The Academy Award winner chose some a regal gemstone for her big night.
In the sea of some excellent white diamond necklaces—Ariana De Bose’s De Beers, Lady Gaga’s Tiffany, Zendaya’s Bulgari, Zoe Kravit’s Kwiat—you might have noticed something different happening on one Best Actress nominee. And if you analyzed Jessica Chastain’s Gucci earrings on the red capet—or maybe her bracelet, her rings?—you might have wondered about those stones. Were they rubies, pink or purple sapphires? A rainbow of tourmalines? You would have been wrong, but that’s ok. People have done the same for centuries. But from now on, when you see a stone in shades of reds or pinks or lilac occasionally, ask first, if it possibly, could it perhaps be, a spinel?
The answer would have been yes if you had inquired about the Gucci High Jewelry suite Oscar winner Jessica Chastain wore to the ceremony. Her earrings showcased almost all the shades of spinel, her ring was centered by a lilac stone, and her bracelet a pink spinel.
In an interview with T&C after the unveiling of his second High Jewelry collection for the Italian label, designer Alessandro Michele, himself a jewelry connoisseur and collector, spoke about his reverence for stones, and for history. His use of spinels speaks to both passions.
They are prized for their color and their rarity and were long a stone jewelry snobs would use to challenge each other’s knowledge. (If you saw a red stone and didn’t ask if it was ruby or spinel did you even really know jewelry at all?) Though they have been mined for centuries in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand, spinel didn’t get its formal classification until 1783 when a mineralogist discovered that these sparkling red stones were not in fact rubies. They were something else entirely, though they looked a lot alike. Which is where the Queen, and generations of British royals come in. And also Kristen Stewart.
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