Since 1998, Chopard has served as Official Partner of the Cannes Film Festival - eighteen years of passionately showcasing the quintessence of glamour. The Red Carpet collection resulting from this special partnership was introduced in 2007 to mark the 60^th anniversary of the festival. Intended to adorn stars for their red carpet appearances, the creations stem from the imagination of Chopard Co-President and Creative Director, Caroline Scheufele. They take shape through a fascinating synergy between the various talents exercised within the House. Ancestral skills, cutting-edge techniques and well-documented research meet and mingle in attaining impressive heights of perfection and creativity.

Each year Chopard challenges itself to increase the number of unique jewellery pieces created to match the number of Festival editions to date, the number of creations that emerge from the workshop grows by one each year. So the 69^th iteration of the event will be celebrated with 69 extraordinary creations inspired by women and their magnificent aura.

In praise of femininity

The 2016 collection sets the stage for flowing, supple, open worked designs based on rounded shapes. Evoking veils or lacework that gently caress the skin, it pays tribute to the graceful, voluptuous charm of women and highlights their feminine beauty. The collection focuses on the necklace, the ultimate adornment that accentuates the delicate lines of a décolletage and the silky softness of the skin whether it is draped with a spectacular necklace with matching earrings featuring a merry dance of daffodil yellow and white pear-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds or a delightful choker with slender diamond-set scrolling motifs.

Alongside rubies, sapphires, diamonds and emeralds of exceptional cut and quality, these necklaces also reveal the most unexpected gems. Black opals, fire opals and sculpted jade in turn enjoy their moment in the limelight. Testifying to this splendid range of colours is a superbly sensual tie-necklace composed of five rows of emerald beads hemmed by sapphires, rubellites, tsavorites, topazes and amethysts, setting the scene for a magnificent white opal.

Several creations also feature titanium, a solid yet light innovative material that ideally lends itself to majestic decors and atypical shapes. The use of this metal enables even more fanciful and daring touches in that it can be coloured in a wide range of hues, either vanishing beneath the finest gemsetting, or enhancing the radiance of the stones it holds. This alliance is admirably embodied in wide earrings inspired by a paisley motif and set with cabochon-cut sapphires, topazes as well as blue and orange sapphires.

A new stage in “The Journey”

Initiated by Chopard at the 66^th Cannes Film Festival, The Journey to Sustainable Luxury has launched actions designed to foster the development of responsible luxury. Since then, a Green Carpet capsule collection has found its place within the Red Carpet collection. The Green Carpet High Jewellery creations by Chopard are crafted exclusively with Fairmined-certified gold – a label guaranteeing that gold has been mined and processed in compliance with environmental and ethical standards – and with diamonds sourced from the IGC group, which is certified by the RJC Code of Practices.

The appearance of coloured stones among the “sustainable” creations in the collection is a noteworthy development this year introduced under the guidance of Caroline Scheufele. Chopard has signed a unique partnership with the Gemfields group, a global leader in the mining of coloured stones. In an industry first, emeralds from Zambia will be fully validated by Eco-Age* through its Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) Principles of Sustainable Excellence. These gems are an example of international best practice in coloured gemstone mining, making an important contribution to the country’s sustainable development.

For the first time, Chopard introduces responsible colored gemstones in its Green Carpet Collection, thereby creating totally ethical and traceable creations associating emeralds, diamonds from an RJC certified diamond trader and Fairmined 18-carat white gold.

Their peerless colours, their elegance and their delicacy make them one of Caroline Scheufele’s favourite stones. Based around these precious emeralds she has created an extremely elegant jewellery set composed of a ring, a necklace and earrings.

*Eco-Age is a brand consultancy specialising in sustainable solutions and Chopard’s partner in delivering the Journey to Sustainable Luxury.

Chopard official partner of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
From 11 to 22 May 2016

Since 1998, Chopard has been enjoying a glittering association with the Cannes Film Festival. As well as the legendary Palme d’Or in its ateliers and adorning stars for the ritual staircase processions, the Swiss jeweller also rewards young film talents and organises unforgettable annual parties. This year, Chopard has chosen the theme of emeralds and their magnetic beauty to punctuate its activities during the fortnight in Cannes.

The love story between Cannes and Chopard began in 1997 when Pierre Viot, then President of the Festival, asked Caroline Scheufele, Co-President and Creative Director of Chopard, to redesign the Palme d’Or. The Geneva-based Maison became Official Partner of the event the following year and has steadily established itself ever since as the symbol of elegance and glamour on La Croisette.

2016 Red Carpet Collection

Since the 60^th anniversary of the Festival founding in 2007, Caroline Scheufele has been annually dreaming up a Haute Joaillerie collection inspired by the stars who walk the red carpet. Each year, the Red Carpet Collection is enriched with an additional model, since Chopard has set itself the extraordinary challenge of consistently offering a number of jewellery pieces to match the edition number of the festival. This year, 69 creations inspired by the beauty and sensuality of actresses will thus be unveiled. These marvels are entirely crafted in Chopard’s Haute Joaillerie workshops in Geneva, where designers, wax-casting specialists, jewellers, gem-cutters, gem-setters and polishers unite their expertise and talent in giving rise to exceptional pieces of jewellery. Such as this stunning necklace set with 55 pear-shaped yellow diamonds mingling with pear-shaped and brilliant-cut white diamonds.

Trophée Chopard

Since 2001, in partnership with the Festival, Chopard has been encouraging young talents by awarding a trophy to an actor and actress considered as film industry “revelations”. The Geneva-based watchmaker-jeweller thereby contributes to the artistic influence of the Cannes event, while also affirming its support for film-making. Among the actors and actresses who have won this award, many of them such as Marion Cotillard, Diane Kruger and more recently Adèle Exarchopoulos are pursuing brilliant careers.

Partnered by Variety magazine and hosted by a film celebrity, (Colin Firth in 2013, Cate Blanchett in 2014, Julianne Moore in 2015), the prize-giving ceremony will take place on Thursday May 12^th.

Chopard’s “Thousand and One Nights” party

The glittering soirée held by Chopard during the Cannes Film Festival is always one of the highlights of the fortnight. Each year, the jeweller plans a magnificent evening for its guests. Whether by offering a reconstructed version of the famous Cinecittà film studios in 2014 or a gold-mine decor for the flamboyant Gold Night in 2015, Chopard has an unrivalled gift for magnificent staging effects. This year, it is with the Thousand and One Nights theme and its mythical tales that Chopard will surprise its guests.

The Palme d’Or, the top award presented each year to the best feature film competing in the Festival, is crafted in the Chopard workshops and will be handed over during the closing ceremony on May 22^nd. Since 2014, the legendary trophy has been fashioned from Fairmined gold: ethical gold sourced from artisanal and small-scale mining communities in South American that are themselves Fairmined certified. This label guarantees strict compliance with economic, social and environmental development regulations during the mining process. While Chopard has been engaged in an ethically-driven approach since 2013 and currently offers several creations in Fairmined gold, the Cannes trophy remains the most illustrious symbol of this ongoing commitment.

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