Animal Earrings From 6 Luxury Houses, From Celine’s Brass Elephant to Boucheron’s Diamond Cat, and Which Houses Reduce the Animal to a Line While Others Set It With Diamonds

These 6 animal earrings come from Celine, CHANEL, Hermès, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bvlgari and Boucheron. The creatures run from an elephant and a polar bear through a horse, a butterfly and a snake to a cat, and the making runs just as wide, from an outline cut in metal to gemstones set until the animal reads as real.

Which Animal, and What Each One Is Made Of

Listed by the materials each house states on its own product page:

Materials as stated by each house on its product page, checked 18 October 2026 · The Boucheron materials come from an authorised stockist, as the house’s own page lists none
Sources — Celine · CHANEL COCO NEIGE 2026 · Hermès Tonnerre · Van Cleef & Arpels Sweet Butterflies · Bvlgari Serpenti Viper · Boucheron Wladimir

Celine’s Elephant Is Sold Singly, Not as a Pair

Celine’s product page states this is a single earring rather than a pair. The elephant hangs as a charm from a hoop, worked in brass with a gold finish and engraved with the house signature, and Celine notes it is nickel free and hypoallergenic. This is the piece that positions itself as a charm rather than a full item of jewellery.

Reduced to an Outline, or Built Up Until It Looks Real: the 2 Camps Here

Read the 6 in a row and they split cleanly. On one side, the animal is cut back to a silhouette. The Hermès horse is a line of metal left open through the middle. The Van Cleef & Arpels butterfly gives each wing a single white mother-of-pearl stone and no wing markings at all.

On the other side, the animal is built up toward the real thing. CHANEL’s polar bear keeps its ears, eyes and nose. Boucheron’s cat carries diamonds across the coat, green tsavorite eyes and striping that follows the face. Bvlgari’s snake sits between the 2 camps: a plain band of a body, with diamonds set at a single point, the head.

The Hermès Horse Is Only a Line, Yet It Still Reads as a Horse

Hermès states that Tonnerre takes the profile of a horse’s head, and calls it a nod to the equestrian world the house came from. There are no eyes, no mane, no detail of any kind, only an outline cut open in the centre. It still reads instantly, which is harder design work than filling in every feature.

The Animals With Names, and the One the House Will Not Name

A second difference shows up in what each house calls its animal. Boucheron names the cat Wladimir, Bvlgari calls the snake Serpenti, Hermès calls the horse Tonnerre. CHANEL names nothing. The COCO NEIGE 2026 collection page lists the piece as stud earrings and then the materials and colours, with no bear in the title or the description. Anyone searching the site for a bear will not find it.

Wladimir Is Not Just a Name. He Is the House Cat at Boucheron

Boucheron writes that every maison has a mascot, and that Boucheron’s has a name: Wladimir the cat. He has appeared in the house’s work since the late 1800s and became a permanent fixture after a 1978 advertising campaign in which he wore a High Jewelry necklace, which is why every Wladimir piece carries a gemstone necklace as a standing detail. His eyes are built by layering several precious stones, and his coat is sculpted in gold.

Half of This Line-Up Is Not Precious Metal at All

Counted by the materials each house publishes, the 6 split exactly down the middle between solid gold and ordinary metal:

Grouped by the Luxe Addict team from the materials each house lists on its product page
Sources — Celine · CHANEL · Hermès · Van Cleef & Arpels · Bvlgari · Boucheron

Butterflies Have Been With Van Cleef & Arpels Since 1906, the Bvlgari Snake Since 1948

Van Cleef & Arpels writes that butterflies have nurtured the maison’s creative vision since 1906, with gemstone wings used to imitate their shimmering flight. Bvlgari states that Serpenti began in 1948 as a jewellery watch on a tubogas bracelet, and treats the serpent as a symbol of perpetual transformation, a phrase that reappears in the description of these very Serpenti Viper earrings.

Which Ones Wear Every Day, and Which Ones Are for an Occasion

The shapes answer this directly. The hoops and studs, Bvlgari’s snake, CHANEL’s bear, the Van Cleef & Arpels butterfly and Boucheron’s cat, sit against the ear and do not swing, so they hold up through a long day. Celine’s elephant hangs as a charm that moves as you walk, and the Hermès Tonnerre is a drop shape. Those 2 suit a day when the ears are meant to do something more than a working day asks.

Whichever Animal You Love, a House Has Already Made It

What this line-up shows is not which house draws an animal best, but how differently each one reads the same creature. One cuts until only a line is left; another sets stones until the fur shows. To go deeper on a single house, read the guide to CHANEL’s CC logo earrings. For more of Van Cleef & Arpels on nature and fauna, the Lucky Spring collection works the same territory.