Invisibly-set jewels are increasingly in vogue, offering sleek looks and letting designers show their technical prowess.
The traditional gemstone setting is vanishing. As more and more designers and brands look to diminish the appearance of settings in their jewelry, they’re turning to alternative techniques.
Tension settings, for instance, create the illusion of floating stones, while flush-set diamonds and gems sit within the design’s metal architecture. One of the most complex methods is invisible setting, in which a mosaic-like structure of stones — most often straight-edged cuts such as square, emerald or baguette — are specifically and precisely cut with grooved girdles so they fit snugly beside one another in a thin, supportive wire framework. Though this method was developed during the mid-19th century in France, Van Cleef & Arpels perfected and patented it in 1933 as the Mystery Set. The high-jewelry maison continues to evolve the technique: Its 2014 patent for the Vitrail Mystery Set not only lets gems sit facet to facet, but also hides any trace of a setting on the reverse side of the jewelry.
A testament to skill
For fine-jewelry houses, making a stone’s setting less visible is a means of showcasing craftsmanship and savoir-faire. Stenzhorn, a jeweler that often celebrates subtle settings in its collections, credits its German heritage with its designs’ focus on engineering. The majority of Stenzhorn’s lines take their inspiration from nature, and a lack of visible setting improves the jewels’ likeness to the flora and fauna they imitate.
Another art jeweler whose signature aesthetic includes keeping settings out of sight is Hemmerle. In addition to showing a fondness for the clean, uninterrupted narrative that the flush setting allows between stone and setting, Hemmerle demonstrates its renowned engineering and craftsmanship through its tension-set gemstone creations.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Syz’s playful pieces frequently mirror real-life objects. Here, flush-set gemstones allow for a seamless and faithful homage to confections, rockets, balloons and many icons of pop art, particularly in her bombastic earrings, bracelets and cocktail rings.
Style of the future
Why are designers so enamored of hiding their settings?
As with all product design, the more fluid the combination of elements, the more streamlined the overall look is. Ergonomic design is paramount in personal technology, architecture, interiors and luxury cars, and the tactile appeal of these forms carries over into the world of jewelry as well. Digital media takes that further, as designers have only a snapshot or a few seconds of video in which to share their latest creations, and a sleek design captures viewers’ interest. It lets a large audience of people wonder at the technical prowess behind it, and that means they’ll likely want to find out more.
Another possible factor is the influence of the Asian market. These consumers show a marked preference for luxury designs that incorporate advanced technical features, and jewelers are catering to that interest with gemstones that appear to defy gravity or, at the very least, conventional styles. Asian designers like Wallace Chan frequently employ technically exquisite tension settings in their works, marrying the demand for futuristic looks with the capacity to display larger gemstones.
The refined, postmodern appearance of jewels without visible settings showcases the gemstones to their fullest, stripping back jewelry design to its most minimalistic iteration.
Main image: Stenzhorn Poppy pendant with sapphires and diamonds in white gold.
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