Expect the unexpected. For Valerie Messika, it is a beacon that guides her eponymous jewelry creations. On Thursday night in Paris, the jewelry designer unveiled her second show during Paris Fashion Week with a spectacular new collection that takes inspiration from ancient Egypt. The event, which brought together many stars, demonstrated the disruptive nature of the high jewelry brand.
Only Natural Diamonds spoke with the Founder and Creative Director in a suite at the Kimpton Hotel in Paris, hours before the big event, and shared her thoughts on creating the collection, producing the Paris Fashion Week event and what she hoped guests experienced.
“I aim to continue to make fine jewelry more desirable,” she says, “because when I started my brand, I wanted to make diamond jewelry feminine, sexy, and with something that leaves a feeling. of power, which I felt was sacrificed in traditional jewelry.” Her runway experiences aim to show that fine jewelry is worn as a fashion accessory, something to wear everyday, like a favorite jacket or pair of pants.
This latest installment of the high jewelry collection, “Beyond the Light”, features more imposing pieces, with larger diamonds, than those presented on the catwalk last year. However, the designer avoids the syndrome of the dramatically expensive jewel that does not leave the safe. “I want to reduce the distance between the jewel and the possibility of wearing it,” she explains.
To that end, she demonstrated how easy it is to wear diamonds every day by pairing the high jewelry pieces with 29 Adidas sportswear looks. Models such as Taylor Hill, Toni Garrn and Cindy Bruna walked the red carpet in cheeky shorts, swimsuits paired with white tie-waist shirts and crop tops worn with sweatpants. They were all styled by Geraldine Saglio, former editor-in-chief of VOGUE Paris.
“I took the risk of continuing to move forward with an unexpected style of clothing to come up with a different proposition on how to wear diamonds,” she said. It was a way of interpreting ancient culture as if it existed today, but not literally. “This period of history was modern like today’s society. Women were equal to men; they could divorce, acquire property, obtain employment. They embodied power and strength as we see in Cleopatra,” she continued, drawing a parallel between the voices of women in society.
His modern Egyptians avoided clichés. Messika chose a raw, industrial-looking space devoid of gilding, tapestries and marble, as another way to disrupt high jewelry norms.
The 150 pieces featured during the show – which required 45 guards backstage – included full-sized breastplates, mouth jewelry and pieces that move and transform, sharing similarities with Egyptian adornments. For example, colossal gold necklaces, which, according to the designer, signified spirituality and were worn at funerals. Valérie Messika has recruited a queen of fashion to parade with the centerpiece of the collection, the Akh-Ba-Ka necklace worn by Naomi Campbell. She wore royally the winged design natural diamond necklace containing 2,550 gemstones, the primary diamonds of which were cut from the same 110-carat natural rough diamond. In total, the necklace is 71.49 carats. This unique piece demonstrates the demand for quality and the know-how in terms of natural stones that customers are looking for from the Parisian jewelry house.
Another special guest was male model, Alton Mason, who also walked the runway that day. “I couldn’t have a Cleopatra without a Pharaoh. There is a huge trend in men’s jewelry, which will be even bigger next year. I want to take a stand in this arena,” said Valérie Messika. All the men in her life were pioneers in this universe. Her father, her husband and her brother all wear diamond bracelets from Messika in different combinations.
Front-row guests, including Gigi Hadid, who has previously featured in a Messika campaign, Emily Ratajkowski, Carla Bruni, Elsa Hosk, Derek Blasberg and Nina Dobrev, among others, enjoyed seeing the jewelry so close to the models as well as on the big screen which simultaneously projected close-ups of the jewelry. The creative director said she learned a lesson from the first fashion show when it came to seating policy. “This year we are approaching it more as a military operation with more people to back us up.”
The show was undoubtedly unexpected for Nina Dobrev – who took a quick break from an undisclosed new film project in New York to attend the event. She spoke to Only Natural Diamonds at the cocktail party after the show.
“It felt fresh, innovative, different and unique to me. I loved the juxtaposition of the athletic style of clothing and high jewelry. I had never seen this before, and I enjoyed this new way of wearing jewelry,” she shared, adding, “This is how I see Messika jewelry in many ways. For example, diamonds are classic, but she finds a way to make them edgy, cool and useful.”
And where does Nina Dobrev wear natural diamonds? “At the gym, obviously,” she joked. “Seriously, I wear smaller diamonds on a daily basis, but more prestigious diamonds for dressier occasions like tonight,” she added, showing off the pear-shaped diamond necklace with a reverse-shaped setting. of Messika label that she wore.
Earlier today, Valérie Messika revealed how she overcame her nervousness ahead of the show. “I’m not a confident person,” she admitted, adding, “Until a few days ago, I was worried about how the jewelry and the clothes were going to match. But then I said to myself that if any brand could afford to go in this delicate direction, it was Messika. She explained how, after doing the fittings the day before, she saw everything fall into place. “I had a last drink with my dad, and I said to him, ‘We belong as a brand; I am confident where we are.”
Valérie Messika looked happy and confident on the after-show party, posing for photos with guests and dancing to Diplo, dressed head-to-toe in Alaïa. Her only wish for something different? “I wish I could fly everyone to Egypt and put on a show under the stars, outdoors, at night, near the Sphinx.”
Messika’s “Beyond The Light” Diamond Jewelery Collection Lit Up Paris Fashion Week