Rebirth of the Fashion King

Second floor of Café de Flore.

Li Xun's first stroke was a straight line, cut diagonally from the upper left corner of the paper at a small angle, about twenty degrees.

The stroke begins heavily and ends lightly.

Then there's the second line, parallel to each other, with a gap of less than one centimeter.

Article 3.

Three lines side by side form a ribbon.

His hand speed began to increase.

The pencil made a soft, rustling sound as it moved across the paper, and the lines began to intersect.

A vertical line cuts through three parallel lines, followed by an arc that goes around the top of the parallel lines from the upper left corner and then curves downwards.

The curve is full and rounded, like a drop of water expanding from the edge and then contracting.

Li Xun paused for a moment.

He held the pencil up to his eyes, pressed the end of the pencil twice with his thumb, and the lead sticks out a little more.

He didn't look at his hands; his eyes were still fixed on the lines already drawn on the paper.

He added another stroke at the end of the arc.

This time it's a short straight line extending downwards from the bottom of the arc, about two centimeters long.

Then a rhombus was added to the end of the straight line. It was not a standard rhombus. The top and bottom corners were stretched, while the left and right corners were compressed, and the whole thing was stretched vertically.

Half of an octagon.

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Li Xun switched the pencil to his left hand and rubbed the paper with the pad of his right little finger, creating a light gray line along the edge. The graphite dissolved on the paper like a shadow.

"Bonjour, Rhine."

Li Xun looked up.

It was Alan standing at the top of the stairs on the second floor.

He was carrying a tray with some food on it. Alan's footsteps were light, but the wooden floorboards still creaked as he approached.

The wooden structure on the second floor is so old; it's a house from 1887, and every single floorboard holds memories.

"Thank you, Alain." Li Xun placed the pen next to his sketchbook.

Alan pushed the plate to the corner of the table and placed the sparkling water to the right of the glass, maintaining a consistent distance.

"What should I draw?"

"Some accessories."

Alan didn't ask any further questions. He tucked the tray under his arm and glanced out the window.

There are quite a few people across the street today.

"The Twin Elders?"

"A photographer was taking pictures of those two Qing Dynasty wooden sculptures at the entrance for ten minutes. The owner asked a waiter to invite him in for coffee, but he declined, saying the lighting was just right," Alan said with a smile.

Li Xun nodded and slightly curved the corners of his mouth.

Alan turned and left, his steps as light as when he came.

Li Xun picked up the espresso cup; the cup was still a little hot. The ceramic was thin, and the aroma of coffee rose from the rim, carrying the scents of caramel and dark chocolate. He took a sip and put the cup back in its place.

Then pick up the pencil again.

The lines on the paper have already taken shape.

A band composed of three parallel lines, with an arc that wraps around the top, and an octagonal half hanging down from the bottom of the arc.

Li Xun lightly swept the side of his pencil across the parallel line, drawing a shadow. The ribbon immediately bulged out of the paper, like a metal ring holding something in place.

He added another row of dots on the outside of the arc.

Each dot is only the size of a lead tip, but they are arranged very precisely. There are 31 dots, arranged from the beginning to the end of the arc, with even spacing.

Diamond setting. Pavé setting technique.

Each diamond is no more than 1.5 millimeters in diameter and is set in an 18K white gold base. The metal base is so thin that it is almost invisible to the naked eye, so that light can pass through the bottom of the diamond and create a floating effect.

Li Xun's pencil paused on the paper for a moment.

He added a dashed line between the arc and the ribbon.

The dashed lines are not continuous; they are broken, with equal distances between each break point.

This isn't decorative trim; it's structural trim. It's a hinged structure. The curved section can be opened, like the back of a brooch.

Then, at the bottom of the arc, below the rhombus, he drew a teardrop shape.

The teardrop shape is quite large, taking up about a third of the entire composition. He started drawing the outline from the top of the teardrop, moving the pen tip very slowly, and at the fullest part of the teardrop, the curve bulged outwards slightly.

This is the key.

A standard teardrop-shaped gemstone has a length-to-width ratio of 1.5:1, but the ratio in Li Xun's drawing is approximately 1.35:1.

Slightly shorter, so that the belly of the water droplet will be fuller, and the fire will be more concentrated under the light.

This type of cut is called "briolette" in the diamond industry, but the traditional briolette is a three-dimensional cut. The one he drew is from the front view. From the front view, each curve of the teardrop is a curve equation.

……

Ten minutes later.

Li Xun put down his pencil, picked up the espresso cup, and took another sip.

The coffee had gone cold. He put down the cup and turned the sketchbook fifteen degrees to the left. The angle between the paper and the light changed, and the reflection of the graphite changed accordingly.

The lines looked as if they were floating on the paper.

Li Xun stared at the painting for about half a minute.

Then he turned the page.

The new page is blank.

This time he didn't start writing immediately. He leaned back in his chair, placed his left hand next to the sketchbook, and held the pencil horizontally across his knuckles with his index and middle fingers.

The ETERNAL N°5 jewelry collection is his accessory plan for his big show next year.

In reality, ETERNAL N°5 is a high jewelry collection launched by Chanel to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of N°5 perfume. It is also the brand's first high jewelry collection inspired by perfume.

It's not just a simple rebranding; it uses the language of jewelry—diamonds, gemstones, and craftsmanship—to "translate" the soul of the perfume.

This series was created in 2021 to commemorate the centenary of N°5, and Li Xun has now directly borrowed from it.

……

He continued drawing below the octagon.

On the outer ring of the concentric circles, he added a layer of structure: an arc that runs from the left side of the ring, around the bottom of the octagon, and extends to the right side. There is a very thin gap between the arc and the ring.

This is the "bottle cap" structure.

To be precise, it's the joint between the cap and the body of the N°5 perfume bottle.

The bottle cap fits over the bottle, with a metal ring at the junction. Li Xun enlarged this ring, turning it into a second ring.

This ring can rotate, and as it rotates, it causes the angle of the octagonal gemstone to change, so that the ring presents different light and shadow structures when viewed from the front and from the side.

Li Xun began drawing diamonds on this rotating ring.

The miniature diamonds, no more than two millimeters in diameter, were drawn in great detail. The table of each diamond was a small circle, and the surrounding facets were indicated by short lines.

Eight diamonds are arranged on the front of the band, with consistent spacing between each diamond.

Then he added a line of text to the inside of the band.

The words were very small; he wrote them with the side of a pencil, the lines very thin: ETERNAL.

Every letter is capitalized, the serifs are 20% longer than the standard proportion, and the spacing between letters is also widened.

This creates a sense of pause when reading, as each letter is independent.

ETERNAL.

Eternal.

Li Xun put down his pencil, picked up his sparkling water, and took a sip. The bubbles burst on his tongue, and the carbonation refocused his attention.

He turned back to the previous page and looked at the brooch he had just drawn. The angle at which the teardrop-shaped diamond on the brooch drooped was about two degrees to the right compared to when he first drew it.

He picked up a pencil and added a tiny hinge point at the base of the water droplet, allowing it to swing left and right.

The swing amplitude doesn't need to be large; plus or minus five degrees is enough. When the wearer walks, the water droplets will sway with the rhythm of the body, and the angle of light reflection inside the diamond will constantly change, causing the fire to sparkle.

Li Xun turned back to the page about the ring.

He began writing in the blank space on the left side of the ring.

Eternal N°5.

The characters are written very small, with clean and crisp strokes.

Then write the second line below this line: Ring, open type, rotatable double ring structure.

……