Golden Parachutes

Bank failures, bailouts, big bonuses for the bad guys, economic turmoil all over the world.  So what can you give to the golden boy or girl who has everything, or may have just lost it? Paris jewelry designer Hélène Courtaigne Delalande has the delightful answer: Golden Parachutes-18-carat gold cufflinks, with a graceful open parachute linked to a small gold ingot. Delalande, a successful graphic artist who switched to jewelry design in 1990, specializes in gold, both matte and brilliant, and likes to improvise with unusual gemstones including tsavorites and tanzanites. After redesigning the look of Guerlain’s beauty care products in 2007, last year she launched a second, less-expensive jewelry line called HCD2, for which she has just designed a romantic bracelet fastened by a delicate hammered gold heart pierced with an arrow. Cufflinks €800, bracelet €120. website