ver enthralled by the vitality of nature, Van Cleef & Arpels is enriching its garden with two new collections: Flowerlace and Fleurs d’Hawaï. The Maison is revealing unprecedented jewelry and watch creations that express all the grace of flowers. These vibrant compositions highlight Van Cleef & Arpels’ stone expertise and savoir-faire. This source of inspiration, which has nourished the Maison’s creativity since its founding, has been expressed over the decades by a rich variety of esthetics that showcase its High Jewelry expertise.
With a light touch, the Flowerlace collection sketches the outline of an openwork corolla. It combines the radiance of yellow gold with the sparkle of diamonds to express the vibrancy of nature beloved by the Maison.
The petals shine intensely, as if bathed in sunlight. The lines that form an elegantly rounded flower evoke the fluidity of a ribbon, illustrating another iconic Van Cleef & Arpels theme: couture.
Five creations bloom within this new collection: a ring, a Between the Finger ring, a pair of earrings, a pendant, and a clip pendant that can be worn in two different ways, demonstrating the Maison’s taste for transformable pieces. To bring these creations to life, the Maison’s craftsmen united their savoir-faire. Using the ancestral technique of lost-wax casting, the elements that make up the motif are first sculpted in wax. When fired, the precious metal in fusion takes on the shape of the imprint left by the melted wax. The gold elements are then worked by hand by the jeweler, before being set with gems and polished.
The petals are gently curved to add volume to the composition, while the pistil features golden beads and different sized diamonds to create a subtly asymmetrical composition that expresses the idea of nature in motion. The structure of each piece and the relief of the curves make the polishing stage, carried out by hand, particularly delicate. Precision and patience are required to reveal yellow gold’s full radiance, which interacts with the sparkle of the diamonds to create intense reflections on the skin. The diamonds, selected according to the strictest of criteria—D to F for color, and IF to VVS for purity—are carefully inserted by the gemsetter using a variety of Flowerlace Between the Finger ring, small model, yellow gold, diamonds
Final polishing of the Between the Finger ring techniques. On each piece, the prong setting is worked using a beading tool to obtain a ball-like finish that enhances the curved lines of the composition. The Between the Finger ring brings a flower and a diamond together in a radiant tête-à-tête, punctuating its precious stem. The diamond is held in place by closed and grain settings, demonstrating Van Cleef & Arpels’ attention to detail.
These creations follow two esthetics that are emblematic of Van Cleef & Arpels. On the one hand, the new pieces are inspired by the Silhouette clips created by the Maison in the late 1930s. These compositions, which present a formal style characteristic of the later years of the Art Deco movement, broke away from traditional floral representations. In a harmonious balance of full and empty spaces, the flower is outlined in fine gold thread and illuminated with precious stones. A major motif in the Maison’s heritage, this ribbon underlines a revival of the links that existed between the fashion and jewelry arts at the time.
On the other hand, the new Flowerlace pieces echo the eponymous High Jewelry collection, which also combines nature with couture. Created in 2007, it presents a dialogue between white gold and diamonds on pieces imbued with ethereal elegance.
The Fleurs d’Hawaï collection is inspired by the hues of a vibrant garden and features a color palette bursting with vitality. Like freshly blooming flowers, the jewelry and watch creations combine petals in fine stones, diamond pistils, and gold foliage to form sparkling compositions. Evoking lush, sun-drenched nature, each of the pieces reveals a generously proportioned corolla.
With this new collection, Van Cleef & Arpels reasserts its taste of colored gemstones that were historically exalted on its High Jewelry creations. The Maison has selected five varieties of fine stones to adorn the earrings, rings, pendants, and watches in the Fleurs d’Hawaï collection. Citrine brings its joyous orangey-yellow light to the pieces, amethyst captivates with its purple tones, while the deep pink of rhodolite contrasts elegantly with diamonds. Lastly, aquamarine is characterized by its crystalline luminosity, while the spring-like green of peridot sparkles with vibrancy. Each stone interacts with the radiance of rose, yellow or white gold, elevating its color.
The gems are selected by the Stone Department according to the Maison’s criteria of excellence and taste. The expert gemmologists strive for intensity and uniformity of color, as well as purity of material. They also pay careful attention to the quality of the cut, which determines the luminosity and elegance of their shape. They thus favor generous, well-balanced pear-cut gems. Great care is also taken to match the stones adorning the petals to ensure the flower is perfectly homogenous in hue.
Pear-cut stones are combined to form a precious corolla. As if lifted by the breeze, each petal is raised up, imbuing the piece with lightness and vitality. The gold mount has also been carefully worked by the Maison’s jewelers. Obtained using the lost-wax casting technique, the openwork structure allows light to travel through the stones and enhance their colors. The subtly elevated pistil further contributes to the movement of the piece. Seven diamonds sparkle in unison, surrounded by golden beads whose roundness echoes that of the prong settings, which have been hand-worked by the jeweler to give them a ball-like finish. A polished and discreetly curved golden leaf adds volume to the composition and gives it an asymmetrical quality.
Three Fleurs d’Hawaï secret watches offer a dazzling setting for marking the passage of time. A corolla of twelve perfectly matched pear-cut fine stones blooms around a white mother-of-pearl dial edged with round diamonds. It is illuminated by a pear-cut diamond at 12 o’clock and is concealed behind a sparkling pivoting motif that cultivates the Maison’s taste of mystery. The flower can be detached as desired and worn as a bracelet, clip, or pendant. This jewel that tells time enlivens the wrist with its precious interplay of colors—citrine and yellow gold, rhodolite and rose gold, aquamarine and white gold— which continues on the satin strap that accompanies each piece.
These charming bouquets follow in the footsteps of an emblematic Van Cleef & Arpels creation: the Passe-Partout. Patented in 1938, this jewelry prowess is most often composed of generous and colorful floral motifs assembled on a gold Tubogas chain. Behind these corollas is a hidden clip that enables the jewel to be set in different positions, allowing the piece to be worn as a short or long necklace, a bracelet, belt, or clip, in the tradition of the Maison’s transformable jewelry.
At this time, other creations combining flowers and colored stones emerged, such as the Hawaii pieces. Rubies, sapphires, and diamond florets adorned rings, clips, and even earrings.
Since its origins, the Maison has transposed the grace of flowers into jewelry and watchmaking creations, cultivating a style that is truly distinctive. Its archives mention, for example, a Daisy brooch dating from 1907. It has never ceased to draw on this source of inspiration, expressing it through a myriad of esthetics that reflect its taste through the ages. With little flowers or bouquets, stylized or figurative interpretations, from historical creations to contemporary collections created in a wide-ranging palette of stones and savoir-faire, the Maison’s dreamlike garden is vibrant with life.
As if to capture the beauty of flowers in their natural environment, Van Cleef & Arpels designs figurative creations that are full of movement. From the 1930s onwards, these were adorned with Mystery Set, as illustrated by the Peony clip from 1937, with its velvety petals. This naturalistic esthetic has been perpetuated through the ages: from the peony to the daisy, and the buttercup to the cosmos, more than 20 varieties have been represented multiple times. Subtly asymmetrical or slightly curved petals offer a fresh interpretation of flora, as if caressed by the breeze. Initiated in 1970 and still being enriched today, the Rose de Noël collection features generous flowers in ornamental stones around a pistil of gold and diamonds.
The Maison immortalizes the grace of the ephemeral in compositions that celebrate the charm of wild flowers. The Folie des Prés High Jewelry collection showcases them through asymmetrical motifs and fantasy- cut precious stones.
The Maison’s watch creations also reflect this love of nature. In the Poetic Complications collection, the Lady Arpels Heures Florales and Lady Arpels Brise d’Été watches feature enchanting tableaux. On the former, twelve corollas open and close throughout the day to display the time, while on the latter, the flowers sway lightly on demand. The dreamlike spectacle of nature is also showcased on larger creations, such as the Éveil du Cyclamen automaton. It showcases a bouquet of flowers in lacquered rose gold that opens to reveal a butterfly on this unique piece that perpetuates the Maison’s tradition of precious objects.
Finally, Van Cleef & Arpels captures the very essence of flowers with a stylized, almost abstract interpretation as seen in the Fleurette jewelry creations. Their corollas are formed by seven round diamonds that sparkle in unison thanks to the rigorous selection and matching work carried out by the Stone Department. This dimension of refined purity is also found in the Frivole collection. Here, ethereal and graphic pieces are composed of mirror-polished corollas and heart-shaped petals that express the Maison’s positive vision of life.
