Jeweller Chow Tai Fook unveiled its latest high jewellery collection, Chinese Couture, in Shanghai, China, with creative director of high jewellery Nicholas Lieou on hand to introduce the range. Sonia Cheng, vice-chairman and executive director of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, and global ambassador Yang Yang also attended the event.

While Chow Tai Fook is known around the world for its gold trinkets and diamond pieces – available across hundreds of stores in Greater China and the rest of Asia – the house is not new to the world of high jewellery, a rarefied field dominated by European maisons such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Chaumet and Boucheron.

Known as haute joaillerie in French, high jewellery is a very niche segment of the industry. Each piece is unique and made with the rarest and most precious stones, requiring months if not years of handiwork by skilled artisans.

One of the very few Asia-based brands to offer high jewellery, Chow Tai Fook made its first foray into the category last year, with a collection inspired by Chinese architecture and philosophy launched in Hangzhou, one of China’s most beautiful and ancient cities.

For this year’s range, Chow Tai Fook focused on Chinese couture. Rather than just highlighting the iconography and symbolism of Chinese traditional garments – such as the use of dragon embroidery – Lieou also honed in on the craft of dressmaking, and the building blocks of Chinese clothing.

A necklace made of pearls and diamonds, for instance, re-creates the silk ribbons worn in the hair or tied at the waist during the Han and Tang dynasties. Made of rich yellow gold, the centrepiece ribbon evokes the shimmery surface of silk. Its fabric-like texture is achieved through filigree, a technique that has long been used in China to make gold jewels.

Cord is another element associated with Chinese garments, especially fastenings. “We wanted to pay homage to this by creating a diamond silk thread,” explains Lieou. Among the cord-inspired pieces is a stunning diamond necklace with a very rare Melo pearl as its centrepiece. “Melo pearls are a gift from nature,” says Lieou. “They come from sea snails, and you have to open over 100,000 of these sea snails to find one.”