How Chaumet turned a coronation into a modern love story for Qixi

What happened Chaumet has released “We Crown Each Other,” a short film marking Qixi (Chinese Valentine’s Day), which falls on August 19 this year, alongside new pieces from its “Joséphine” collection. The work stars China brand ambassador Wen Qi (Vicky Chen), who won best supporting actress at the Golden Horse Awards in 2017 at age 14. Behind the camera are two filmmakers with recent Cannes credits: director Zhou Jinghao, whose debut “Girl on Edge” screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2025, and cinematographer Chengma Zhiyuan, who shot Wei Shujun’s “Only the River Flows.” Their brief was to take Chaumet’s “coronation” motif — inherited from Empress Joséphine — and strip out the hierarchy. On a riverside staircase at sunset, a couple play rock-paper-scissors. Each round, the loser climbs a step toward the other, until almost no distance is left. He reaches for a ring box hidden behind his back — and a second Chaumet box comes into view behind her. Both had come to propose. The ring at the center of this “two-way proposal” comes from Chaumet’s Joséphine collection. The Jing Take The reveal is what audiences will share. What Chaumet’s competitors should be looking at is the hiring. Wen Qi is an unusual pick for a jewelry campaign. She made her name in art-house drama — “Angels Wear White” and “The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful,” both 2017 — not in the commercial romances that usually supply China’s luxury ambassadors. Behind the camera, Zhou and Chengma’s training shows in what the film withholds. The jewelry arrives late and never takes over the frame; the couples rapport is built from small gestures rather than the staged ceremony most bridal campaigns reach for. Swapping ambassadors and refreshing visual language is the standard play for luxury houses chasing younger Chinese consumers. The harder problem is heritage that doesn’t flatter a contemporary audience — and coronation, for Chaumet, is that kind of inheritance. Chaumet’s claim on Joséphine is not decorative. Marie-Étienne Nitot, who founded the house in 1780, served as jeweler to Napoleon and his empress. On December 2, 1804, at Notre-Dame, Napoleon crowned himself, then turned and crowned Joséphine as she knelt before him. That is the hierarchy the campaign has to solve: a coronation has a giver and a receiver, and the receiver kneels. The staircase carries the reinterpretation. Joséphine knelt to be crowned. Wen’s character climbs — and so does he — until they are standing on the same step. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

How Chaumet turned a coronation into a modern love story for Qixi

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

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How Chaumet turned a coronation into a modern love story for Qixi

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag