When Nature Inspires: Inside Harry Winston's Lake Tekapo Suite

Blue-violet tanzanites, diamonds and an orange-pink tourmaline give Harry Winston’s Lake Tekapo Suite its distinctive palette. The inspiration is Lake Tekapo in New Zealand, where glacial water and flowering lupins bring cool blues and warmer pinks into the same landscape. That contrast is the most interesting part of the jewelry.

From the lakeshore to the jewelry

A landscape can suggest a color combination as readily as a shape. Here, the lake and its surrounding flowers provide a useful way to read the stones: blue and violet alongside orange-pink, with diamonds adding brightness between them.

Nature appears elsewhere in the house’s designs, too. Harry Winston’s Sunflower Collection takes a more literal approach to flowers, arranging stones around a central gem like petals. Lake Tekapo’s appeal lies in its mix of colors.

Harry Winston Lake Tekapo Suite

Photo: Harry Winston

Why the stones work together

The orange-pink tourmaline is the warm focal point. Against the blue-violet tanzanites, it gives the suite a more varied palette than an all-blue arrangement would have. The diamonds bring flashes of light without introducing another strong color.

Tanzanite’s blue and violet tones are worth a closer look on their own; our guide to colorful gemstones, including tanzanite, explores other stones for a jewelry collection. Here, those cooler tones help the tourmaline stand out.

Another side of Harry Winston’s color palette

For a different use of tourmaline, compare the suite with Harry Winston’s Paraiba tourmaline and yellow diamond necklace. The two designs offer different combinations of warm and cool color. In Lake Tekapo, it is the orange-pink against blue-violet that gives the eye somewhere to linger.