Every year, Cartier unveils its high jewellery collection at a new venue, inviting media and celebrities from around the world. This year, Nature Sauvage was launched in Vienna at Cartier’s iconic and recently refurbished boutique on the Kohlmarkt. Over three days, YourLuxury Africa and other invited guests experienced all that the city has to offer, culminating in private viewings of the Nature Sauvage Collection and a grand gala evening.
With Cartier’s signature blend of craftsmanship and creativity, the collection captures the essence of wild beauty. The pieces are a fusion of organic shapes and precious materials, textures, and colours that are meticulously translated into wearable art. Nature Sauvage was revealed at Vienna’s Kursalon Hübner, a Renaissance-style music hall and a fitting backdrop for the spirit and energy of the 87-piece story. “It’s a new perspective on the Cartier animals to surprise, amaze, and bring modernity by way of unexpected encounters,” says Creative Director Jacqueline Karachi. “It’s expressive jewellery, which showcases the attitudes, personality, and vitality of an animal. Like an actor, it plays with graphics, volume, and optical illusions, blending into an imaginary landscape. This is the spirit of Nature Sauvage.”
Each piece is a testament to Cartier’s archival attention to detail, with emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires set in ways that have given the fauna – panther, tiger, snake, zebra, and birds – a new lease of life. The evocative panther motif, Panthere Jaillissante, has been reimagined as a threedimensional white gold bracelet-ring, lithely stretching from wrist to finger in the form of a hybrid jewel encrusted in diamonds. The feline’s coat is flecked with blue sapphire spots and its eyes sparkle with flashes of emerald green, leading admirers to a majestic 8.63-carat Zambian emerald.
Another highlight of the collection is the Tatsu necklace, a silhouette of the Chinese dragon made with rubies and onyx, the contrast of red and black representing the Cartier colour palette. And then there’s the Star of the Koaga necklace, which comprises an emerald-cut diamond and a 6.25-carat pearshaped rubellite held from the a zebra’s mouth. With precise, stylised design, the zebra’s coat is a play of alternating onyx stripes and lines with brilliant- and emerald-cut diamonds revealing the skin.
The flamingo, a poetic and familiar species in the Cartier menagerie, has a beak enhanced by black lacquer and rose gold, while a multitude of emeralds create a bed of reeds with aquamarines depicting the aquatic environment.
A gala dinner – the pinnacle of the event – was held at the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) and was as enticing as the Nature Sauvage Collection itself. Set in a venue that epitomises the artful combination of past and future, fashion elites, celebrities, hand-picked media and long-time friends of Cartier enjoyed a superb dinner created by Juan Amador, one of the world’s leading avant-garde chefs. While Cartier paid homage to its jewellery collection in a fashion show, guests were treated to a farewell serenade by Brit Awardwinner, Raye.
For more info: cartier.com
