Nathalie Verdeille talks about her design of the Blue Book collection Céleste

NATHALIE VERDEILLE, Chief Artistic Officer of Tiffany & Co., speaks to Prestige about her love for the work of Jean Schlumberger, working with the world’s most beautiful gemstones and designing her second Blue Book collection, Céleste.

Born in France but now based in New York, Nathalie Verdeille joined Tiffany & Co. in 2021 after working at Cartier and Chaumet, where she also held senior design positions. As Tiffany’s Chief Artistic Officer, Verdeille is responsible for leading the creative vision for all of the brand’s jewelry and haute couture designs, bringing new perspectives and Ininnovations while celebrating the past. In particular, it continues to pay tribute to the vision and dynamism of Jean Schlumberger, Tiffany’s first known designer, who worked for the House from 1956 until his retirement in the late 1970s and whose designs, including the famous Bird on the Rock, remain among the most sought-after collector’s items today.

Verdeille’s respect and love for Schlumberger’s work is palpable; our conversation is peppered with references to the way the late designer worked with jewels and his preference for yellow gold.

Céleste is your second Blue Book collection for Tiffany. Can you tell us more about it and the inspirations?

We are inspired by our history and by what we have done in the past. In Out of the Blue, last year’s Blue Book 2023 collection, we looked at the works of Jean Schlumberger and reinterpreted his fantastical vision of the aquatic world. It was really a rich part of what Schlumberger has done in the past and so we thought: how can we be inspired again by more of his work for another collection? Céleste is really about the constellations and the stars and a little bit about mythology too. And so for Blue Book 2024, it’s really a new way to rediscover the vastness of Schlumberger’s fantasy world through a new lens.

In the six different chapters of the Céleste collection of high-quality jewelry – Wings, Arrow, Constellation, Iconic Star, Ray of Light and Apollo – is there a piece that is a particular highlight for you?

I particularly like the Wings necklace because we cut diamonds in different shapes. Another detail is that we invented a new setting for the diamonds. It looks like a real feather because we engrave the feather motif all the way around in the platinum and set the diamonds in it. And all the pieces are signed with a touch of yellow gold, which is a Schlumberger specialty. We incorporated the rope motif into its style to make the piece stand out. And the whole necklace is also very articulated – we really wanted to show off the lightness of the piece and the beauty of the diamonds in its movement.

Which Schlumberger inspirations particularly inspired you for this collection?

We had a lot of fun working on the savoir-faire and techniques that I think he used in the past. It’s great because all the motifs we used remind us of his work and we paid a lot of attention to the details, even on the back of the pieces. There is so much poetry in this collection, with symbolism that we brought from our past. But it’s not always a literal interpretation of Schlumberger’s designs. We look at his sketches, but we also study his vocabulary, his words, because he also wrote a lot. We are inspired by the whole universe of Schlumberger.

How closely did you and Tiffany’s chief gemologist Victoria Reynolds work to source the stones for the new collection?

We started with some images of Céleste and some inspiration from nature and colors, and after that I went out with Victoria to buy the stones. Together we traveled around the world to choose the colors and stones we wanted. Once we got all the stones, we sometimes cut or polished the stones even further to refine them and add sensitivity to our designs. For the pieces in the “Ray of Light” chapter, for example, we were inspired by faisceau lumineux – rays of light – and wanted to create a starburst in space. We played with different diamond levels in the piece and also complemented it with red spinels to express the inspiration – but red spinels in this shape and color are really hard to find. This necklace is also super versatile because the pendant can be turned into a brooch and worn separately from the necklace.

Aquamarine is also a typical Tiffany color and is used frequently in the Iconic Star chapter. Can you tell us more about the special cut of the aquamarines used in these pieces?

The Iconic Star designs are unique pieces for us – and yes, it’s the first time we’ve used such an original aquamarine cut. I love the way they remind me of clouds. We bought these stones this way, and they have an organic shape, and we added a mix of faceted blue zircon to create something quite unexpected, given that we use semi-precious stones in jewelry making. This is quite a challenging piece because for all the aquamarine stones, we had to make different baskets adapted to each stone to set them. And we incorporated the iconic star motif with mother-of-pearl inlay, inspired by archival sketches by Schlumberger. But he never made an aquamarine necklace like this in the past; he created a design with sapphires. So we’re taking inspiration from his work, but also bringing more modernity and creativity to the new collection.

This article first appeared in Prestige Hong Kong

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