Paris Fashion: The jewelers of Place Vendôme get in on the act

With rose-red rubies dangling in the trumpet of a flower and sapphire petals spreading over diamond branches, the "Catherine" necklace from Boucheron opened up its garden of earthly delights.

This nature-inspired collection was part of a general botanical jewelry theme that sprouted as the jewelers of Place Vendôme opened their doors for the haute couture season.

Haute Joallerie, as the French call it, is living up to its rarefied name now that the hedge fund managers and oligarch's wives are zoning on jewelry.

As befits their big ticket prices, these floral classics of the industry now come in eye-popping sizes with a sculptural three-dimensional effect.

Boucheron's "Fleur Fatale" has a femme fatale allure, with trembling branches of stones and diamond serpents emerging from abundant nature.

Many of these flamboyant pieces can also be un-clipped to produce a smaller brooch or pin. Shown in the salon against boxwood greenery and mesh fencing, the collection also has a more approachable side, with a tiny owl on a chain and gold grapes.

Chanel's camellia is the house signature, but shown in a scenario of a crystal cherry blossom tree, the diamond tracery of the flower took on a new dimension. So did the classic 1930s feather, its whiskers of brilliant-cut diamonds buried in the tail of a white peacock.

The jewels - including the bold J12 watch - were shown in Coco Chanel's personal apartment at the Ritz hotel, decked out for the presentation with Mademoiselle's own objects, like a camellia-patterned fan and two sculptures of deer. In the autumn, the Chanel jewelry store on Place Vendôme will be renovated to showcase a collection that is still rooted in the 1930s comet pieces that Coco designed but also contains imaginative new pieces.

For Van Cleef & Arpels, flowers are always in fashion and the big crowd that showed up for the open house evening gawped over both the big pieces and some of the charming additions to the sweet Alhambra range, including mother-of-pearl butterflies.

De Grisogno, famous for its black diamonds, went green. But that meant a selection of emerald jewels in exceptional mixes of cuts, from briolettes to pavé work, so that the jewels looked like haute gravel on a bracelet or like stamen heads at the center of a floral ring. Also in this garden, a diamond serpent bracelet with emerald eyes.

Dior had bouquets of multi-colored flowers in its Diorette collection, where lacquered surfaces gleamed on the nestling blooms.

Chaumet's world was sea blue at its merry summer celebration, where the courtyard of its Place Vendôme store had a mock swimming pool - the better to make a big splash with its new version of its iconic diving watch. The Class One 39 MM has a Mediterranean blue face washed over with white diamonds while the face of the Haute Joaillerie version is a foaming surf of pavé-set stones.