This year marks the 20th anniversary of the classic rom-com Maid in Manhattan. While there are other legendary jewellery movie moments in Hollywood history, the beautiful unveiling of Jennifer Lopez’s character, Marisa Ventura, wearing a showstopping pink gown and the famed Harry Winston Cluster necklace and earrings is at the top of our list. In honour of the film’s 20th anniversary, we examine Harry Winston’s Cluster collection for its lasting beauty and timeless design.
The Cluster line was created in the 1940s and was a new approach to jewellery design at the time. The design has humble beginnings. Mr. Harry Winston spotted the beautiful shine of freshly fallen snow on a lovely holly wreath at his house one snowy evening. Mr. Winston had an epiphany as the snow fell on the interlaced holly leaves. The shape of the holly leaves, rather than the branches that formed the foundation, influenced the ultimate design of the wreath. He was inspired to design a jewellery line using the same technique, allowing the geometry of the diamonds to govern the shape of the jewellery rather than the metal settings that supported them.
This resulted in the development of the cluster approach. Mr. Winston and his designers employed diamonds of various cuts and sizes, arranging them in three-dimensional clusters set in platinum. They employed pear, marquise, and round brilliant diamonds in their creations, which resembled small diamond sculptures rather than jewellery. More light might reach the diamonds if they were placed at different heights and angles. This increased their radiance and allowed the items to dazzle from all angles. The Winston Cluster collection is the name given to the collection today. In respect of the design’s initial inspiration, jewellery enthusiasts still refer to Cluster necklaces as “Wreath necklaces.”
There are several Cluster patterns available today, but arguably the most well-known is the big Cluster necklace. This platinum necklace is studded with 195 diamonds, all of which are D, E, or F colour. The core pattern is reminiscent of a holly wreath, except it is made of diamonds. The centrepiece is a huge pear-cut diamond that is positioned slightly off-center for added drama. It’s encircled by large marquise and pear-cut diamonds placed at various angles and heights. The overlapping diamonds and various angles create a sculptural aspect that adds shine and fire to the item. This cluster is surrounded by marquise and pear-cut diamonds, ending in two rows of diamonds that around the neck. This high-end necklace has 136 carats of diamonds in total.
The Cluster necklace exemplifies Mr. Winston’s creative philosophy as well as his moniker, “the King of Diamonds.” All-diamond necklaces are often basic; consider stunning solitaire pendants or tennis necklaces. Stunning, to be sure, yet they all seem the same. An all-diamond necklace may become an aesthetic masterpiece in the hands of Harry Winston’s craftsman and is readily identifiable as a Harry Winston gem.
The holly theme is particularly obvious in the Cluster earrings and brooch, which were among the collection’s earliest items. An all-diamond brooch created from pear-shaped diamonds set at varying heights and angles is seen in archival sketches from the 1950s. Other sketches from the vault include earrings with pear- and marquise-cut diamonds. The Cluster earrings now have three pear-shaped diamonds and two marquise-cut diamonds. The other diamonds softly frame the wearer’s face while two huge pear-shaped diamonds point inwards towards it. The diamonds’ sharp edges, topped with platinum prongs, are reminiscent of thorny holly leaves.
There’s also the elegant Cluster necklace that Lopez wore in the film. It has 180 marquise, pear-shaped, and round brilliant diamonds set in it. Two marquise diamonds set at opposite angles alternate with a cluster of one pear-shaped and one round brilliant diamond. The biggest diamonds emerge in the middle of the necklace, and the diamond clusters gradually decrease smaller until they meet at the rear, totaling 48.80 carats. Albert Wolsky, the film’s costume designer, paired the necklace with Cluster earrings for added drama.
Such jewellery designs will never go out of style, which is one of the reasons we can’t believe Maid in Manhattan is turning 20 today. If Lopez wore these jewels now, they would be just as elegant and dazzling as they were in the film and when Mr. Winston initially developed the collection in the 1940s.
Today, the Cluster line continues to expand while maintaining Mr. Winston’s design philosophy at the forefront. Colored gemstones were launched in 2018 and the company has released fresh variations on the Cluster pattern over the years, including new collections inspired by the Winston Cluster and more delicate designs that are simple to wear every day, not only for dazzling galas and elegant evenings.
There are miniature Winston Cluster pendants with five smaller diamonds totaling around 1 carat in the original collection, as well as a Winston Cluster tennis bracelet with 20 carats of pear-shaped and round brilliant diamonds. Both are more casual but still lovely, and they look just as well with jeans and a t-shirt as they do with formal wear.
The Lily Cluster series was inspired by another natural beauty, the delicate petals of a lily flower, and it employs an open-worked cluster pattern with pavé diamonds. In numerous items, like the Lily Cluster pendant, the petals “overlap.”
The cluster design is more worn every day thanks to the open design and usage of pavé diamonds, and it’s also considerably more cheap. The Lily Cluster pendant costs $7,900. The concept of clustering and allowing diamonds to influence design pervades the house’s high-jewelry lines as well as settings for one-of-a-kind diamonds in the Incredibles by Harry Winston collection.
Clusters are often made up of tiny diamonds that are encircled by a larger stone. Because the diamonds in the cluster are so much smaller in size, the stone they’re surrounded by appears considerably larger. An engagement ring is a popular place to locate a cluster in jewellery.
LOTUS is a massive cluster with over 300 nodes/hosts and 19000 CPU cores. A node/host is a machine in the cluster that has more than one processor. Each node/host belongs to one of several host groups.
At Truoosh, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. All product details reflect the price and availability at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to on our site, Truoosh may earn commission.
