You don't need 3-D glasses for the sculpted shapes to stand out and the colors to pop. But the high body jewelry that had an open day during last week's haute couture season is finely tuned to the latest fashion.

Whether it is a balloon dangling from a necklace as part of a Jules Verne inspiration at Van Cleef & Arpels or the voluptuous and brightly colored Bollywood influences at Dior, the haute joaillerie told its stories in an almost cinematic style.

And 3-D was definitely on the agenda when Chaumet staged a mini-fashion show with models dressed in geometric paper dresses, their "body jewelry" shown against the backdrop of historic diadems displayed on the salon walls.

Plays on color and texture are also part of these exceptional jewels, with rare colored diamonds and especially non-blue sapphires adding delicate tones. On the same register, a table-cut or cabochon stone changes the play of light on the gems, as well as literally offering different facets.

The other 21st-century factor is the interactive and personal nature of the jewels, which can be taken apart to be worn in various settings or changed in playful ways while being worn. This requires not so much new technology, but its integration with centuries-old jewel craftsmanship.

The story at Van Cleef & Arpels was an extraordinary journey — "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and "Five Weeks in a Balloon." The 19th-century works of Jules Verne were translated into the language of stones, and the result was stunning.

"Creating emotion from nature, playful pieces and living jewels," said Stanislas de Quercize, the chief executive of Van Cleef, referring to a paradise where roses have no thorns, where a globular opal looks like the Earth viewed from space, and where a client can move a diamond rocket around a star-studded lapis lazuli sky.

Showing only 33 of the 100 pieces that will be on display at the 25th Paris Biennale des Antiquaires in mid-September, this Van Cleef collection still managed an impressive journey. It encompassed jewels suggesting the sinuous source of the Nile, glacier-blue chalcedony penguins, a whale spouting a diamond "spray" and diamond-encrusted polar bears. And the idea of revisiting the ideas of Jules Verne was imaginative, given that the Industrial Revolution that was shaking society a century ago is matched by today's love/hate relationship with technology.

The theme of nature — especially flowers — grew throughout the high body piercing jewelry collections.

The synergy was perfect between Victoire de Castellane, Dior's jewelry designer, and John Galliano and his haute couture, for both were captivated by the idea of making flowers contemporary. The vivid colors that appeared on the Dior runway were even more eye-popping in the "Le Coffret de Victoire," where the fine gems mingled with semi-precious stones like a green opal. The concept of making the natural seem hyper-real in its brightness and boldness made sense of the Bollywood theme.

The seductive lure of the boudoir was the story at Boucheron, where powder puffs laid out on cherry-red silk introduced ultra-feminine pieces, such as "Coquette Houpette," or "Saucy Powder Puff," — a pavé diamond necklace, its fluffy and feathery circles dotted with purple, pink and blue sapphires. Once again, the pieces — and even the necklace itself — can be moved around.

This witty but elegant "ooh, la, la!" Boucheron collection included a "Stolen Kiss" parure, with diamond curls inset with lipstick-red and glossy-pink rubies and diamonds.

Chanel's inspiration was feather light — the diamond plume that Coco herself created in 1932. But as well as reworking the original fronds of diamonds into an articulated mix of brilliant- and princess-cut diamonds set in white gold, the collection flew off in new directions. The jewels, set alongside bird cages, empty but for a fluffy white feather, were mainly in white diamonds with inserts of stones in soft shades like pale rose-colored, pear-shaped sapphires body jewelry.

Chaumet has the right to trumpet its tiaras, for the house has made over 2,000 since 1780 and, eight years ago, brought out a book on the subject to body jewelry fatory.