Dior’s grand tour of high jewelry presentations in Italy culminated with a sweep through Florence, where the house opened the doors, as if by magic, to cultural lodestars and hard-to-access venues, starting with the Basilica Santa Maria Novella. That Renaissance gem—whose chapels house treasures by Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Lippi, Michelangelo, and many others—became the backdrop for a candlelit seated dinner for 230 guests, featuring rosettes of prawn and a whorl of artichoke and black truffle feuilleté by the Michelin three-star chef Mauro Colagreco, served on lavish Italianate tablescapes by Dior Maison. The evening was capped off by a jewels-and-couture show for Diorama, Victoire de Castellane’s latest high jewelry collection, in the cloister.

The masterpiece in the 172-jewel collection, the Diorama Forêt Enchantée necklace stars a glyptic bestiary: a trio of does, a swan, a rabbit, and a squirrel carved in pale green chrysoprase are nestled into a thicket of foliage set with 1,300 gems, from white diamonds and tiny cultured pearls to yellow sapphires, green tsavorites, and emeralds. The piece is anchored by a 16.16-carat emerald-cut emerald set amid tiny branches.

A single parure, dubbed Diorigami, hinted at what to expect come fall as the toile de Jouy theme expands into a more graphic, abstract expression of nature informed, as its name suggests, by the Japanese art of paper folding, and, by extension, couture pleating techniques that circle right back to the Bar suit and the triumph of the New Look.