Vera Wang is launching a high end jewellery collection with Jared.
The bridal designer has teamed up with the retailer's high jewellery branch, Jared Atelier, to create a three-pillar collection, with the 14-pieces divided into Ribbons, Serpents and Diamond Strings, with Vera aiming for all the accessories to feel "personal" and "original".
She told WWD: "It really came about as an idea of really wanting to present a more, less-on-trend-only collection, and more of something I would create myself that was more personal.
"This collection really reflects my way of combining jewellery. I was searching for something that maybe was a bit original. That wide world of jewellery globally now — Prada is doing jewellery, Saint Laurent is doing jewelry and all the designers are doing their own lines as well.
"Not only jewellers, not only Boucheron, not only Cartier, not only Tiffany — I was really searching for a way that felt authentic to me.”
The pieces are designed in 18-carat white gold and feature more than 150 carats of diamonds in total, with prices ranging from $12,500 to $125,000.
The Ribbons items were inspired by Vera's own bridal designs, including her wedding jewellery creations for Zales and Jared.
She said: “I’ve been doing bows for 35 years. They aren’t necessarily traditional bows. They may be asymmetric, they may be just twists of fabric, but the idea of a knot in a bow is something that’s inherent to our brand. It’s one of our codes. We’ve done it in China, we’ve done it for flute glasses and for engagement rings. It’s not something new to us and I think we were very early to do a minimalist bow, which we called love knots.”
The 75-year-old designer honoured next year's Year of the Snake with Serpents, and its motif represents “transformation, a new start and shedding of the skin”.
Finally, Diamond Strings was inspired by Vera's friend, late jewellery designer Elsa Peretti.
She said: “It just felt very freeing, very modern, very cool and very easy.
“I think women and men will love it because there’s something about it that’s so unique. Sometimes you come up with ideas and jewellery like Elsa that change the whole industry.
"But in this case, I thought these open-ended strings — I call them strings because they’re flexible — you want 20 of them to play with.”
