WORDS: OLIVIA MORRIS
Fine Heritage
With over 126 years of history, French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels knows everything there is about impeccable craftsmanship and the finer details. Here, CEO Nicolas Bos discusses the rich heritage of Van Cleef & Arpels and exactly how the Maison fine-tunes details when it comes to its iconic pieces What does the Van Cleef & Arpels brand represent? To me, Van Cleef & Arpels represents enchantment in the field of High Jewellery and Watchmaking. Our sources of inspiration also helps us suffuse a sense of poetry into jewellery or even in the Extraordinary Objects we create. In the past and until today, nature, couture, dance, imaginary worlds and travels inspire us for our creations. Each collection is a new chapter in the Maison’s long story. To continue to nurture creativity, the Maison’s philosophy is to always keep the balance between the respect for our traditions and identity and the introduction of a contemporary approach. To do so, we strongly believe in making bridges with other artistic fields – such as dance, photography, but also design, drawings, publishing – through collaborations: for instance, we collaborated with AlexandreBenjamin Navet around our flower celebration. In the field of dance, our partnership with the L.A. Dance Project goes on and in 2020, we even launched an initiative around contemporary dance with the project Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels. All of these create a unique blend proper to Van Cleef & Arpels and allow us to deliver the Maison’s vision of a timeless universe filled with beauty and harmony – two words that probably represent the best of what we are aiming to express. Van Cleef & Arpels is all about the finer details when it comes to its pieces. Talk us through this process. Techniques and know-how are being
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transmitted every day in the Maison’s workshops and finding new ones or adapting the original ones in order to express our creativity. For instance, the Mystery Set was a technique developed and patented by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1933 in order to hide the setting and give pride of place to the stones. Today, two other techniques have been developed, each enabling new designs to be imagined. The Vitrail Mystery Set allows the setting to disappear on the back as well as on the front of the jewel, highlighting the translucent quality of the stones, while the Navette Mystery Set endows creations with a striking impression of relief thanks to marquise-cut stones. Another Van Cleef & Arpels tradition is the transformable pieces that offer multiple wearing possibilities. The workshops are constantly working on new intricate, secured and discreet mechanisms while ensuring the creations’ suppleness. Our signature motifs and techniques are really part of our creative
identity and are often very sought-after by High Jewellery collectors. Couture is also one of the Maison’s key sources of inspiration: fabric movements such as pleats, drapery or ribbons are reinterpreted through precious metal and gems in several creations. How do you ensure you continue the legacy of such a historic Maison? The Maison has been perpetuating its historical sources of inspiration such as nature, couture, imaginary worlds and dance, while nurturing it with a contemporary vision. Twenty years ago, Van Cleef & Arpels started to launch thematic High Jewellery collections and we carry on down the same path. It means pushing the technical boundaries further with innovations to enrich the creativity. For instance, the Mystery Set, which is a signature of the Maison, was patented in 1933, which we continue to develop. Today, we master the Vitrail and the Navette Mystery Set techniques. In watchmaking, it means constantly innovating to tell new stories that enchant and invite to dream. This is the exact goal of our Poetic Complications and Extraordinary Objects collections. They are an invitation to see time as a story-maker, thanks to expert craftsmanship and virtuoso mechanisms. How do you choose the gems for the high jewellery pieces you create? We always want to spark emotion, this is why coloured stones have been at the core of the Maison’s creative process. Selected according to the most demanding criteria when choosing raw minerals, we cannot but be humble and admire what nature can create. The stones’ journey from the depth of the Earth into the craftsmen’s hand reveals beauty, it is also with great pride that we can see what we are able to accomplish today with these treasures through our know-how. Not only does High Jewellery evoke exceptional gems, it also suggests renowned and expert craftsmanship perpetuated by our craftsmen that we call Mains d’Or (Golden Hands). These techniques are at the service of the Maison’s creativity and style which all contribute to give birth to timeless creations. Van Cleef & Arpels has its very own approach of High Jewellery: benevolence, poetry and vitality are the keywords leading our designs while movement, asymmetry, figurative or abstract representations characterise their aesthetics. The Extraordinary Objects or Heures Florales recently debuted at Watches & Wonders. Talk us through this release. The Lady Arpels Heures Florales and Lady Arpels Heures Florales Cerisier watches are inspired by the idea of a garden that would be able to tell the time. This very specific inspiration – l’horloge de Linné – was born from Carl von Linné’s works, a Swedish scientist and naturalist of the 18th century. He came up with the idea of a floral clock that would be a garden where
FAS H I O N
4/27/22 11:17 AM
