The appointment with Marie-Laure Cérède, Cartier's creative director of watches and jewelry, is in an apartment at the top of an elegant building located on Avenue Bosquet in Paris.
Before going up you have to announce yourself to a security guard.
The mere presence of this man in black confirms that at the top of this estate, between the Champ de Mars and Les Invalides, there is a secret—or a treasure—that must be guarded.
Inside the apartment there are more men in black.
In one of the rooms, with huge windows from which you can see the Eiffel Tower in all its majesty, there is a grand piano and, above it, silver photo frames with photographs of Gary Cooper, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jacqueline Bisset , Grace Kelly... It is easy to see that all those brilliant movie stars wore one of Cartier's most iconic pieces on their ring finger: the Trinity ring, three rings intertwined to infinity.
Louis Cartier, grandson of the founder of the Cartier
house
, designed the Trinity ring in 1924 thinking about the number three, considered since ancient times the perfect number.
The three rings in one, which revolutionized the jewelry business a hundred years ago, referred to Louis and his two brothers, Pierre and Jacques, heirs to the buoyant empire founded by their grandfather, but also to the three stores that the firm had at the time. : in Paris, London and New York.
The ring also materialized a concept that is now very popular: diversity.
Three different elements – a gilt gold band, a rose gold band and a white gold band – come together and harmoniously form a unit.
The Trinity, which is celebrating a century of life, has become a symbol of love in all its forms - filial, family, friendly, marital - and one of the most requested models by customers who want to declare their love for someone... or themselves.
“Everyone thinks that Cartier created the Trinity ring for Cocteau, but it's not true,” clarifies Marie-Laure Cérède, creative director of the brand, who is delighted with this "confusion." Léa Crespi
“Generally, each Cartier piece begins with a hand-drawn drawing.
In this case, the starting point was an object that already has a lot of history and is already perfect.
Because Trinity is perfect: three bands in one and one in three, a celebration of the concept of inclusion,” explains Cérède after welcoming us in one of the rooms of this Parisian apartment.
In front of her, her new Trinity collection is displayed: rings, XL bracelets, pendants... The creative director of the
house
began working on this project two years ago with the idea of commemorating the centenary of the original line.
She made more than 50 prototypes.
“I actually lost count of how many attempts we made.
We had no obligation to carry out this new collection.
If the final result was not good or did not convince us, we were not going to release it.
However, there was a lot of pressure because we were working with an iconic object,” she acknowledges.
Cérède began her career at Cartier in 2002 and, after spending almost 12 years at Harry Winston, returned to the French house.
In 2017 she was promoted to the top position in design, becoming ultimately responsible for the aesthetics of all Cartier watches and jewelry.
She knows the history of the
house
well and, as is often the case, she began this new collection by visiting the archives.
“I always come back to them.
Part of my job is to have a deep understanding of the brand's heritage.
And another part is seeing that legacy with new eyes.
We wanted something new, we didn’t know what, but we wanted something new,” she says.
Actress Romy Schneider and Alain Delon were also fans of Cartier's Trinity ring.Cartier archive
It is difficult to reinvent the wheel, or, rather, the circle, but Cérède has achieved it by playing with sizes, volumes and shapes: larger and maximalist Trinity rings and bracelets, new pendants... The most promising piece is the Trinity ring in the shape of
a cushion
(cushion, in English), an almost square ring that breaks with the circularity of the original design but not with the essence of the three intertwined bands.
“It's hard to get a new shape in the world of jewelry.
We made a prototype in gold and realized that it had the same value as the original design,” he explains.
“From an emotional point of view, the essence of Trinity is those three bands that spin around the finger.
People can play with the jewel on their finger and create a personal bond with it.
"That couldn't be lost."
Since its creation, one hundred years ago, Trinity is a unisex collection, intended for both men and women.
In the 1930s, figures such as the decorator Elsie de Wolfe, the actress Kendall Lee and the poet and multifaceted artist Jean Cocteau already wore the three intertwined rings.
Cocteau, for example, wore his on his little finger - sometimes he wore two - and gave another one just like it to his lover, the Apollonian actor Jean Marais, with the following dedication: “The first band is for you, the second is for me.” and the third is our love.”
“Everyone thinks that Cartier created the Trinity ring for Cocteau, but it is not true,” clarifies Cérède, who is delighted with this “confusion.”
“I think it's
cool
.
It's already part of history.
You see the photos of Cocteau with the ring and you have the feeling of being in front of something very innovative, new and fresh.
We wanted to get that back, continue that story,” she says.
The new pieces have the modern and
genderless
touch that luxury buyers demand these days.
“In fact, at Cartier we never think in terms of gender.
I don't think about men or women.
If something is very feminine or very masculine, then it is not Cartier,” she says.
Serge Reggiani, Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais in Paris, in 1941.PIERRE JAHAN / ROGER VIOLLET / GETTY IMAGES
The idea of this new collection is not to replace old pieces with new ones, but to add another chapter to Trinity's history.
“That's why new jewelry has to work with old jewelry.
They have to work for the mothers who wear the original Trinity and for the new generations who are discovering this collection,” says the creator.
Cartier, a brand founded in 1847, has been reaching out to younger people for years through social networks such as TikTok and Instagram and using new famous faces who act as ambassadors for the brand.
“This new generation is connected to everything.
They have access to so much information and so many images, they are so well informed about luxury, that their eyes look at everything in a different way.
They are more demanding and have the ability to quickly identify what they want or what they aspire to,” explains the designer.
Times change, but Trinity never goes out of style.
The proof is that celebrities like French-American actor Timothée Chalamet, 28, and other Generation Z idols are new fans of the centenary three-band ring.
“If something doesn't have meaning, it will only work for a few months.
But an object with meaning never loses its validity,” Cérède concludes.
Marie-Laure Cérède has reinvented the centenary Trinity ring, a piece made up of three gold bands intertwined to infinity.