Object of Lust

With historic ties to Monsieur Dior, Victoire de Castellane has revealed a spectacular diamond in her latest high jewellery collection for Dior Joaillerie.

‘Le Montaigne’ is an exquisite cushion-cut Fancy Intense yellow diamond, weighing precisely 88.88 carats. Not only does the name pay tribute to 30 Avenue de Montaigne in Paris, the townhouse which since 1946 has been home to the couture of Christian Dior, but the carat weight recalls the number ‘8’, one of Monsieur’s lucky charms.

The 150-carat rough diamond was discovered in 2020 at De Beers’s historic Kimberley Mine and immediately garnered attention thanks to its rare beauty and achievable colour intensity. The Maison declared that they wished the diamond to be part of the patrimony of the House and stipulated the weight for the polished diamond to symbolise one of Monsieur Dior’s loves. He so believed in the lucky significance of the figure ‘8’ that he opened the eight floor, eight ateliers, 8th arrondissement townhouse on 8th October 1946, and entitled his first haute couture collection, En Huit, which unveiled the clean and curvaceous lines of the iconic and revolutionary ‘New Look’ silhouette – the female body represented as an eight.

Now after nine months of studying, modelling and meticulous cutting, this magnificent diamond will be displayed as a single gemstone in the recently renovated flagship on Avenue Montaigne, with nothing to distract from its intense yellow sparkle. Dior Joaillerie’s artistic director, Mme de Castellane, will then create a bespoke piece, a two finger ring, with Le Montaigne surrounded by precious stones designed as flowers – another of Christian Dior’s loves and lucky charms.