Top 10 jewellery moments of the year: jewellery editor Hannah Silver’s picks

From surreal designs to artist-inspired collaborations and fluid high jewellery, the past year in jewellery has seen it all. Here are some of our favourite jewellery moments of 2024.

Hedi Slimane translates Jean Arp's sculptures into jewellery pieces for the Celine Bijoux d’Artistes Project

Forms were an abstract concept for German-French sculptor, painter, and poet, Jean Arp, who drew on nature’s organic silhouettes to create sensual shapes in his work.

The ephemeral nature of his sculptures, encapsulated particularly in a series he created in the 1950s after being inspired during trips to Greece, made his estate a natural choice for Celine creative director Hedi Slimane when considering the next focus for the Celine Bijoux d’Artistes Project. The project, paying tribute to great avant-garde artists, has so far collaborated with the estates of French sculptor César and American sculptor Louise Nevelon, translating their works into wearable art forms in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

In 2024, it was the turn of Jean Arp, and third iteration of the project is an homage his work, Ptolémée II, a biomorphic shape juxtaposing solidity with space. Gently curving, its oval form pays as much respect to the void as it does to the bronze, cutting a harmonious balance between the two.

Read about Celine's Jean Arp-inspired jewellery

Wild beauties: high jewellery dripping with drama

At the heart of high jewellery collections lies a dedication to showcasing the rarest and most precious gemstones, putting them in the best possible light. For 2024’s new releases, high-jewellery houses zoned in on colour, eschewing traditional pastels for a generous rainbow of hues, from the muted and abstract to the brilliant and bold.

Read about the high jewellery collections of 2024

‘It is always a pleasure to surprise’: inside Lagos-based high-jewellery house Akano Diamonds

'Design and the rarity and quality of gemstones are everything to me. My love for diamonds stems from the feeling I get when I am wearing them – one of timeless elegance, femininity and strength,' says Akunna Nwala-Akano, founder of Akano Diamonds (formerly known as DEJ), the Lagos-based high-jewellery house, that draws deeply from her cultural heritage and lifelong belief in the transformative power of jewels.

Read our interview with Akano Diamonds’ Akunna Nwala-Akano

‘Given hip-hop’s roots in New York, the chance to tell this story in this city is very special’

Hip-hop’s official 50th birthday was 11 August 2023. But the party is not due to end any time soon. ‘Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry’ runs at the American Museum of Natural History in New York until 5 January 2025, and so there's still time to join in. Among the oversized gold chains and diamond-studded pendants is a glitter ball of legendary names – The Notorious B.I.G., Jam Master Jay and Erykah Badu among them. But ‘Ice Cold’ aims higher, going way beyond brilliantly audacious designs to illuminate hip-hop jewellery as part of a multi-layered trajectory of style, politics and sociocultural trends.

Read our Ice Cold exhibition review

Venyx translates Man Ray’s sensual symbols into surrealist jewellery

Man Ray’s influence endures – his offbeat silhouettes and surreal references inspire designers throughout the world and his work is still honoured in exhibitions (such as 2023’s show of Man Ray sculptures in New York). Eugenie Niarchos, founder and creative director of jewellery brand Venyx, is the latest designer to fall under his spell, creating a collection centred around the artist’s sensual and surrealist symbols.

Read more and see Venyx’s Man Ray-inspired jewellery

Lugano’s versatile high jewellery pieces are too good to save for special occasions

High jewellery can, by its nature, be a little formal, a reputation that one American brand has been steadily shrugging off over the last two decades. Established in the US in 2005 by Idit and Moti Ferder (featured in the Wallpaper* USA 400 guide to creative America), Lugano has been championing surprising materials and unfussy silhouettes since its inception. At their atelier/workshop in Newport Beach, California, the husband-and wife duo focus on creating unique, one-of-a-kind pieces that encapsulate an individual.

Read our interview and see more Lugano high jewellery

Jessica McCormack and the Haas Brothers’ playful jewellery

Jessica McCormack and the Haas Brothers bring a playful irreverence to fine jewellery, a philosophy they have stayed faithful to in their second collaboration (the first was the Haas Brothers’ jewellery debut, in 2020).

‘This Too Shell Has’, a compact collection of five pieces, nods to the aesthetic and heritage of all the collaborators. The sensually shaped designs reference the koru fern, a motif from McCormack’s native New Zealand, while the Haas Brothers’ oversized snail sculptures, Snails in Comparison, are a clear inspiration.

Read about Jessica McCormack and the Haas Brothers’ jewellery

African jewellery designers marrying heritage with sharp design codes

African jewellery designers are ensuring the local industry is alive and well. On a continent with so many raw materials and elements, and known for its export of gold and diamonds, the African jewellery market value is rising. It is thanks to the increasing interest in and appreciation of Africa’s locally produced luxury items, but also to several industry players who are continuously on their game, trying to get the market moving – and this is especially true of the jewellery designers.

Discover African jewellery designers to watch

Alighieri marks ten years with ten jewellery classics

For Rosh Mahtani, founder of jewellery brand Alighieri, the company’s tenth anniversary is a significant milestone – a chance to pause and look back, celebrate everything the brand has achieved so far, and cement core values. ‘Over the last ten years, there have been certain pieces that have held such very deep sentiments for me; as soon as I look at them, I'm immediately transported back to where I was when I created them, how I felt, what I was going through,’ Mahtani tells us.

See Alighieri’s jewellery classics

Cora Sheibani celebrates unexpected diamond cuts in a new jewellery collection

‘I have just always loved jewellery, I think it goes further back than my own memories,’ says jewellery designer Cora Sheibani. Since launching her eponymous house in 2002, she has become known for her daring aesthetic, one that is anchored in a life-long love of art, liberally seasoned with personal narratives, and has pieces that consistently point to her profound respect for design, craftsmanship and the plethora of possibilities that gemstones possess. With her latest offering, ‘Facets and Forms’, Sheibani has created a ‘collection that is very much for those people who like jewellery but are into design, who like materiality’, she says, and who, like her, think for themselves and ‘don’t follow trends’.

Read the Cora Sheibani interview