jewel of india; Marie-Helene de Taillac celebrates a decade of design with a fantastical New Year's Eve ball in a historic fortress above Jaipur, the city she calls home.

Byline: Hamish Bowles

Jeweler Marie-Helene de Taillac first came to Jaipur, the fabled pink city in the heart of Rajasthan, a decade ago. The worldly de Taillac-born in Paris, raised in Beirut, lived in London-had exhibited a taste for luxury working in various capacities for fine jeweler Dinny Hall, costume jeweler Butler & Wilson, the couturier Victor Edelstein, cashmere king Lucien Pellat-Finet, and milliner Philip Treacy. But on that 1996 trip to India, de Taillac became determined to create a collection of her own. Since then, the dainty, subtle jewels, made with the skilled craftsmen of Jaipur's famed Gem Palace, have developed a cult following among the clientele of Barneys New York and Colette, as well as her own stylish emporia in Paris and Tokyo. To celebrate both her passion for jewelry design and a love affair with the city, de Taillac threw a party for 700 of her closest friends at Jaigarh Fort, the rambling eighteenth-century sandstone building that crowns a hill high above the Amber Fort. With barely a month to go, and the prospect of family and friends converging from as far afield as Japan, France, South Africa, and the States, de Taillac realized, to her horror, that her party planner was getting nowhere. So, with a can-do attitude and deep reserves of sangfroid, she took time from work to focus on the party, which had a silver theme, herself.

The lawns of the fort's beautiful Mughal gardens were paved with silvered wooden platforms. A witty replica of Jaipur's famous Wind Palace was built to house the Bollywood-kitsch photo studio of David Lefranc and Jonas Spinoy, while another courtyard studio was set up for Helene Renault to immortalize guests in the manner of turn-of-the-century maharaja portraits. In the garden's pavilion, a children's playroom was created, complete with Rajasthani puppet show. Custom silver-and-white cushions embroidered by de Taillac and her four assistants were piled atop the silver furniture. Their first efforts were perfectly finished, but de Taillac decided they should be ...