This year marks 100 years since legendary French jeweler Louis Cartier first twisted platinum, rose gold, and yellow gold into his eponymous maison’s iconic Trinity collection. This signature style of rings, bangles, and earrings has since twisted itself into the cultural consciousness, courtesy of cosigns from stars across ages, from Jean Cocteau to Kylie Jenner. Since February, Cartier has staged centennial celebrations for the Trinity across New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. The global party will conclude back in North America tomorrow, when Cartier unveils their immersive “Trinity100” amidst the madness of Miami Art Week.
The original Trinity ring’s origin story remains inconclusive. The house, however, traces the groundbreaking design to Louis Cartier’s friend, the famed French poet and playwright Cocteau. “Perhaps under the influence of opium, Cocteau is said to have told Louis that he had envisaged the rings around Saturn in a dream,” Cartier has written. “The idea of something so large and universal being represented by something so small and personal entranced him.” Cartier set out to make that hallucination real.
Whereas jewelry trends in the 1920s favored opulence, the Trinity’s style was deliciously simple. Cocteau popularized the three-part twist by wearing two Trinity rings stacked on his pinky throughout the 1930s. This unorthodox trademark stuck. Soon enough, England’s Duke of Windsor was following suit. Love for the Trinity ring spread rapidly from there, as Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Princess Diana successively boarded the star-studded bandwagon.
As such, one of the five galleries in this week’s Design District exhibition will focus entirely on Cocteau. Another will immortalize all the stars he inspired. Somewhere between Old Hollywood’s stamp of approval and Jenner’s Trinity ring honoring her love for contemporary heart throb Timothee Chalamet, sirens of the aughts such as Nicole Kidman, Kate Middleton, and Cameron Diaz all had their own, as well. After a room honoring the reappearance of the number three throughout Cartier’s history, Trinity100 will also showcase treasures from Cartier’s archives. At the end, it’s rumored that guests will even get a luxe opportunity to try on a few jewels for themselves.
A design as intuitive and timeless as the Trinity all but demands reinvention. In 2022, for instance, Cartier collaborated with Japanese fashion designer and Sacai founder Chitose Abe on the trendy Trinity cushion shape. which dropped this year.
The Trinity will get a few more facelifts as part of its year-long party. This week, Cartier has launched a limited edition run of new, never-before-seen Trinity pieces in North America. Five new iterations of the Trinity—including an edgy two-finger ring, and a singular earring—all bear edgy yet sentimental animal prints. “Steeped in the heritage of the Maison, the collection references Cartier’s iconic panther bestiary, in addition to the tiger and the snake,” press materials explained. The rest of the world will have a chance to scoop these new pieces up starting on February 1, 2025.
Trinity 100 will be open to the public at 23 NE 41st St Miami, FL, from Wednesday, December 4 – Sunday, December 8 (11:00 am – 9:00 pm). Visitors will be able to reserve a timeslot for complimentary admission at www.cartier.com.
