While the bankers and VCs may all head to Davos every January, if you want to know where the real money lies you’d do well to turn your head a little further West, where for one-week-only the world’s biggest diamonds and most expensive dresses come together in Paris for Haute Couture Week.
This biannual celebration of truly the best money can buy sees both fashion houses and jewellery maisons unveil the latest and highest expression of craftsmanship, design and, in the case of the latter, ability to access the rarest, largest and most exquisite gemstones the planet has to offer. So what’s lighting up the eyes of jewellery magpies this year? Read on for our lowdown on the best High Jewellery collections of 2026.
Chaumet Envol
If you have a working knowledge of French you’ll need few clues as to what inspired Chaumet’s new Envol collection. Wings have been a signature motif of the house’s jewellery collections since the 1810s and, for its 2026 High Jewellery collection, it has delved into the archive to offer up modern interpretations of Belle Époque designs dating to the 1870s.
Inspiration, in particular, came from a pair of enamel and diamond wings owned and worn as a tiara by artist and socialite Gertrude Payne Whitney, founding patron of the Whitney Museum of American Art and an early investor in Vogue. Thought to have been designed by René Morin or Pierre Sterlé, these wings are sleeker and more abstract than their successors, resulting in a modern collection of white gold, diamond, sapphire and grand feu enamel pieces with a timeless vintage appeal. Among the standouts is the Envol tiara: representing 850 hours of work by Chaumet’s most skilled artisans, a 3.92 carat Madagascan sapphire is flanked by a symmetrical spray of feathers, all of which can be detached to offer four different ways of wearing.
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Dior Belle Dior
The romance, femininity and continued fascination the Dior Couture archive continues to hold led artistic director Victorie de Castellane to the house’s 2026 High Jewellery collection: Belle Dior. Referencing, across 57 stunning pieces, everything from Dior’s signature ballgowns, the rope motifs that appear frequently in de Castellane’s own work, and the flora of Christian Dior’s beloved gardens, the atelier’s skill coms to the fore most notably in an exceptional ring set with 6.5 carat pink spinel and surrounded by intricate floral motifs.
Elsewhere, the Soleil Céleste set gives form to Christian Dior’s intense interest in the art and symbols of divination. Across a ring, earrings, a transformable bracelet, hair accessories and a bib necklace (pictured above), yellow and white diamond drops play back up to moons carved from black opal and turquoise, set alongside diamond hearts and stars in a celebration of the magic and mystery of the cosmos.
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Graff
Rather than unveiling a mammoth new collection, Graff used the occasion of the Spring 2026 Haute Couture Week to instead make a statement in simplicity: releasing just four images of a new campaign starring model Bibi Breslin showcasing a diamond and sapphire hero suite. “For over 65 years, Graff has shaped the evolution of High Jewellery,” said CEO Francois Graff. “In celebration of Haute Couture, we unveil a suite that reflects this legacy — anchored by the world’s most exceptional diamonds and gemstones, brought to life through innovation, mastery, and unparalleled craftsmanship.”
Encompassing a choker and matching earrings, the new suite is a bold demonstration of the house’s savoir-faire. At the centre of the choker sits a 31 carat unheated emerald cut sapphire, from which more than 170 carats of white pear shaped diamonds and sapphire ripple out to create a piece that is structured but with a luminous fluidity. The earrings, likewise, cascade in a delicate waterfall of white diamonds before culminating in a pair of 5 carat sapphires designed to capture and refract light with the wearer’s movement.
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De Beers Vibrations
Marking a bigger year than most for De Beers, the London-based jewellery house which this week also celerbated the opening of a new Parisian flagship on Rue de la Paix, Vibrations celebrates the journey of stone to final masterpieces and takes its cues from inland water bodies of traditional diamond-producing countries such as Namibia, Canada, South Africa and Botswana. Across a tight edit of pieces, rippling lakes, flowing rivers and cascading waterfalls find form in delicate white diamonds and fluid silhouettes.
Concepted as an ongoing collection with future expansions to come, the highlight of the first ‘chapter’, Echo, is an exquisite transformable necklace inspired by the Fish River canyon in Namibia. Set with a central 1.12 carat Fancy Intense Blue diamond, an unusual blend of polished and rough white diamonds allude to the incredible labour and time that goes into every High Jewellery creation. Also new this season is a unique Toi et Moi ring also highlighting the contrasting beauty of polished and rough diamonds. Using the design’s signature shape to spotlight a pear-cut white diamond and an organically-shaped yellow-brownish rough diamond, both flanked by dazzling white diamonds, this is a creative and playful way to celebrate the beauty of the earth’s most valuable stone.
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Repossi Blast: Splash of Colours
The second chapter in its Blast High Jewellery collection, Repossi once again turns to the irreverant and vibrant spirit of the 1980s for inspiration. Characterised, as the name suggests, by coloured stones, the collection offers three striking spiral design worked variously in yellow gold with warm mandarin garnets, peach tourmalines, yellow topaz and citrines, and cooler white gold with sapphires, tanzanites, white diamonds and indicolite tourmaline. Sophisticated, feminine and more wearable than your average High Jewellery collection, the choice is simple: hot or cold?
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