Did Taylor Swift just make opals cool again? Miles Teller’s wife Keleigh Sperry gifted her a ring we can’t stop talking about – though designers at Dior, Fendi and Louis Vuitton are all old fans
- Dior’s Victoire de Castellane, Kim Jones at Fendi and Francesca Amfitheatrof of Louis Vuitton are all opal fans, with LV ambassador Ana de Armas spotted in the Rupture necklace from the Deep Time collection
- Australian designer Sarah Gardner, Danish jeweller Orit Elhanati and Los Angeles-based Suzanne Kalan are among the smaller brands leading the trend for the mesmerising stone
Whether it’s visions of the jewellery worn by a terrifyingly ancient great aunt or of a touristy gift shop on an 90s family holiday to Australia, opals have some major preconceptions to shake off.
Luckily, the mesmerising stone, found all over the world but mostly in Australia, is enjoying a major resurgence. Not least because Taylor Swift was spotted wearing a new pear-shaped opal ring, which looks to be surrounded by blue topazes, at her birthday bash in New York in December. The ring was a gift from friend Keleigh Sperry, who also happens to be actor Miles Teller’s wife.
For others, such as Victoire de Castellane, the creative director of Dior Joaillerie, they’ve always been a favourite. Indeed de Castellane once said that she loved them because they contained every colour in the world. Not a bad claim for any gemstone.
Collections for the maison, such as Dior et d’Opales, have centred on the stone, while Kim Jones featured opal jewellery in his debut haute couture collection for Fendi, and former creative director of Gucci and ultimate magpie Alessandro Michele is an enormous fan.
They’re also beloved by Francesca Amfitheatrof, artistic director of jewellery and watches at Louis Vuitton. One of the most significant pieces in her Deep Time high jewellery collection this year was the Rupture necklace, modelled by actress and LV ambassador Ana de Armas in a recent campaign. It features a rivière of 33 brilliant-cut purply-brown zircons – the oldest stone in the world and not one typically found in high jewellery – 15 oval-cut opals, and a triangle-cut sapphire set into a chunky gold chain.
A bold and unusual move in high jewellery, the necklace fits with how jewellers around the world are returning to viewing opals with the esteem they held during the art deco and art nouveau periods.
Los Angeles jeweller Suzanne Kalan is one such contemporary designer to work with opals, with the launch of a new collection of drop earrings and cocktails rings that use vibrant multicoloured opals set with coloured gemstones, and in her signature “Fireworks” baguette diamond setting.
For Kalan though, opals have long been a source of wonder.
“Opals have captivated my fascination for many years. Their beauty lies in their uniqueness – no two stones are ever the same, each with its own distinct dance of colour and light. The way they capture and play with light, revealing a spectrum of hues with each movement, is truly mesmerising. It’s like holding a fragment of a galaxy or a rainbow in your hands,” she says.