A lavish celebration of twenty years of Dior Joaillerie showcasing the breathtaking creations of creative director Victoire de Castellane through an extravagant illustrated dictionary.

As creative director of Dior Joaillerie since its beginnings in 1998, Victoire de Castellane is renowned for her fearless approach to jewellery. Crossing the boundary between natural and artificial, her fantastical jewels are inspired by global pop culture, Christian Dior's life and work, and the floral world and embody a timeless, poetic style.

To fête twenty years of Victoire de Castellane's designs, this luxurious volume presents a dictionary of eighteen chapters, each introduced by a dazzling drop cap ornate with an original collage of drawings. From the first collections to the acclaimed Le Bal des Roses pieces and the celebrated floral gardens of Belladone Island, Dior Joaillerie's history is explored from its debut and up to the latest collection, Gem Dior, presented in Venice in June 2019 and exclusively shot for this publication. More than 300 images by renowned photographers such as Guido Mocafico and Erwan Frottin illustrate this original alphabetical journey. Through the dictionary entries penned by Olivier Gabet, director of the Musée des Arts décoratifs, readers uncover nonlinear, playful insights into the fascinating world of one of the world's foremost jewellery designers. Printed in Italy and with creative direction by Thomas Lenthal, this exquisite piece of bookmaking is a stunning homage to Victoire de Castellane's artistry and imagination.

About the Authors:

Victoire de Castellane has been the creative director of Dior Joaillerie since 1998. Olivier Gabet is the director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD) in Paris.

The first book to celebrate the timeless beauty and craftsmanship of Dior’s jewellery designs. Since launching Dior Fine Jewelry in 1998, Victoire de Castellane has been celebrated for having revolutionized the staid world of jewellery design. Her designs play with the barriers between natural and artificial. Renowned as one of the most creative and fearless jewellery designers in the world, she trailblazed the use of the semiprecious gemstones and lacquered gold in baroque, translucent colours. Her sources of inspiration include a global mix of pop culture, floral and natural motifs, and the visual excesses of Bollywood. 

About the Author:

Michèle Heuzé is a jewellery historian and gemologist. In 2005, she was curator for the exhibition on avant-garde French jewellery and she made a documentary about French jewellery in 2008. She has contributed to numerous magazines, exhibitions catalogues, and books, including L'Estampille - L'Objet d'Art.

Victoire de Castellane, the designer of Dior Joaillerie, presents her collection of Fine Jewellery on the Belladone Island – an imaginary island conducive to the growth of Belladonna, a toxic plant whose essence was used as eye drops by Italian women during the Renaissance to dilate their pupils – dilated pupils being one of the signs of sexual arousal. The plant kingdom inspired the names of the jewels in their collection, plants which were part of the imaginary ancestral herbarium and reminiscent of the magic formulas of bewitching elixirs – Reina Magnifica Sangria, Poisono Misterius Spinella, Fleuro Poisonus Spinella, Paradisea Coeur Secretus, Carnivora Fluora Eternita, Dracula Spinella Devorus, Grani Opalia Devorus, Carnivo Papidevorus, Ancolia Veneinosa Pop. Each one of the 17 pieces describes the world in its own fashion, recounts a story, which secretly imbibes itself with that of the person wearing it.

In this collection, the imagination of Victoire de Castellane, freed from the shackles of convention, unleashes itself and proves its audacity. The first part of the book, designed to represent the extravagant nature of this collection as accurately as possible, is generously illustrated by Guido Mocafico’s photographs. The second part also shows the various phases involved in unveiling this collection, starting from the building of a lotus-like structure in the virtual sphere on Second Life, until the actual presentation in the hall Nymphéas de Monet at the musée de l’Orangerie.