LONDON — Cartier doubled down on China last week with a landmark event at the Juyongguan Great Wall to celebrate its Le Voyage Recommencé exhibition at Beijing’s Prince Jun’s Mansion, which was unveiled on Oct. 18.
Cyrille Vigneron, president and chief executive officer of Cartier SA, who spoke at the WWD x SKP fashion and beauty global summit in Chengdu earlier in the week, hosted the event alongside Cartier China CEO Cécile Naour, welcoming brand ambassadors including Gong Li and Lily Collins, as well as local celebrities Song Jia, Jackson Wang, Li Xian, Bai Jingting, Peter Chan and Guo Jingjing, all clad in key pieces from the new high jewelry collection, Le Voyage Recommencé.
Gong Li attends the Le Voyage Recommencé gala dinner at the Great Wall in Beijing, wearing a Cartier high jewelry necklace, Cartier Victorienne earrings, and a Cartier Cembra ring.
Courtesy of Cartier
Following a high jewelry showcase featuring top models Wang Wenqin, Pei Bei, Zhao Lei and Jin Dachuan on the red-carpeted Great Wall, a UNESCO world heritage site where the last major fashion event was hosted by Fendi in 2007, guests enjoyed a music performance by musician Chang Shilei and famed Hong Kong singer Karen Mok during a gala dinner. Clips of Mok singing to Gong went viral on Chinese social media.
Lily Collins at the Le Voyage Recommencé exhibition at Prince Jun’s Mansion, wearing a Cartier Nauhua necklace and earrings, and a Cartier Levare ring.
Courtesy of Cartier
Beijing is the second stop of the Le Voyage Recommencé exhibition after it was first revealed in Florence last May.
The latest high jewelry collection was created by Cartier’s director of high jewelry creation, Jacqueline Karachi, and the company’s craftsmen, delving into the heritage and reinventing the core aesthetic codes of the house through unique pieces that hinged on interplays of geometries, volumes and new chromatic juxtapositions.
Karen Mok performs at the Le Voyage Recommencé gala dinner at the Great Wall in Beijing, wearing a Cartier Murmur necklace and earrings, and a Cartier Palmea ring.
Courtesy of Cartier
More than 380 pieces from the new high jewelry collection, as well as rare watches and vintage pieces, were brought to China’s capital city for the occasion.
Vigneron noted: “After the collection’s successful launch earlier this year, we are pleased to present the collection in China, a country that has continuously inspired the maison. And we are even more thrilled to be able to share this collection in Beijing, a city whose unique combination of tradition and modernity deeply resonates with the maison.”
Naour added that the brand’s “unique style and the core of Chinese culture strongly resonates with each other. As the latest chapter of Le Voyage Recommencé high jewelry collection comes to Beijing, we genuinely invite customers to experience the maison’s creations of timely elegance, in meaningful exchanges of art and craftsmanship, at the backdrop of important historic locations.”
Cartier feted Le Voyage Recommencé exhibition in Beijing at The Great Wall.
lizhaolin/Courtesy of Cartier
In modern China, Cartier has forged strong ties with Beijing since 1996. The brand hosted its first-ever exhibition “Le Pot Doré” at the Gate of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City that year. In 2009 and 2019, the brand teamed with the Palace Museum to present the Cartier Collection, epitomizing Sino-French cultural exchanges.
In March, the brand also worked with the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District to host the “Cartier and Women” exhibition.
The Cartier Le Voyage Recommencé exhibition at Prince Jun’s Mansion in Beijing.
lizhaolin/Courtesy of Cartier
The highly publicized event saw Michelle Yeoh returning to Hong Kong for the first time after becoming the first Asian to win an Academy Award for Best Actress and joining decades-old friends Carina Lau, Pansy Ho, and Brigitte Lin at the opening night.
The exhibition helped the Hong Kong and Macao regions reach triple-digit increases in the first quarter of 2023.