Sense of Self: Luminous Lines by Marie Mas

The designer’s most recent offering, a series of white-diamond pieces, shines a light on areas of the body that are often overlooked.

Paris-based fine-jewelry designer Marie Mas is known for her transformable creations. In her latest collection, Luminous Lines, the 33-year-old brings her patented fun and interactive aesthetic to a series of white-diamond pieces. Inspired by the sultry shadows reflected on the human body during the golden hour of sunset, the designer uses her innovative settings to create a series of diamond lines that outline often-overlooked parts of the body. The nape of the neck is considered one of the most sensual areas, however the Luminous Lines necklaces purposely stray from this area and highlight the suprasternal notch, the large dip between the clavicles. Another body part that commonly bears jewelry is the wrist. Continuing to surprise her clients, Mas uses the Luminous Lines bracelets to highlight the ulna, the little round bone that ends at the wrist on the outer side.

Highlighting the extraordinary
What’s remarkable about this new series is that using classical diamonds, ordinary parts of the human body become truly extraordinary. “My goal was to draw seamless diamond lines onto the human body with this collection and use them to highlight the at-first unimpressive. These pieces are here to effortlessly highlight beauty where perhaps it isn’t obvious,” the Parisian designer says. Mas creates this unique feel by designing her own chains. A true technical innovation, the designer melds small rectangles of rose gold together to create a fluid chain. By articulating each rectangle in different ways, she immobilizes certain sections, thereby ensuring they will lie against the wearer’s skin. “I wanted to play with the balance between fluidity and rigidity while keeping the outline of the neck, so it is comfortable to wear always,” she shares.

As well as this, most pieces are adjustable, allowing the wearer to add or remove length. “If my clients want to wear my necklace over a turtleneck, I want them to be able to do so. In order to allow this, I have added small detachable sections to the chain, allowing them to play with length as they wish,” she says.

Joyful discoveries
It is these small yet intricate design details that distinguish Marie Mas jewels from the crowd. Luminous Lines is true to her design DNA, completely centered around movement. “There is something magical when you discover a piece of jewelry. It’s not something you absolutely need; it is something you should want, desire. It should be playful and joyful. This is what I try to do. I try to make my clients smile,” the designer shares.

And Mas has certainly achieved this. Luminous Lines continues to bring that sense of tactile magic, while straying ever so slightly from her aesthetic in one major way: color, which is absent throughout the collection. Composed entirely of white diamonds, the creations are more minimalist in volume and hue than ever before. She deliberately made this decision so she could focus on and highlight the form of the body.

However, when she produces part two of this collection, the designer plans to inject a strong dose of color.

Main image: Radiant choker and Aurora necklace in 18-karat gold with diamonds. Photo: Marie Mas.