The baguette — not a bag or a loaf of bread but a gemstone — is transitioning from support act to star of contemporary jewellery. The cut is an evolution of the 15th-century “hogback” diamond, famously set into Mary of Burgundy’s 1477 engagement ring. Cartier was using baguette-cut diamonds as early as 1908, but the baguette as we know it best — the step-cut rectangular diamond, with long linear facets and crisp square corners — was one of the new “fancy” cuts introduced in the 1920s, bringing a modern edge to diamond jewellery. Shaped by improvements in cutting techniques, the new cut, scintillating and streamlined, was perfect for building the geometric designs of the art deco era. In the 1950s, the baguette became a defining feature of glamorous all-diamond jewellery. Since then, however, it has more often been set simply as shoulders to a classic single-stone diamond ring.
Today, the baguette exudes fresh modernity. Its return can partly be attributed to this year’s 100th anniversary of the 1925 Paris Exhibition that launched art deco, as well as to a new emphasis in jewellery design on compositions of pure line and form. Mimi Hoppen, director of jewellery at Dover Street Market International, says: “Suzanne Kalan has been a real driver in the resurgence of the baguette; she uses this cut in so many different ways. However, I’ve also seen other brands, such as Seb Brown, start to utilise baguettes more; it often feels more playful and contemporary than the traditional round cut. In sharp contrast, Shihara is using the cut in a really sleek and elegant way.”
Hermès rose-gold and black-spinel Kelly Baguettes GM bracelet, POA
Suzanne Kalan gold and diamond Milli Eternity band, £16,400
Ming Jewellery gold, diamond and sapphire Stained-glass ring, POA
Cartier white-gold and diamond Reflection de Cartier ring, £40,900
Kalan has made it her mission to redefine the image of the baguette. In the 1980s, working for her jeweller father, the Los Angeles-based designer was given a parcel of baguette-cut diamonds. Emptying them onto the table, she immediately saw a way to dramatically disrupt their classicism, setting them as they fell, like tumbling dominoes. In 1988 she launched her eponymous brand, and the baguette soon became a signature. Today, she creates one-of-a-kind necklaces framing mixed coloured stones, like opals and emeralds, that she has collected for decades.
Versatility is a keynote quality of the baguette. Designer-jeweller Ming Lampson loves the way in which light “bounces” out of baguettes, enhancing rather than overpowering form, as in her City and Zig Zag rings. Designer-maker Ellis Mhairi Cameron embeds diamond baguettes into rugged molten gold, like buried treasure, referencing the earliest of diamond cuts. Lugano constructs both glitterball earrings and minimalist earrings composed of slanting diamond lines, while Tarra Rosenbaum sets a huge baguette-cut smoky quartz horizontally on a ring to glide over the fingers.
Rhythmic fluidity ripples through the baguettes of Glenn Spiro’s Wave bracelets. One comprises diamonds set in blue titanium, the other emeralds, the stones set at different levels to create the wave effect. Meanwhile, streams of baguette-cut diamonds emphasise the silhouettes of both Tiffany & Co’s Lock bangle and Tiffany T collar necklace and ring.
Van Cleef & Arpels white-gold, diamond and sapphire Cordage Infini earrings, POA
Lugano white- and black-gold and diamond Ball earrings, POA
Graff diamond circular earrings, POA
Glenn Spiro green titanium, diamond and emerald Wave bracelet, POA
Baguettes also bring movement and modernism to more classic designs. Graff positions a fan of tapered, immaculately set baguettes over oval diamond drop earrings, or uses them to frame a cabochon emerald on a ring. Van Cleef & Arpels’ Treasure Island collection conjures the same kinetic spirit in the Cordage Infini necklace and earrings, taking inspiration from sailors’ knots and ropes, with sapphire baguettes cut to capture interlacing coils and twists. “Baguette-cut diamonds bring a bold, contemporary edge to jewellery,” says Céline Assimon, CEO of De Beers Jewellers. In its Forces of Nature collection, De Beers adds baguettes to suggest the power and speed of wild animals via pieces such as the Stability Crown ring and Individuality Jacket ring. “The meticulous process [of recutting the stones to perfectly fit the mounting] is challenging but ultimately rewarding, as the unique allure of baguette-cut diamonds can transform a jewel.”
Perhaps most current is the way in which baguettes form graphic, layered, textural designs. Piaget’s 150th anniversary Essence of Extraleganza collection contains an exemplar: the suite of diamonds and Colombian emeralds are baguette-cut, twinned and arranged in a cross-hatched mosaic secured with gold rope-work.
Equally noteworthy is Hermès’s Kellymorphose collection. In a playful deconstruction of the French house’s iconic bag, Pierre Hardy harnesses the baguette’s mix of glamour and minimalism to echo the Kelly’s trapezoidal shape. Then there’s the Kelly lock dangling from the strap of the Kelly Gavroche necklace, or set at the centre of the Kelly Gavroche double ring. Says Hardy: “I like capturing mobility without ever fixing it in place.”