How to say you’re a brand superfan without saying you’re a superfan

There was a time when loyalty to a brand meant shouting it from a handbag, a belt or sunglasses. The monogrammed Speedy. The oblique Saddle. A Chanel flap with its unmistakable double C. But lately, it feels like high jewellery, or haute bijouterie, is the way to declare your allegiance. It’s fashion’s most coded, most rarefied language, built to spark recognition in someone across the room who speaks the same tongue.

Take, for instance, Louis Vuitton’s ‘Virtuosity’ collection, which was released in May and came embedded with all kinds of secret brand codes. LV signatures—the Damier check, chevrons, the monogram flower—show up discreetly in architectural collars and gemstone mosaics. A standout piece, the Apogée necklace, features a 30.75-carat Brazilian emerald anchored by a 10.56-carat diamond cut in the LV star shape. It’s a detail you’d only spot if you were looking for it.

The same insider energy runs through Chanel’s ‘Reach for the Stars’. Drawing on Gabrielle Chanel’s fixation with astrology—she was a Leo, of course—the collection builds a narrative around three house codes: the lion, the comet, and the wing. These symbols are synthesised into diamonds and worn like talismans: a lion nestled in a choker, stars scattered across a cuff. It’s a quiet biography that uses the handwriting of jewellery—a quote or an anecdote from the designer’s life strung onto a necklace or whispering on a pair of glinting earrings.

Even Gucci has rendered its signature motifs in diamonds and gemstones. Its newest collaboration with Italian jewellery house Pomellato is a line titled ‘Monili’ (meaning ‘jewels’ in Italian), where horsebit leather twists taut and turns into a sprinkling of diamonds on bracelets and cuffs. Meanwhile, the horsebit and the Marina chainlink, a signature design from the 1960s, are encrusted with sapphires or studded with rubies and tsavorites in the brand’s newest jewellery line, which also includes a lace-like 52.86-carat aquamarine necklace and a maze of sapphires to mimic hidden fountains and garlands in bloom. It’s Gucci at its most poetic—and most exacting.

Then there’s Hermès, which has taken the cleverest route of all: mining its bestseller for inspiration. In ‘Kellymorphose’, the house turns its most iconic bag into high jewellery. The clasp, side straps, even the padlock get reimagined in gold and stones. The Kelly Gavroche necklace—set with more than 70 carats of diamonds—ties like a scarf, its shape a clever echo of the original bag’s hardware. A bag that becomes jewellery? And not just any bag, an icon. It’s a smart move. Why invent a new signature when you can cast the one everyone already covets?

Similarly, Dior’s ‘Rouge Premier Precious’ lipstick collapses categories into one deeply chic lipstick-meets-necklace-meets-objet. Covered in yellow and pink gold, titanium, diamonds, pink, yellow and blue sapphires, pearls, garnets, turquoises, red spinels, emeralds, and opals, it’s a whole garden-scape encasing Dior’s lipstick. Imagine pulling that out at a party somewhere in-between the seventh and eighth courses for a quick clandestine lip-swipe.

All of this prompted me to ask the question: is fine jewellery where all the fashion houses are going to have more fun?

Luxury strategy consultant and editor Milena Lazazzera observes, “Fashion brands are increasingly entering the high jewellery market for three main reasons. First, high jewellery enhances brand equity. Just as wearing high jewellery signifies wealth, power, and sophistication for individuals, a brand’s ability to create high jewellery (offering their clients rare craftsmanship and gemstones) signals its elevated status among luxury brands.”

The numbers back this up. Accessory spend is softening—BoF recently reported a 3 per cent dip in leather goods sales—while fine jewellery holds strong. The category grew 2 per cent last year, reaching €31 billion, with UBS predicting it will outpace bags and ready-to-wear in the near future. Jewellery, it seems, offers what people want right now: meaning, permanence, and exclusivity. In short, what luxury has always been about.

Ultimately, though, according to Lazazzera, haute bijouterie’s highly coveted status comes at a time of uncertain economic climes when everyone, no matter their income bracket, is looking for financial safety. Lazazzera elaborates, “During times of inflation and economic or political instability, consumers increasingly seek products with lasting value. And gold has never let anyone down,” she says. So, for brands, selling high jewellery provides an opportunity to engage with their clients and sustain sales, even in a bleak economy. “And in that sense, it makes jewellery a hedge with an edge.”