Bored of oval and pear shaped diamonds? High jewellery houses Cartier and Chaumet are going beyond traditional gem cuts, bringing a contemporary freshness to vintage

High jewellery collections unveiled during the summer revealed plenty of familiar shapes. But we also saw a revival for the vintage marquise, a cut that dates back to the 18th century, with a beautiful elliptical shape and less recognisable geometric cuts, echoing the diamond’s own natural octahedral structure. An impressive example is one of Cartier’s high jewellery cocktail rings in its Beautés du Monde collection. Called Karet, it has two triangular-shaped diamonds that are portrait-cut, which produces thin, flat stones, and they are set in platinum.

Anna Hu’s stunning Metamorphosis bracelet meanwhile highlights the newer trapezoid shape along with brown marquise diamonds.

An elongated shield-cut adds elegance to a pair of diamond drop earrings by Boghossian, set alongside their custom “flame” cut, based on the “i” in their logo.

Other funky geometric shapes making the cut, as it were, are trilliants – triangles softened with convex curves along each side – and kites, similarly triangular, with two corners lopped off. These are in fact antique cuts that recently became newly popular in bridal jewellery for their originality.

The hexagon is another shape adding intrigue to high jewellery, bridal and cocktail rings. The Iwana necklace, also from the Beautés du Monde collection features three spectacular hexagonal-shaped cabochon emeralds among a myriad of smaller diamonds.

Chaumet calls the cut Taille Impératrice and it anchors its Bee My Love collection. It comprises 88 facets, orienting the diamond to capture more light and bounce it back to increase the stone’s intensity. This particular cut is seen again in gold bangles and earrings from the collection.

Diamond specialist Messika’s Creole earrings feature a selection of coloured diamonds cut in pear, cushion and shield shapes, balanced within the hoops.

Taking a different approach to gem cutting is Feng J, who unveiled her new high jewellery collection at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris in 2022.

Her signature “floating setting” uses slivers of coloured gemstones in cuts which are organic rather than traditionally symmetrically faceted, which she works on with her lapidarist. These designs are not about carat weight and brilliance but about a palette of subtle translucent shades, similar to those an artist would use to create a work of art.

“The artistically special cutting of double-rose-cut gemstones enables me to play with hue, light, and saturation as the Impressionists did, to create ‘painterly’ style artworks,” she explained.

By adapting and playing with cuts, light and colour in these innovative eye-catching ways, designers like Feng J are sparkling fresh appreciation of the creativity that goes into high jewellery.