The humble pearl makes (another) mighty comeback

From the catwalks of Paris to the jewellery creations of homegrown Bahraini brands, pearls are proving they never really go out of fashion

Outfits from Chanel's spring/summer 2023 collection were paired with pearl necklaces – a Chanel signature. Photo: Chanel

Olivier Rousteing opted for an intimate presentation of his couture-like autumn/winter 2023 ready-to-wear collection in Paris, in which he paid homage to the forgotten riches of Balmain.

As the house’s current creative director, he paid tribute to Pierre Balmain’s 1945 New French Style collection, particularly the Jolie Madame silhouette, with its strict tailoring, cinched waists and strong shoulders. Monsieur Balmain was a master of pattern and embellishment, each season reprising polka dots and pearls. Especially pearls.

As Rousteing mentioned in his show notes: “It’s clear to see that we’ve pushed the limits of one of his favourite luxury details – perfectly embroidered pearl ornaments.”

Black tailoring patterned with polka-dot-like pearls, pearl cage corsets and dresses, and giant pearl earrings highlighted Pierre Balmain’s lasting love for this luminous creamy-coloured adornment. Rousteing’s collection highlighted not just Balmain’s, but our collective passion for this most feminine and flattering jewel.

On the catwalks for both summer and autumn, pearls made their presence known. At Givenchy, a gown and top dripped with pearls, and (as always) they swung from every neck at Chanel. Andrew Gn presented the most opulent pearl chandelier earrings and, at Simone Rocha, pearl sailor collars were tied around the neck, while extra-long pearl earrings were trimmed with silk ribbons.

The current summer collections, similarly, proclaim a love of pearls, whether at Chanel, Junya Watanabe, Erdem or Rocha, where baroque styles are especially popular.

Pearls were once seen as formal and feminine, but innovation and experimentation by a new wave of designers has ensured our appetite for them is scaling new heights – in jewellery collections, as well as on the catwalk. As Lebanese jeweller Gaelle Khouri explains: “Pearls often communicate a romantic and feminine feel. I like to set them in a bold or playful design that also creates a sense of fearlessness.”

Khouri sets baroque and Tahitian pearls in asymmetric earrings of blackened silver, or within a two-finger ring with an 18k gold branch-like structure, because she is drawn to their “organic, amorphous, dreamlike forms”.

Equally inspired is Dutch sculptor-jeweller Bibi Van der Velden, who sets baroque and keshi pearls, punctured with little diamond studs, into sculpted gold rings and necklaces in her new Wave collection. Each piece is unique, driven by the individual shape of the pearl. The finished look is very organic and, in terms of design, reconnects the pearl with the marine environment in which it grew.

Pearls are one of the most sustainable gems, because of the environment in which they are found, although climate change and warming seas might put pressure on this precious resource in the future.

Melanie Georgacopoulos has an avant-garde attitude to pearls, for both her eponymous brand and her M/G collection for Japanese pearl and diamond specialist Tasaki. She famously caused a stir among purists when she unveiled her first sliced pearl collection for Tasaki a few years ago, a hugely popular range.

Meanwhile, her latest Baroque Drops designs feature large South Sea freshwater pearls pierced with gold studs. She admits she would rather have used baroque specimens, because “they have a bit more personality than round pearls”.

Today, many of the pearls featured in fine jewellery are cultured specimens from Japan, Tahiti and the South Seas. However, historically, the best source of the finest natural saltwater pearls was Bahrain.

In 1912, Jacques Cartier, one of the three brothers who turned Cartier into a global brand, travelled to Bahrain to buy pearls from local traders, including Mattar, which had been founded in the 1850s. The family business is still trading today, with the sixth generation of the family, which opened Mattar Jewelers in 2004, crafting collectible designs.

In the early 20th century, natural pearls were a magnet for the world’s wealthiest women, and their price soared with the opening of South African diamond mines – because, by comparison, pearls were considered a far greater rarity. As Francesca Cartier Brickell explained in her book, The Cartiers, it wasn’t unusual for her grandfather, Jacques, to wait at least a decade to assemble a necklace of pearls that matched in size, colour and shape.

Today, Bahrain still supplies the finest pearls for high jewellery collections in Paris, London and New York. Jewellery by David Morris features some of these valuable natural pearls, which, as Jacques Cartier discovered, can take years to match.

In New York, Tiffany & Co has launched a reinterpretation of its famous Bird on a Rock brooch, designed in 1965 by Jean Schlumberger but, this time, the little gold-crested cockatoo is not perched on an enormous gemstone, but has laid an oversized pearl egg.

The Bird on a Pearl suite is a capsule collection that draws on rare specimens from Qatari businessman Hussein Al Fardan’s unrivalled private collection of natural Gulf pearls.

The masterpiece of the collection is a three-strand necklace of graduated natural saltwater light cream pearls of more than 371 carats, while baroque, button and near-round pearls bring new life to the famous little bird, on brooches, a pendant and earrings.

Prized for their beauty and rarity for centuries, the Pinctada Radiata pearl oyster is found throughout the Arabian Gulf. However, the finest come from the waters around Bahrain. This is due to the influence of underground freshwater springs that permeate the oyster beds. “No other natural pearls possess quite the same luminous lustre,” says Virginie Dreyer, a French jewellery designer living in Bahrain.

The founder of TinyOm, her designs are handcrafted in the workshops of Al Zain jewellery house, which was founded in the 1930s. “I use light cream baroque – these have an irregular, non-spherical shape and a wonderful brilliance,” she says. She points out that not having a perfect spherical shape makes the pearls slightly more affordable, but they share the beauty and purity of other natural Bahraini pearls.

“When I visualised my first pearls collection a few years back, I used natural Bahraini pearls and, since then, I have never tried anything else. They are too pure and beautiful,” Dreyer says, explaining how she sources these natural pearls from local certified divers and dealers. “I love the irregular shaped pearls because they have this organic feeling; you look at them and you know they come from a living organism,” she adds.

Bahrain is on a mission to revitalise its pearl sector, which almost vanished with the arrival of cultured pearls from Japan. Today, the Bahrain Institute for Pearls and Gemstones (Danat) – a gemological laboratory that specialises in the testing and study of natural pearls – certifies more than two million pearls annually, the majority of which are from Bahrain’s shores. Danat is currently finalising a marketing strategy to strengthen Bahrain’s status as a global centre for natural pearls.

The aim is to not only find a market with luxury brands overseas, but, says Noora Jamsheer, Danat’s chief executive, to cater to “a growing interest from Bahraini brands that are manufacturing pearl jewellery for international mainstream brands and retail houses”.

Danat has recently teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a three-year project to establish a way to uniquely identify and ensure the traceability of natural pearls, at a time when regulators are placing increasing pressure on the fashion and luxury industries to reveal supply chains and social impact.

Such certification of sources (including blockchain) already exists in the diamond and ruby gemstone market, she points out. “The aim is to enhance Danat’s ability to differentiate between natural, cultured and the in-between pearls, which are pearls that naturally formed in an oyster, however the environment in which the oyster is growing is not natural and is manipulated by mankind,” she explains.

“The collaboration is important to preserve and build consumer confidence in the jewellery world,” she says. And, with it, to secure the future of Bahrain’s pearling heritage, at a time when appreciation for these natural wonders is on the rise.