The great little pollinator that plays such a crucial role in our food chain, came to embody love in the Chaumet collection Attrape-moi… si tu m’aimes (Catch me ... if you love me). The jeweller has fallen in love with the domesticated bee through whose efforts humans gather honey and which plays an important role in agriculture, especially fruit production.

Responding to concerns that the pollinating bee is disappearing in some parts of the world as its habitat disappears, Chaumet has launched a collection featuring the flying friend of the farmer. Of course, scientists have found that bees do not pollinate everything and that our food supply is not in great danger. Nevertheless, it is worth noting the role this insect – endowed with its own unique global positioning system that helps them locate nectar – plays in human existence.      

Chaumet’s collection, in partnership with the Terre d’Abeilles association, includes rings, bracelets and pendants, a necklace, ear studs, and a ring featuring a queen bee. Terre d’Abeilles works to protect bees and hives.

A fluttering congregation of butterflies can make a landscape look like it is dripping with flowers. It is the pigmentation of these fragile creatures that make the swirls of colour possible. They are nature’s light emitting diodes. The creatures of the night, that are the moths, are also nature’s artists, riotously garbed. 

Jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels introduced a collection of pricey pieces modelled on butterflies and moths – clips, earrings, brooches and necklaces studded with precious stones. The Papillons collection, the jeweller says, aims to convey the “lightness of the butterfly” and captures the “immortality of its beauty”.

Social butterflies will likely be drawn to these “winged jewels” as Van Cleef & Arpels calls them.

The Cherry Blossom clip, features white gold petals, and yellow and white diamonds that mimic butterfly wings. Corollas of pink cyclamens in platinum, pink gold, emeralds and pink sapphires blossom on the Leilus necklace, Van Cleef & Arpels says. “Wings can be perceived inside each of the flowers, while a stem of diamonds curls around the neck and reveals curved leaves. In the Grand Imperial set, nature’s mimicry has been expressed in the bells of a fuchsia flower transformed into pink gold wings paved with pink and white diamonds, complementing a necklace of interlacing leaves and flowers crafted from diamonds and white and pink gold, on which two butterflies are face to face.”

Cast aside the floral lace for the moment. A new line of lacy lingerie has been sprinkled with polka dots and there are dusty bubbles on printed Lycra. And then there is lace with stretch organza ribbons, and most of all, edgy, raunchy, pleated satin. The seductive appeal of La Perla this season has been raised a notch with geometric elements as well.

Polka dotted lingerie is partly in stretch tulle and detailed in georgette and stretch silk satin. In another range in stretch silk satin, sophisticated Leavers lace with large stylised flowers over organza ribbons, create suggestive geometries.

Fold after fold of satin pleats have been combined with arabesque-motif lace and accentuated by black lace over a contrasting satin background.

Elsewhere, there are coloured bubbles on shiny Lycra for underwear with matching sets of nightwear in silk georgette and satin.