MADAME BUTTERFLY – Bright & Bold

May 2016


Looking at fashion trends for Spring Summer 2016, perhaps we ought to pay homage to a different type of Madame Butterfly? One that is rooted in the 21st century and embraces femininity with boldness and bright colours.

There is a lot to celebrate when it comes to bright and bold butterflies in jewellery watches, from Chopard’s Happy Butterflies to Christophe Claret’s Marguerite watch that tells the time of love.

Chopard - Happy Diamonds Butterflies
Chopard - Happy Diamonds Butterflies
Butterflies covered in sapphires and brown diamonds resting on the diamond-set case.

CHRISTOPHE CLARET introduces a new floral wonder

There are as many ways to show love as there are ways to tell the time. Christophe Claret has tried to do both in one go. As part of its very first ladies’ line – the Margot – the brand has released the Marguerite, a wristwatch made for women and women alone.

The watch could be simply described as poetry in motion. It is underscored by a unique sense of playfulness through its seeming optical illusions on the mother-ofpearl dial. Each timepiece – it comes in a limited edition of four variants – tells a story, and inevitably it is one of love.

If only Puccini’s Madame Butterfly could have pressed buttons instead of waiting for many years for a love that had no future. Well, fret not, Christophe Claret has your answer at the push of a button. Ladies, he loves you. Tick tock.

Two butterflies flit around the dial, in the same way they do around a real flower, providing a playful way to commemorate the passage of time. The darker butterfly symbolises the female, which rotates every hour. The lighter one is the male, and just as in nature it circles around the female, indicating the minutes. So we begin to see why Christophe Claret refers to this watch as the “ultimate romantic watch”. But the romance doesn’t end with butterflies. The dial also features a second, more personal display. With one press on the pusher at the 2 o’clock position, the hour markers disappear, revealing the message: “Il m’aime passionnément” (He loves me passionately).

BOLD BY NIGHT

Some butterflies will only show their colours at night, in magical forests, accented with the pretty poisons of thorns and meticulously detailed moth wings. For the night butterflies, Stephen Webster has revealed his genius yet again in his seductive Fly By Night collection.

Stephen Webster - Fly By Night
Stephen Webster - Fly By Night
Crystal Haze Earrings, 18k white gold, green agate, quartz and white diamonds.

BOLD BY DAY

Looking for bold and bright butterflies you cannot pass up Sophia Webster’s Bibi Butterfly flat shoes. Combined with colourful SO KLARA scarves, they are the must-have accessories for the twenty-firstcentury Madame Butterfly!

Sophia Webster - Bibi Butterfly Shoes
Sophia Webster - Bibi Butterfly Shoes

We popped into SO KLARA’s studio in North London to talk about the power of colours.

So Klara - Espagna Scarf
So Klara - Espagna Scarf

Using spontaneous brushstrokes and a veritable rainbow of colour to make a visual impact, SO KLARA silk scarves are strong, vibrant and full of attitude.

“I design to bring vivacity, joy and energy into your everyday environment.”

Klara’s advice to Madame Butterflies is:

“Be bright and bold. Stand a little taller.”