Style Edit: Dior’s Victoire de Castellane pairs whimsy and animal magic with dynamic design in the Diorama & Diorigami collection

Celebrated for her bold, fantastical designs, Dior Joaillerie artistic director Victoire de Castellane is known to combine historical flair with vibrant gemstones and precious metals. Her latest high jewellery collection reimagines the classic Toile de Jouy pattern in playful, modern masterpieces.

This iconic 18th century motif – seen on the Book Tote bag, scarves and Walk’n Dior sneakers – serves as the central theme of the 172-piece Diorama & Diorigami collection. In a first for Castellane, animal motifs are found in a stunning blend of detailed figurative and abstract designs, crafted with advanced techniques in gold work and stone setting.

Originally seen on the walls of Christian Dior’s first boutique at 30 Avenue Montaigne, the Toile de Jouy theme takes centre stage in the Diorama chapter as a whimsical woodland featuring carved and diamond-set squirrels, fawns and rabbits among lush foliage. Necklaces reveal miniature deer and owls in tonal lacquer, swans on mother-of-pearl lakes, and flora adorned with diamond-pavé foxes and squirrels.

The three-dimensional beauty of this collection is epitomised by the Diorama Forêt Enchantée necklace, a masterpiece that required over 6,000 hours of meticulous work. Specialists crafted animals using glyptic chrysoprase – an ancient art of sculpting ornamental stones – combined with modern techniques. The necklace features intricately engraved yellow gold leaves and foliage set with 1,300 gems, including white diamonds, pearls, yellow sapphires, green tsavorites and emeralds. The detailed aesthetic extends to a ring showcasing a sleeping fawn, and a pair of earrings adorned with animated squirrels, both embellished with emeralds.

Featuring an extraordinary array of coloured stones – rubies, sapphires, black opals, turquoises, tsavorite garnets and emeralds – the Diorama chapter showcases the largest gem trove Dior has ever dedicated to a single collection. While the gem-set animal motifs are stunning, the collection’s stand-out feature is its use of rare artistic techniques. These include glyptic carving, lacquer work, and various goldworking methods, such as pricked gold for a frosted branch effect and mirror-polished gold for enhanced light reflection, all of which amplify the collection’s magical look and feel.

While Diorama is a figurative representation of a stroll through the enchanting Milly-la-Forêt in France and its wooded landscape, Diorigami is abstract in its approach. The chapter presents a jeweller’s interpretation of Japanese origami and the couture technique of pleating – a hallmark of Dior since the introduction of the iconic Bar jacket and its pleated skirt. Both chapters feature multicoloured precious stones, but Diorigami stands out with its merry contrasts, incorporating playful rabbits, ladybirds and flowers.