
Reaching for beauty and excellence Cartier image, style and heritage director Pierre Rainero describes the maison’s style as “a language that evolves with its times and lifestyles, due to the scope of a continually enriched vocabulary and the strength of well-established grammar. It is a living language serving a vision, that of its founders, [who were] convinced of the artistic dimension that jewellery can and must offer”. Rainero, in Beijing for the opening of Beyond Boundaries: Cartier and the Palace Museum Craftsmanship and Restoration Exhibition, credits Louis Cartier (1875-1942) with creating a specific language for the brand and attempting to do things never done before — evident from the exhibits in the Forbidden City. In 1933, Louis appointed a non-family member, and a woman — Jeanne Toussaint, nicknamed “the Panther” — as Cartier’s director of fine jewellery. Toussaint defined a fresh vision of femininity by using motifs (such as the creature that became her personal emblem) and materials sourced from faraway lands. Louis relied on his studio of “inventors” to fashion new pieces. He gave them tools, such as a library stocked with books on the study of the art and history of different cultures, which establishes the relationship between objects and the origin of their inspiration. He organised long trips to China and brought back materials and drawings, such as kingfisher feathers, which feature in the dial of a Cartier desk clock.


Admission to Beyond Boundaries: Cartier and the Palace Museum Craftsmanship and Restoration Exhibition is free, but visitors have to buy a ticket to enter the Palace Museum. Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, 8.30am to 5pm (the ticket counter closes at 4pm). Tickets are priced at RMB60, with a 50% concession for visitors aged 60 and above. Free admission for children under 1.2m in height. For online bookings, visit gugong.228.com.cn.
Tan Gim Ean is an assistant editor with the Options desk at The Edge Malaysia