Alessandro Michele loves jewellery. The flamboyant designer, who has invigorated Gucci with his maximalist style, designing pieces that blur gender and blend cultural references, often wears rings on each of his fingers, regularly showcasing them on his Instagram account.

His passion has now been translated into the brand’s first high jewellery collection, Hortus Deliciarum or garden of delights in Latin, which will be sold in its newly opened high jewellery boutique on Place Vendome, Paris.

Dreaming of mythical gardens (Eden, Xanadus, Arcadia) Michele has brought to life a scintillating bestiary that includes the emblems of the house — lions, bees and Ouroboros serpents – as well as the addition of a hybrid mythical creature, a tiger with a fish tail (reminiscent of the Shachihoko in Japanese folklore). Each animal is surrounded by rich flora coming to life in ornate diamond settings.

The collection also offers a romantic iconography with Cupid’s hearts and arrows transformed into glittering brooches full of pink and blue sapphires, yellow beryls, and diamonds, set en tremblant, to create movement and added interest when worn.

Gemstones, big and colourful, take centre stage in this collection with the designer eschewing the usual matching and pairing approach to embrace what he calls “discordant symmetry” to channel the spirituality of imperfection. One Lion Head necklace, for example, contrasts opals and chrysoberyls with purple-pink sapphires, lagoon tourmalines, spinels and mandarin garnets on a leaf-like bed of diamonds, while another places an opal in the lion’s mouth from which is attached a heart-shaped tanzanite, the designer nicely contrasting the luminous blues of the two stones. Elsewhere, Lion Head earrings line aquamarine, yellow beryl, fire opal, amethyst, topaz and peridot along a single colourful row falling from the mouth of a golden lion head that is embellished with diamonds. 

Gucci’s necklaces run the gamut from chockers to long pendants, while grand chandelier earrings drip with marquise-cut stones. Chunky rings dominate the collection, with gold in all its hues becoming the head of an animal with glittering gem eyes or holding in its fangs am array of honey-hued imperial topaz, blushed-rosé topaz, velvety green tourmaline, or mandarin garnet, to name a few. Of note is a magnificent 30.3-carat opal, hand-carved into a coiled serpent ring flecked with diamonds.

Having gone fur-free in 2018, Gucci is also committed to purchasing only responsibly sourced gold for its jewellery under the Responsible Jewellery Council Chain of Custody scheme and all its diamonds are certified as conflict-free by the Kimberley Process.