Just months after crown jewels were stolen from the Louvre in a brazen daytime heist, replicas of the missing pieces have resurfaced—or have been reimagined—at Schiaparelli’s couture show in Paris on Monday.

The recreations, designed by Schiaparelli artistic director Daniel Roseberry, were inspired by pearl-and-diamond jewels once owned by Empress Eugénie that were among the estimated $102 million worth of gems stolen from the Louvre last October. Although the original pieces remain missing, Roseberry gave the priceless pieces a cultural afterlife, debuting dramatically embellished versions during Paris Haute Couture Week. His recreations were worn by American actor and musician Teyana Taylor—fresh off her first Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actress and her debut Oscar nomination for One Battle After Another—who appeared front row at the Petit Palais show in a jeweled crown and diamond bow necklace referencing the stolen works.

“I was going home for a walk from the office, it was right after the jewels had been stolen from the Louvre,” Roseberry told Vanity Fair. “And I was like, Wouldn’t it be nice to reimagine the Louvre jewels that were stolen?”

Empress Eugenie’s Tiara © 2015 GrandPalaisRmn (Louvre Museum). Photo: Stéphane Maréchalle

Roseberry’s is known for transforming headline-grabbing news or mass cultural fascinations into designs fit for the ultimate luxury stage. His recast of the Louvre jewels was what he called “more three dimensional.”

Fit for an Empress

Originally made for Eugénie in 1853, the pearl-diamond tiara that inspired the fashion designer was created by jeweler Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier. The piece features more than 200 pearls, 2,000 diamonds, and 1,000 rose-cut diamonds all arranged into an intricate design that mimics leaves and foliage. According to jewelry historian Marion Fasel, the natural pearls set on the diadem were extremely rare and pricey on the market, making the piece “a very elevated object.”

The necklace that Taylor wore was inspired by the gold, silver, and diamond bow brooch that served as a buckle of a diamond belt containing more than 4,000 stones. The original piece was forced to sell at auction in 1877 and acquired by the Louvre in 2008 for a reported sum of $10 million.

 

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Roseberry’s recreation of the bow was even bolder and more luxurious, matching this season’s collection show, which was themed “The Agony and the Ecstasy.”

Art History as Inspiration

The art world has long been a touchpoint for Roseberry, who took the helm of Schiaparelli as artistic director in 2019. For his latest show, he said that he was also inspired by Michelangelo during a last-minute tour of the Sistine Chapel while on a creative retreat outside of Rome.

Roseberry noted that while the chapel’s walls were already adorned by densely painted murals, it was the ceiling Michelangelo painted in fresco 40 years later in 1508 that “singlehandedly changed art forever.”

“Crane your neck skyward, and thought stops,” Roseberry said in his collection statement, noting that Michelangelo’s creation presents “a wild, visually rambunctious, vulnerable, and romantic imagining” of God, faith, and the human condition.

“Here is agony and ecstasy co-mingled, terrible and exquisite. He didn’t tell us what happened, but instead gave his audience permission on how to feel when they looked at art,” the designer said. “The entire emotional heartbeat of this season became not what does it look like, but how do we feel when we make it?”

The French luxury fashion house, founded in 1927 by Elsa Schiaparelli, is the subject of a forthcoming exhibition at London’s V&A, “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,” opening in March.