Legend of Diamonds: President And CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels’ On The Latest Collection
As its latest High Jewellery collection is unveiled, Bazaar speaks to Van Cleef & Arpels’ Nicolas Bos
At Van Cleef & Arpels, diamonds occupy a unique place in the Maison’s history. For its latest High Jewellery collection, Legend of Diamonds, this love affair is memorialized in a two-chapter offering that highlights the masterful creativity and exceptional craftsmanship that have come to characterise the Maison.
Legend of Diamonds – 25 Mystery Set Jewels, the first chapter in the collection, was borne out of encountering an exceptional rough diamond, the Lesotho Legend, in 2018. Using this as a starting point, the Maison had the idea to create 25 unique pieces, all of them adorned with diamonds cut from the same rough stone. Presented to Van Cleef & Arpels by diamond dealer Taché, a long-time partner, the stone was initially exceptional for its weight: 910 carats. It was the fifth largest rough diamond in both size and quality ever mined.
“The Maison seldom works with rough stones,” Nicolas Bos, President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels tells Bazaar. “We traditionally start with cut and faceted stones that are already suitable for use in jewellery. This is the first time in decades that we have been involved in a project from its starting point—the extraction of the stone—to the creation of a High Jewellery collection. The appearance of this extraordinary rough stone gave us this unique opportunity to tell a story around the diamond.”
This prospect offered the Maison a broader narrative and a novel way to approach a collection from a very different perspective. “The point for us was not to celebrate the biggest possible stone,” continues Nicolas. “It wasn’t about the weight of the karat. We are jewellers, after all, and not stone dealers. What’s great about an exceptional rough diamond such as this is that you can carve from it a real collection of stones. This was the first time that we were associated with this process at that scale. It was very exciting and it is something that saw us work hand in hand with our collaborators. You need to have significant exchange with diamond dealers and cutters to explore what is feasible and what is not. You only have one chance – once it is cut, it is cut.”
The Van Cleef & Arpels Design Studio worked closely with expert gemologists and the High Jewellery Workshops to make this dream a reality; designing precious settings inspired by the history of the Maison for the diamonds from the rough stone. A significant factor was to create a setting that best revealed the intense brilliance of the stones and magnified their cut, whilst emphasizing the Maison’s style and expertise. Van Cleef & Arpels opted to combine each of the gems with the mystery set – a technique, patented in 1933, that makes it possible to set precious stones including rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds, with no prong or other metal component visible, and one that remains one of the most complex signature techniques mastered by the Place Vendôme Workshops. Exploring the interplay of colours in the precious stones, the Design Studio worked to infuse pieces with lightness and movement, playing out in a series of couture-inspired details, including three-dimensional bows and unfurling ribbons that imbue the creations with subtle energy.
The Lesotho Legend resulted in 67 stones in total, ranging from one to nearly 80 karats. The heaviest stone in the collection, a spectacular 79.35-carat diamond, comes to life in the dazzling Atours Mystérieux necklace. Testament to the enduring legacy of the Maison’s heritage, the diamond and ruby swirls echo two iconic pieces in the history of Van Cleef & Arpels – the Collerette necklace, designed in 1938; and the majestic diamond necklace created for Queen Nazli of Egypt in 1939. To emphasize the brilliance of its material for the Atours Mystérieux, the Maison selected an oval cut with harmonious proportions that are at once slender and full. In a feat of technical ingenuity, the necklace – like several of its High Jewellery counterparts – is transformable so that the central diamond can be detached, replaced by an individual mystery set motif, and slipped onto a chain.
That quality of metamorphoses reaches dizzy new heights in the Collerette Mystérieuse transformable necklace and ring, in which the largest diamond can be detached to adorn a ring with architectural lines, while an individual mystery set ruby design can be placed on the pendant. The reinterpretation of couture in an art deco style is once again evident in this piece, with its couture-inspired collar and a diamond-set dimensional bow used to hide the clasp on the back of the piece. “We have a strong tradition of couture-inspired pieces associated with the mystery setting,” says Bos. “It contributes to the sense that is not just a project in itself but rather a chapter in our long and storied history.”
The use of alternating rows of diamonds and traditional mystery set rubies in the necklace, edged with a line of pink sapphires and square-cut diamonds evoking delicate lace, is also testament to the aesthetic impetus to best reveal the intense brilliance of the stones. “The contrast with coloured stones is very interesting,” says Nicolas. “Here, we tried to mitigate the strengths of the white diamonds and the rubies by integrating pink sapphires because we wanted the piece to remain very delicate, soft and romantic. The introduction of the pink sapphire is a transition between the white diamond and the mystery setting. You can really read the stones because they are sitting on this background.”
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia Qatar Special, Winter 2022 Issue