearls and other precious stones.
Black rhodium encrusted with blue sapphires and diamonds make up the whale’s body and may remind some of a star-filled night sky.
The Threadfin Butterfly Fish brooch also includes Akoya cultured pearls and, standing out among its white and yellow diamond patterning, a 8.36-carat aqua-colored beryl.
Other pearls also were utilized, such as black South Sea cultured pearl and mother-of-pearl seen in the sea urchin brooch, as well as white South Sea pearl used in the Spotted Eagle Ray brooch, designed to invoke the gentle sunlight reflecting from the animal seen when viewing the animal under the water.
Other pieces, like the Blue Whale necklace (seen at top of article) and this pair of Branched Murex brooches, feature no pearls at all.
The tanzanite Branched Murex brooch was created with imagery of a secret treasure hidden within the deep sea, the brand said, while the opal piece was inspired by brilliant multicolored shallow waters.
More information and pieces from the collection can be found on Mikimoto’s website.
The company said it will begin selling the collection in Japan on Oct. 7.
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