magine a portrait of Victoire de Castellane in a few strokes: a blunt fringe skimming huge eyes that gaze out at the world and transform it into fragments of beauty; a wasp waist kept slender by hula hoop sessions; a flared dress and high heels. High enough to stand closer to the clouds and invent jewels that are an antidote to reality.

Victoire de Castellane came to Dior on January 1st, 1998 from Chanel where, since 1983, she had created costume jewellery alongside Karl Lagerfeld. Driven by the desire to take liberties with the conventions of the jewellery world, she arrived at Avenue Montaigne brandishing her love of the past, her bursts of laughter and her dreams.

Victoire de Castellane, Creative Director for Dior Joaillerie

Photo: ©Robin Galiegue

Every one of her collections is an invitation to enter her enchanted world. Her jewellery is filled with magic, whimsy and the panache she no doubt inherited from one of France’s oldest families, whose lineage dates from the sixth century (she is the great-grandniece of Boni de Castellane, a celebrated Belle Epoque dandy). During her years at Dior, she’s done everything from front a fake shopping channel for a million-euro jewel to launch the Belladone Island collection on Second Life. She has invented Milly Carnivora, a collection of carnivorous-plant rings which she painted with lacquer in psychedelic shades, and created the tiniest jewels imaginable; precious finger tattoos for generations of women for whom Place Vendôme had only ever been a dream.

Dior Milly Dentelle earrings, yellow gold and diamonds

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

Having explored the confines of her imagination, Victoire de Castellane set her heart on paying tribute to Dior’s original incarnation as a haute couture house, and to express this in jewellery. The question being, how to recreate the suppleness of a ribbon or the lightness of lace in a rigid material? Her latest collection, Dior Milly Dentelle, exists thanks to her determination to push technical limits and thanks to the skill and know-how of Dior’s jewellery ateliers.

As we chatted, two of Victoire de Castellane’s favourite words were “amusing” and “wonderful”. Rarely do we have the chance to meet someone so full of amusement and wonder…

Dior Milly Dentelle Fleurs Enneigées necklace, white, rose and yellow gold, white and yellow diamonds, white cultured pearls.

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

Europa Star Jewellery: Lace is the lightest of materials, weaving patterns around thin air. How were you able to recreate this in metals and minerals?

Victoire de Castellane: A jewel must be visually delicate but never to the extent that it could break. The artisans made use of fil-couteau and chasing techniques to render the metal as light as possible. It’s down to them to balance suppleness with rigidity. Finding this balance is one of the collection’s technical complexities. I wanted to create lace and netting in flower shapes. It’s such a delight to play with this floral element, with nature.

You already designed a lace-inspired collection for the twentieth anniversary of Dior Joaillerie in 2018, as well as for Dearest Dior in 2023, although the interpretation was different. Will this be an ongoing narrative?

Yes. Lace is an important and timeless theme at Dior which originated as a couture house. Lace patterns remind me of antique jewellery and I like the idea of reviving forgotten techniques to adapt them and bring them up to date.

It seems every one of your collections sets new challenges for the ateliers. Which aspects of this collection posed the greatest difficulty?

There were several. Firstly, when a jewel has a certain volume, it’s important that its weight be evenly distributed. This meant refining the settings as much as possible. Another challenge was to create subtle gradients and to impart movement thanks to special articulations. Also, the model had to be a faithful interpretation of the drawing and respect the asymmetric design I wanted. Whenever we meet with the jewellers, there are always tiny adjustments to be made in relation to the drawing. It’s a question of visual balance. I have the great fortune to work with the best jewellery workshops in the world. They are virtuosos, their hands are capable of the most extraordinary precision. Crafting a jewel from a drawing is an enormous challenge in itself.

The Jardin Brodé necklace reminds me of naive art. What inspired you?

I love everything to do with childhood. I imagined this collection two years ago when there were so many hostile noises in the world, when we were constantly bombarded with terrible news. I wanted to create a bubble, a retreat where we could play. My idea was to bring something of a child’s world into these jewels, hence the little apples in the trees, the tiny gardens, the miniature clouds. Name another profession where every day you hear “it’s incredible”, “it’s magnificent”, “it’s wonderful”, “it’s magical”, “it’s delightful”, “it’s superb”. This is what we hear every time they bring us a finished jewel. And even before we see it, there’s the excitement of waiting and imagining how fabulous it will be.

Preparing the gouache and assembling the Dior Milly Dentelle Fleurs Enneigées necklace, in white, rose and yellow gold, white and yellow diamonds and white cultured pearls.

Could this collection be a message from the child you were to the adult you’ve become?

Absolutely! I still create things as though I were five years old. I need to hold on to the freshness and innocence we lose when we grow up. How else can we be free to imagine something new each time, keep our mind wide open and be like children who don’t overthink things, they just let their ideas pour out. It’s an important mindset to have, at least it is for someone in a creative line of work. Not such a great idea if you’re a doctor or a surgeon! (laughs)

Your first Diorette jewellery collections featured enamel-painted flowers. In the Dior Milly Dentelle collection, it’s as though the flowers have been painted with precious gems and fine stones. Should we see a connection between the two?

We could, but I don’t like to do the same thing twice. There’s no lacquer in this new collection but there are stones. I use lacquer when there’s a good reason to do so, such as when we put lacquer on prongs so the metal blended into the stone, or to introduce a colour we don’t get from gemstones. But this wasn’t the case, not this time.

Dior Milly Dentelle Jardin Brodé necklace, yellow gold, yellow diamond, emeralds, rubies and pink sapphires.

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

Were you inspired by a particular Dior haute couture design for this lace-like jewellery?

The starting point was actually a flower. Often I start from a detail I’ve explored in a previous collection but want to keep picking at that thread. I could see how this tiny flower could become an entire story.

From your earliest collections, you’ve showcased gems that other jewellers have neglected, such as Padparadscha sapphires, Paraiba tourmalines and fire opals. Where did your taste for these particular stones come from?

I’ve never categorised stones by how precious they are but by colour. I couldn’t understand why these stones, which we used to call semi-precious and which have gained enormously in value, were overlooked. If we limit ourselves to the four precious stones [diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald], we soon come up against a wall. It makes no sense to limit what you can do: you can’t tell stories and you’re depriving yourself of colour. Colour is my priority, which is why I use stones Place Vendôme had abandoned. Stones which, incidentally, you now see everywhere. When I came to Dior, no major jewellery house was using opals and I couldn’t think why. It’s such a magnificent stone, one that was given noble status by Lalique and all the Art Nouveau jewellers.

Dior Milly Dentelle Manège Fleuri ring, rose gold, diamonds, emeralds, pink and yellow sapphires, tsavorite garnets.

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

When did you first see an opal?

I was very young. One of my aunts owned an opal ring that had belonged to her godmother, Barbara Hutton. My aunt had tiny hands and she wore this enormous ring, a huge opal cabochon surrounded by diamonds, on her index finger. I thought it was extraordinary! I always wondered what this shimmering stone could possibly be. For me, it was like something from a fakir’s treasure chest. It was this very large ring on a very small hand, completely out of proportion yet so charming.

When you came to Dior in 1998, you quickly imposed your style; one that is whimsical yet serious, unconventional with a touch of humour. What were you hoping to bring to the jewellery sphere?

I thought jewellery then was incredibly boring! It added 20 years to a woman. Surely it’s possible to enjoy wearing jewellery and not want to look mumsy or matronly. I wanted to create jewellery that would be the opposite of boring but it’s not because my designs are lighthearted that they aren’t taken seriously. On the contrary! I have the good fortune to work with excellent ateliers, using rigorously sourced stones, all the more so as we’re not a traditional jewellery house. Our standards are such that sometimes we have to turn down a stone that’s a gorgeous colour but doesn’t have the quality we’re looking for.

Dior Milly Dentelle necklace, yellow gold, diamonds, black opal, sapphires, emeralds, tsavorite garnets and turquoises.

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

These past five years, you’ve worked with much larger centrestones than before. Does this give you greater freedom or is it an additional responsibility?

It makes no difference where I’m concerned. A larger stone doesn’t automatically mean a more classic design, although it can be as we have to offer our customers a wide array of styles and because it’s a fun exercise to sit down and design a piece of classic jewellery. I like to imagine simpler, more abstract things, too. I don’t live in a world that’s all flowers and magic.

A Dior jewel is an adornment, a talisman, a statement, a sign of belonging, something else?

We have some very loyal customers who never miss a single one of our collections and who purchase our jewellery to add to their personal collection. Our jewels become part of the life of the women or men who buy them. They can be worn at any time, no matter what year they were created. They’re independent of fashion, which is amusing in a way as Dior follows the fashion world’s seasons whereas jewellery remains outside this cycle.

Dior Milly Dentelle Couture Fleurie necklace, rose gold, platinum, white and yellow diamonds.

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

Perhaps because you exist on a different time scale?

Even though more and more jewellery collections are launched each year, we are effectively on a different time scale. Currently I’m working on the collection for 2027. I don’t think fashion designers are that far ahead. It’s two years since I imagined the Milly Dentelle collection and the world has changed so much since then. We didn’t hear as much about AI, for example. I actually asked an AI generator to design a piece of jewellery and the result was awful! (laughs) AI can do something “in the style of” but it can’t guess what’s in our head and anticipate what we want, not yet. We are an accumulation of memories and dreams. I invest a great deal of emotion in my jewellery.

Looking back at the women who designed jewellery for the legacy houses — Suzanne Belperron for Boivin, Renée Puissant for Van Cleef & Arpels, Jeanne Toussaint for Cartier — or the handful of today’s female creative directors, including yourself, it seems women are bolder. Would you agree and why do you think that is?

Maybe, yes. I think women have reclaimed these professions that were previously done by men. So few women have come to the fore in jewellery in the past hundred years. Jewellery has become a desirable profession for women, too.

In 26 years, what has most changed in fine jewellery?

When I started out, girls were into bags and shoes and clothes, and were more inclined to design accessories and fashion. Now more young women are getting into jewellery. In my early days at Dior, I created “smaller” pieces and fine jewellery, such as the Mimioui ring with the smallest diamond in the world. I wanted women who couldn’t buy fine jewellery to be able to own a Dior bijou that was well-made and imbued with emotion. Since then, a lot of women have launched their jewellery brand. Jewellery has become part of people’s daily lives, worn in different, more casual ways, with a friendship bracelet or grandmother’s ring and that’s new. Women in the 1980s wore big plastic earrings. Real jewellery never featured in magazines, except Vogue which showed women in bustiers wearing enormous Harry Winston sets. Jewellery hadn’t yet been democratised.

Dior Milly Dentelle earrings, rose gold, diamonds, emeralds, pink rubies, pink and yellow sapphires, tsavorite garnets

Photo: ©Dior Joaillerie

You’ve explored so many different worlds, including some really quirky ones. The Belladone Island collection from 2007, for example, was particularly trippy. What would be your most daring jewel today? The one you would love to create knowing that it would be virtually impossible?

I’m not sure that’s how I’d ask the question as it implies I’m chasing after just one thing, which would be too restrictive. Jewellery for me is lots of things, lots of stones, lots of colours… Maybe the impossible jewel would be flavoured gemstones we would eat and see them glowing through our skin. (laughs) Now that would be trippy!