For Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director, kaleidoscopic nature has always been an inspiration. Designing the brand’s second collection of High Jewelry, HORTUS DELICIARUM, or “Garden of Delights,” Alessandro takes Gucci’s maximalism to the next level.

The collection, inspired by the mesmeric hues of the sky at various times of the day, is an interactive manifesto that reconnects you to nature: wherever you are in the world, immerse yourself in Alessandro’s romantic world, and enjoy the simple, spiritual pleasure from the ephemeral yet recurring beauty of the changing sky and its shifting colors and constellations. Comprising more than 130 pieces, largely one of a kind, this collection is indeed a four-chapter story about the majestic beauty of the natural world.

The first chapter is an ode to the beauty of natural landscapes, recreating the great outdoors as preciously intimate talismans. Cascades of diamonds evoking sparkling torrents of a waterfall, while quivering en tremblant Victoriana leaves and stars evoke shooting meteors and the delicate harmony of Mother Nature, fringed and tasseled necklaces and chandelier earrings are the miniature to present monumental natural features.

Immortalizing the fleeting magic of nightfall, the saturated, hypnotic hues of a sky at sunset sparks the second chapter of the collection, which is solidated by unique gemstones in discordant symmetry. Warm colors on the Georgiana collet-set Rivière necklace, with an 8-carat opal, are set with twilight-hued gemstones. The design elegantly mismatched to channel the transcendent ephemerality of a sky’s quickly-changing colors as it passes from day to night, whilst distorting and disrupting traditional classicism.

The most delicate and feminine narrative, presented by the romanticism of the rose garden, leads to the third chapter of “Hortus Deliciarum.” Each gemstone has been chosen for its delicate, light color, like the sunset-hued pinkish-orange Padparadscha sapphire, which resembles a rose petal on the cusp of blooming, or the deep indigo of the indicolite tourmalines, as inky as a night sky.

Nature and animals are inseparable. The fourth chapter revisits the animal kingdom, evoking mythic bestiary and ancient fauna. The symbolic strength of the Lion, the courage and passion of the Tiger, and the magical mysticism of Dionysus comprise the crest of Gucci’s kingdom of jewels – with tanzanites, serpentine opals and verdant tsavorites, the jewels are the emblem of personal strength.