Few things are as intrinsically linked as poetry and nature; just ask the Romantics. But you could just as easily turn to Boucheron, whose latest high jewelry collection, Carte Blanche Impermanence, captures the fleeting beauty of the natural world in exquisite, luminous detail. Creative Director Claire Choisne draws inspiration from the Japanese philosophies of wabi-sabi and Ikebana, creating six botanical compositions that capture the essence of transience in extraordinary detail. 

From the gossamer tulip of Composition N°6 to the light-devouring poppy cloaked in Vantablack in Composition N°1, each piece speaks to a cycle of bloom, fade, and renewal. Worn as brooches, headpieces, rings, or hair jewels, these 28 transformable creations seamlessly blend the beauty of the natural world with cutting-edge techniques, featuring glass wings layered over mother-of-pearl, 3D-printed black sand vases, and diamond-studded insects in lifelike motion.

Below, Claire Choisne tells V how high jewelry is evolving, the challenges she faced as Creative Director, and her personal connection to Boucheron’s Carte Blanche Impermanence.

Courtesy of BOUCHERON

V Magazine: When you have total creative freedom, like with Carte Blanche, where do you start?

Claire Choisne: The starting point of my Carte Blanche collections is always a dream that I try to realize, alongside the Studio, Research and Development, and workshop teams. When I imagine a collection, I’m always imbued with my personal tastes and guided by the societal context that surrounds me. For example, the Carte Blanche collections “Ailleurs” (2022) and “More is More” (2023) were created in the context of Covid, in a period characterized by confinement and anxiety, where they were instead invited to joy and journey. In 2024, we presented the “Or Bleu” collection, inspired by the scarcity and preciosity of water. This year, we presented the “Impermanence collection” made of 28 High Jewelry pieces, and six compositions. It illustrates nature’s fleetingness, shifting from light to shadow to transcribe the disappearance of nature.

V: How do you mix Boucheron’s history with the modern edge we see in Carte Blanche?

CC: The mix of innovation and traditional know-how has always been in Boucheron’s DNA. As a High Jewelry Maison, the starting point is always traditional know-how, but innovation serves the creative purpose of the collections, so the balance is natural. I see this innovation and creation process as a duty instituted by Frédéric Boucheron, who was the first jeweler to use rock crystal or to create a necklace without a clasp; to push back the know-how limits of High Jewelry. Each year in January, I present Histoire de Style collections that pay tribute to his legacy. In July, Boucheron CEO Hélène Poulit-Duquesne gave me the incredible freedom to choose the theme of the Carte Blanche collections. I cherish this balance between Heritage and creativity because, on one hand, I feel honored to carry on the history of the first great contemporary jeweler to open a boutique on Place Vendôme, and on the other hand, I feel grateful to explore and push the limits of High Jewelry further.

V: Was there a creative risk you took in this collection that really paid off?

CC: This year, for the Carte Blanche collection, the greatest challenge was transforming ultra-realistic botanical compositions into High Jewelry pieces. It was a bold idea, and a true feat for our artisans to transform these lifelike creations into pieces one could actually wear. But the challenge paid off: from six compositions, one can now pluck 28 unique High Jewelry pieces, like precious blooms, ready to be worn.

Courtesy of BOUCHERON

V: What guides your choice of materials, especially the more unexpected ones?

CC: At Boucheron, innovative materials and techniques are always chosen depending on the way they will serve the purpose of the collection, but we never initiate innovation for the sake of innovation. At the root of each Carte Blanche collection is a dream, and I love using innovative materials because they bring it to life. For the Contemplation collection (2020), I wanted to pay tribute to the beauty of nature, to invite people to contemplate it. I chose aerogel on the “Goutte de Ciel” necklace because I wanted to unhook and be able to wear a piece of the sky around my neck. For the Holographic collection (2021), I wanted to represent the full spectrum of light on High Jewelry creations – so I looked for innovative techniques to achieve this, particularly from the aeronautical sector, and used holographic ceramics to give a new definition of light, to capture its essence. In 2024, I wanted to encapsulate the sound of water for billions of years using an optical storage process for digital data inside a ring, the “Quatre 5D Memory” Capsule Innovation (2024). All of these dreams come to life thanks to the exceptional expertise of our High Jewelry craftsmen and the pugnacity of our Research and Development department, which always pushes back high jewelry’s boundaries to find a way to make the impossible happen. 

V: How do you think high jewelry is changing, and how does Carte Blanche reflect that?

CC: I think high jewelry is evolving into something far beyond traditional luxury. It’s increasingly seen as a form of wearable art. We’re seeing a growing interest from both women and men who view jewelry as a means of personal expression, not just a status symbol. The Carte Blanche collections at Boucheron perfectly reflect this shift. They push the boundaries of what high jewelry can be through bold creativity and the use of innovative materials and techniques. Each piece is not just a jewel, but a statement, something truly unique that resonates with a new generation of collectors and art lovers.

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V: Do you see yourself more as a designer, artist, or engineer when creating these pieces?

CC: Trained as a jeweler, I tend to also consider myself a designer with a sense of detail and composition, and as an artist because I love giving meaning to my creations. Just like Frédéric Boucheron, I believe in creative and emotional high jewelry. When I create a piece or a collection, I want it to carry a message, a vision, an emotion unique to each individual. 

V: Is there a piece from the new collection that feels especially personal to you?

CC: For this collection, I cannot choose only one piece! One of my favorites is the N°5 Composition because of the challenge we faced. Through it, I wanted to convey the power of the thistle, without betraying its delicacy in any way. Two thistle heads stand boldly erect, their every thorn and prickly leaf so faithfully rendered that one might expect to get pricked. The thistle is housed in a vase made from a composite material. Its spiky flower heads represent a groundbreaking feat, being rendered in plant-based resin using ultra-high-resolution 3D printing technology that hadn’t yet been used in High Jewelry. While this technique enabled the Creative Studio to achieve an unrivaled and astonishingly lifelike degree of detail, it presented the artisans with a real challenge: without any metal structure, it would be impossible to set a single diamond into the blooms. This prompted them to push the limits of what was thought possible, by devising a new technique called “couture” setting, where each bezel-set diamond is sewn into one of the thistles’ cell-like alveoli. On the large thistle head, more than 600 diamonds were set in, while the small one has over 200 – painstaking work that calls for absolute precision. Besides, I also love the N°4 Composition, which brings together oat and cyclamen, playing on contrasts of light and texture. I wanted to infuse life into the two plants that appear to be floating on the same gentle breeze – as if they’re hanging in the air, suspended, in that fleeting instant when nature comes alive. This almost living composition is held in a vase made of white gold, set entirely with diamonds in a snow setting. Here, the real tour de force lies in the setting of almost 700 rose-cut diamonds of different shapes and sizes into the cyclamen’s white gold petals to form a virtual stained-glass window of diamonds. Each stone was hand-picked to blend flawlessly into the overall design and follow the flower’s naturally undulating contours. The metal almost disappears under these dazzling rose-cut stones – also interspersed with round diamonds – in a perfect illustration of Boucheron’s artistry. Finally, I would choose the N°1 Composition. For this set, I wanted to make light disappear, casting a poppy and sweet peas into a darkness that plumbs the very depths of black. The flowers bloom in a darkness that almost seems to coalesce into a tangible form, as if black were becoming matter, curving along every contour and petal. The arrangement rests on a vase made of 3D-printed black sand. Within the poppy blossom lies the most innovative element of this entire collection. Its matte black titanium petals have hand-etched veining on the inside with a coating of Vantablack® – one of the darkest materials ever created, absorbing 99.965% of light. This treatment produces a dramatic visual effect, where matter seems to dissolve into pure nothingness. In the heart of the flower, black spinels – some set face up, some upside down – catch the rare glints of light able to force their way through the blackness.

V: What do you hope someone feels when they wear a piece from Carte Blanche?

CC: When someone wears a piece from Carte Blanche, I hope they feel a deep, personal connection to it. Whether it evokes a memory, a feeling of wonder, or simply joy, the goal is for each jewel to spark something special and meaningful within the individual. Besides, I truly believe that, like pieces of art, Carte Blanche high jewelry has the capacity to go beyond itself and its materiality, and that its beauty can invite contemplation.

Courtesy of BOUCHERON