hat qualities must an object possess to become an icon that transcends decades? Or, in the case of Cartier’s Trinity ring, an entire century? No one can say when or whether a creation will achieve iconic status. It must be given time to establish itself, to be understood and appreciated, to pass from era to era, generation to generation. For the Trinity, introduced in 1924, it was a short wait. It found its audience almost immediately, seducing artists, tastemakers and aristocrats – the “in-crowd” of its day.

Every aspiring icon must resonate with its era and bring something new. Creativity is informed by socio-economic and political circumstances, and that was true of the ring Louis Cartier wanted to make. Like other creative figures of his generation (he turned 25 in 1900) he observed the world taking shape around him with interest. This remarkable jeweller, accustomed as he was to creating magnificent parures for royalty, imagined a ring that was both simple and complex – a ring in keeping with the stylistic explorations of a time when Art Deco had swept away the frills and embellishments of previous eras.

The three-band, three-gold ring, as it was known until 1997, fit the bill. When your name is Cartier, It takes a degree of audacity to propose a simple ring made up of three interlocking bands in platinum, rose gold and yellow gold, a ring with no other adornment than its purity. For one hundred years, the Trinity ring – the name given to it by American Vogue in 1925 – has been loved by men and women alike, crossing gender boundaries. It was ahead of its time. We met Pierre Rainero, director of image, style and heritage at Cartier, to learn more about how the Trinity legend was born.

Trinity Bracelet (2024) ©Cartier

Europa Star Jewellery: The Trinity ring debuted a hundred years ago. It’s now a familiar design, but in 1924 it was revolutionary. Do Cartier’s archives mention what the reactions were, a century ago?

Pierre Rainero: Unfortunately, no. Our archives are extremely factual. We keep everything relating to the creation, manufacture and commercialisation of our jewellery. We were, however, interested in references to our jewellery in the press, and we kept a piece from a 1925 issue of American Vogue showing “the very new Trinity bracelet and ring”. It was an unusual design for the period, particularly from a jewellery house known for its exceptional creations, worn by exceptional people in exceptional circumstances.

Cartier was renowned as the jeweller to numerous royal households, captains of industry and elegant women around the world. The fact that it was proposing such a simple ring in gold with no other adornment would certainly have been surprising. When you look carefully at the Trinity ring, when you realise how mysterious and magical it is, you understand how it connects with the house’s creative vision. It was an immensely modern design for the era, and this modernity explains why it is still so desirable today.

The first ring with three intertwined bands in platinum, rose gold and yellow gold, 1924. ©Cartier

1925 was the year of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. We can imagine that, in the time leading up to the event, Louis Cartier must have poured all his creative energy into exceptional pieces of jewellery. Why would he have come up with such a minimalist design at that particular moment?

The 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts prompted a surge of creativity, particularly as it should have been held much earlier but was postponed several times because of the First World War [originally planned for 1915, the exhibition was rescheduled for 1916, then 1922, then 1924, finally taking place in 1925]. It gave shape to an energy that existed independently of it. Louis Cartier belonged to a generation of creatives from every domain who were hugely stimulated by the dawn of a new century. In 1900 he was 25 years old and acutely aware of the inventions that were shaping modern life: electricity, electric lighting, the telephone, speed, the early days of aviation and the automobile. He was convinced that people’s experience was out of step with these technological advances. He, and others, were eager to find new shapes for a new century, and new ways of living. Louis Cartier went in search of a repertoire of forms to match the era.

And what did he discover, apart from the Trinity ring?

Louis Cartier’s taste for elemental shapes came quickly to the fore. We see it first in his love of wristwatches with simple forms, and can observe the evolution from the Santos, created for Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904, to the Tank of 1917. The 1922 version, which our archives refer to as the “Louis Cartier Tank”, is proof of this desire for purity: elements were refined, anything that didn’t serve the fundamental design was taken away. We see it also in the way he looked to eighteenth-century France, a period considered more enlightened than the Victorian era or the Second Empire. Louis Cartier stripped away the decorative elements of the eighteenth century to retain only its sense of proportion, geometry and line. We can see how the Trinity ring fits this aesthetic vision of the elemental form.

Louis Cartier was a jeweller and, more than any other creative, he understood that jewellery had an additional, symbolic dimension, because of the intimacy between the object and its wearer. The Trinity is both magical and mysterious: mysterious in its design, with no joins, no sign of how it is assembled; and magical in the way the three interlocking rings roll naturally along the finger or when set on a surface. This magic, this mystery, are the essence of jewellery’s symbolic dimension. Cartier is attentive to how we live, and how our way of life evolves, and the Trinity ring also reflects that. It can be worn from morning through to evening, with other, more elaborate jewellery, by men and by women. It matches the era.

Trinity necklace and Trinity ring. A cushion-shaped version whose rings slide over each other as smoothly as the round version (2024). ©Cartier ©Maud Rémy Lonvis

On that note, Jean Cocteau, Gary Cooper and Alain Delon are some of the men who have worn the Trinity ring. Would it be fair to say it heralded a new era of men’s jewellery? And why, historically, do you think men’s jewellery fell out of favour?

Men wore jewellery until the time of the French Revolution. Think of Henri III and his pearls, or the necklaces worn during the reign of Louis XV or Louis XVI. Waistcoats with floral embroideries lent themselves to diamonds. We can date the decline of men’s jewellery to the nineteenth century, when specific roles were attributed to men and women, although it didn’t happen overnight. Men continued to wear silk hose until the Restoration of 1820-1830, after which they became more of a rarity, finally disappearing entirely, to be replaced by trousers with a frock coat and suits.

Men’s jewellery took the form it would retain throughout the twentieth century, with options limited to a wedding ring, a signet ring, a pocket watch and, when neckties became fashionable, a tie pin. The reasons were political, economic and societal. Men were taking on a more clearly defined role. Whereas eighteenth-century courtiers didn’t work, by the nineteenth century men had professions. The aristocratic model was gradually replaced by the bourgeois model. The Trinity was a perfectly acceptable item of jewellery for men in the early twentieth century. It could be seen as a wedding ring, albeit a more original, more voluminous design than a traditional wedding band, and it didn’t have to be worn on the ring finger. I wouldn’t say the Trinity sparked a revolution; rather, it fits into a plausible context.

It’s often said that the Trinity ring was designed by Jean Cocteau, which apparently is not the case. What was its true origin?

Jean Cocteau became synonymous with the three-band ring, to the extent that the idea for the design was attributed to him. He occupied the space. It’s a nice story, but not what our archives tell us. They show that it was made as a stock item, not specially commissioned. There are no records of Jean Cocteau having purchased one of these rings before the early 1930s. Another story often told, which Cartier has never endorsed, is that he began to wear two together in 1924, in memory of Raymond Radiguet who died in 1923. Why not? It would be a plausible hypothesis if he hadn’t bought them himself, if they had been gifted to him.

The first photographs which show him wearing two Trinity rings on his little finger are from the early 1930s, when he was in a relationship with Natalie Paley [Natalia Pavlovna, Princess Paley, Countess von Hohenfelsen]. Research by the Comité Cocteau has identified correspondence between Natalie Paley and Jean Cocteau from that period, in which they allude to the ring using their own personal symbolism. The ring became a representation of their relationship. What is closer to the truth is that the purchase of the ring, Cocteau’s relationship with Natalie Paley and his affection for the ring were all observed in the 1930s. There is a connection between Cocteau and the three bands, but it is not what we think it is.

French poet Jean Cocteau wears two Trinity rings, one on top of the other, on his little finger. Courtesy of Cartier

A 1925 piece in American Vogue refers to the “Trinity” but Cartier didn’t give it that name until 1997. Why is that?

The Trinity name first appeared in Vogue magazine. In Paris, it was always referred to as the three-band, three-gold ring, which is the name given to it in our archives. In the 1990s we noticed it had been called the Trinity in the United States, and that the name encapsulated the concept of “three bands and three golds” in a much more succinct way. That is when the name was registered, almost thirty years ago.

American actor Gary Cooper wore a Trinity ring, as shown in a 1931 portrait. Courtesy of Cartier

The original Trinity was in platinum, rose gold and yellow gold. When did it become three golds, and why?

The Trinity was created at a time when platinum was the white precious metal. White gold was rarely used, as alloys were not yet up to standard. Little by little, white gold was introduced into jewellery and became more popular from the 1930s. There was an element of surprise in this combination of three shades of gold, which some said was influenced by Russian taste. In fact, a lot of people in the United States still call it “the Russian ring”.

This modular version of the Trinity ring, like a Kumiki puzzle, can be worn as one thick band or as three, depending on the wishes of the wearer (2024). ©Cartier

Is there a particular anecdote associated with the ring?

The thing that most fascinates me about the Trinity ring is how closely it corresponds to Louis Cartier’s vision and his love of bold ideas. There were different versions, different directions, from the years immediately following its creation. There have been iterations with five, seven, even nine bands, which can be engraved, lacquered or in different colours. At Cartier, we like to see how far we can take an idea. The Trinity is one of the few designs that has always been part of the collection. It is, and always has been, the gift that marks the passage into adulthood, as though the ring itself, through its sophistication and simplicity, symbolises a new stage in life. And this is true for both genders. An anecdote is a story about specific people, and this ring has meaning for many, many people. To receive one is an initiation into a world of beauty, magic and mystery.