What are ‘semi-precious’ stones? From Louis Vuitton to Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, brands are using tourmalines, aquamarines and opals to bring a blaze of colour – and maybe even good fortune

Apr 1 , 2024

Van Cleef & Arpels are just one big-name brand leaning into a trend for semi-precious stones, valued for their dramatic colour and their supposed healing or protective properties. Photos: Handout

High Jewellery

Francesca Cartier Brickell’s book on Cartier talks up semi-precious stones, as do Victoria Lampley Berens of jewellery consultancy The Stax and Sophie Howard, founder of By Pariah

By Pariah’s jewellery has been seen on Michelle Obama and Emma Corrin, while Jacquie Aiche, Le Vian and Tiffany & Co. are three more brands leaning into the trend

Jewellery makes for a sparkling barometer of evolutions in taste and desires, frequently revealing something of the changes and upheavals in how we live.

One such example is semi-precious stones. While they’ve been used in jewellery since around 300BC, they’ve gained particular prominence in both fine and high jewellery today. As Francesca Cartier Brickell notes in The Cartiers, a book that charts the story of the maison once dubbed “Jeweller of Kings and King of Jewellers”, semi-precious stones like opal, tourmaline, aquamarine, carnelian, garnet and lapis lazuli gained popularity through the Depression and post-World War II. These were periods when many clients’ finances were more strained, ushering in creations that used less expensive, but still dazzling semi-precious stones.

Van Cleef & Arpels Couleur du Temps ring combining diamonds and sapphires with semi-precious tourmalines and an aquamarine

It’s a philosophy that works well now and speaks of the way jewellers (and their clients) are looking beyond diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds to create something entirely different.

French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels describes its semi-precious stones as “ornamental”, and uses them in pieces such as a carnelian and diamond Perlée ring. Meanwhile, Francesca Amfitheatrof chose zircon, the oldest known gemstone, for the incredible Rupture necklace in Deep Time, her most recent high jewellery collection for Louis Vuitton.

Jacquie Aiche pink tourmaline teardrop, pink tourmaline baguette, watermelon tourmaline slice drop stud earrings

Beyond aesthetics, as jeweller Jacquie Aiche notes, semi-precious stones are often believed to be embedded with healing and protective properties. Deciding what she needs from a gemstone is often how Aiche begins designing a collection.

“I have a collection of semi-precious and precious stones that I’ve gathered throughout the years. I see what stone I’m drawn to and then I will start designing from there. My favourite gemstone at the moment is tourmaline,” Aiche says.

Choosing the right kind of semi-precious stones, says Aiche, is an intuitive thing and depends on the type of healing needed.