CELINE Channels César Baldaccini With Limited-Edition Compression Project Necklaces

CELINE has partnered with the foundation that remembers the French sculpture César Baldaccini for a limited-edition necklace collection.

Baldaccini was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement and is known for his compression art, often turning scrap metal from cars or day-to-day rubbish into geometric sculptures. The artist started to explore his Directed Compressions art in 1959 when he first saw how a heavyweight hydraulic crushing machine worked.

Hedi Slimane at CELINE has drawn influence from the artist by producing two pieces of fine jewelry for the French house — one necklace made from sterling silver and leather, and another from gold vermeil and leather.  There are only 100 of each necklace and all are individually numbered and packaged in a special pinewood box.

The partnership is organic, as Baldaccini also used to make jewelry. The artist would collect scraps, heirlooms, and antiques from his family and remold them into new totemic necklaces — which these new CELINE necklaces reference so heavily. Both necklaces are rectangular and have carvings all over them to represent compressed metal.

Take a look at the CELINE César Compression Project necklaces in the gallery above. Both are available to purchase at select CELINE boutiques now. The sterling silver piece retails for $4,100 USD, while the gold vermeil piece retails for $5,400 USD.

In case you missed it, check out this Alexander McQueen triple-tiered skull ring.