In Living Colour

The new Prada fine jewellery Couleur Vivante collection is a blazing, beautiful jolt to the industry's palette—a radical celebration of colour, identity, and contradiction that only Prada could deliver so incisively. As the press release landed in my inbox, it felt like an awakening from monotone traditions: Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons have made chromatic language their medium, drawing in all the harmonies, symbioses, and riotous juxtapositions that spell their fashion partnership out equally as well.

If you've ever seen Mrs. Prada's runway exit bow look, she pairs a classic outfit with a fabulous pair of vintage earrings. In this new Couleur Vivante jewellery collection, we suspect she'll have a new pair to step out in with ease. Prada's approach here is distinctly unconventional. Where others chase uniformity and expected gems, Couleur Vivante is about colour’s emotional resonance, not simply its price or pedigree. Gems—amethyst, aquamarine, madeira citrine, pink morganite, oro-verde peridot—are picked for intense, nuanced shades rather than mere rarity. It’s a palette chosen for meaning, a spectrum engineered to challenge the notion of "preciousness." Prada interrogates luxury as a fluid, rebellious concept, mirror-like to the dialogue their collections always inspire—never quite letting us settle into aesthetic comfort.

The jewelry itself is archetypal—drop earrings, solitaire rings, rivière necklaces. Yet every piece is upended by Prada’s signature subversion: stones framed in floating arrangements, asymmetry, unexpected proportions and difficult-to-achieve cuts. Each creation dares to disrupt, with contrasts and liberated gems, almost as if the pieces—like the women who wear them—are asserting agency and freedom, rather than merely accessorising. This isn’t jewelry that simply sits on the skin; it reframes the face, sets the wearer within a living canvas of colour.

Another deviation from heritage houses is in the transparency Prada offers. Each piece’s journey—from rough gemstone to dazzling polish—is tracked and logged on the Aura Consortium blockchain. Buyers can access authentic images of the transformation, paired with a grading certificate from an independent gemological lab, guaranteeing both provenance and the unique story behind every stone. In a market where opacity often reigns, this is a meaningful shift—giving modern clients not just aesthetic satisfaction but ethical assurance and a richer link to the object they own.

The campaign, starring Amanda Gorman, Maya Hawke, and Kim Tae-Ri, is about more than jewellery—it's about stories, identity, artistry and activism. The monochrome portraits are veiled with translucent colour, faces framed as jewels themselves. Prada’s persistent interrogation of form and meaning is alive here: the interplay of classic technique and radical colour, of timeless forms and new contexts and cultural impact, of tradition and forward-thinking transparency.