If you buy one style of diamond this season, make it a step-cut
Step-cut, baguette, emerald, Ashoka - no matter how you label them, diamonds cut in a sharply square or rectangular shape have an edge on all others.
A ring of baguette cuts may shout 'art deco', due to that era's fascination with geometry and cubism, but, in fact, step-cut stones have been around since 1902, when Joseph Asscher introduced his eponymously named, extra-deep square cut. Today, step-cut diamonds are used to achieve any number of looks, including retro-futurism and a unique sort of splintered effect.
From top: Titanium, diamond and lapis lazuli Silk Samarkand earrings, price on request, Boghossian. Platinum and diamond The Cloud Trees ring, price on request, Boodles. White-gold, yellow-gold and diamond Space Odyssey ring, price on request, Jessica McCormack. White-gold and diamond heart pendant, £3,525, Suzanne Kalan
From Boghossian's fish-hook-esque earrings, realised by channel-setting baguettes in blue titanium, to Jessica McCormack's tribute to Stanley Kubrick's epic 1960s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, step-cut diamonds enable designers to play with sharp lines and corners.
At Boodles, a large Ashoka diamond proves that just one step-cut has heft enough to stand out on its own, especially when juxtaposed with oval, marquise and pavé-set diamonds. In contrast, Suzanne Kalan layers, stacks and jumbles baguette-cut diamonds and coloured gemstones en masse to incredible effect. Look sharp: the step cut is where it's at.
Chaumet puts on a majestic display
Anyone lucky enough to visit the tiara room at Chaumet's Place Vendôme HQ will be dazzled by the array of painted nickel and silver models, charting the maison's 200-year history of crafting these precious pieces.
Next month, to celebrate the opening of the house's first store in Monaco, a special exhibition, Chaumet in Majesty, will showcase its prowess not just with tiaras, but all jewels created for blue-blooded clients.
Comprising 250 pieces of jewellery, artwork and historical records, the exhibition promises to be a masterclass in Chaumet's relationship with empresses and princesses, countesses and queens, since its beginnings as Napoleon's jeweller in 1780. The pieces encompass the full range of Chaumet's signature motifs, from laurel leaves to feathers.
12 July-28 August, at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.
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