A Celestial Cuff Modeled After One Made for Marlene Dietrich

A Celestial Cuff Modeled After One Made for Marlene Dietrich

Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a diamond cutter, married Estelle Arpels, the daughter of a precious stones dealer and, about a decade later, in 1906, the house of Van Cleef & Arpels opened its doors on Paris’s Place Vendôme. By the 1920s, the maison was experimenting with exotic Art Deco creations and, in the early ’30s, it pioneered a groundbreaking new technique called the Mystery Set, by which gemstones could be arranged in a mosaiclike pattern without any visible supports. Its sautoirs, minaudières and brooches quickly became favorites among royals and Hollywood stars including Marlene Dietrich, for whom Van Cleef created one of its most iconic designs, the Jarretière bracelet, in 1937. The story goes that Dietrich gave a handful of her gemstone-studded pieces to Louis Arpels, the brother of Estelle and one of the company’s founders, and asked him to create something special. And so the Jarretière was born: The modernist platinum cuff featured an exaggerated, asymmetrical loop covered in cushion-cut rubies set atop twin bucklelike bands of baguette-and-pavé-set white diamonds. (The piece’s name translates to “garter,” and indeed the design resembles the band worn around the top of a woman’s stocking.) Dietrich famously wore it in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 noir thriller, “Stage Fright” (she also insisted on head-to-toe Dior for the role), and to the Academy Awards a year later.

Today, a new Van Cleef creation, the Arche Solaire bracelet, has been designed with Dietrich’s beloved Jarretière in mind. With 41 oval-cut pink sapphires from Madagascar — totaling 57.98 carats — swaths of coral, square-cut diamonds and round mauve sapphires, the cuff forms a figure eight, its rosy pink and magenta gems mimicking the sky at dawn and dusk. “The designs echo each other with their circular aesthetics,” says the house’s C.E.O. and president, Nicolas Bos. “The Jarretière draws on the hand-stitched world of couture with its large loops of precious stones, while the Arche Solaire evokes the infinity symbol or analemma, the shape traced in the sky by the sun if it were observed every day for a year from the same location at the same time.” Timeless indeed.

Luxury brands release Chinese Valentine’s Day collections to boost sales

Photo: VCG

Global luxury brands including Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels have launched a series of special-edition collections for the upcoming Chinese Valentine’s Day (or Qixi which falls on August 14 or Saturday), in a bid to boost sales on the holiday.Twelve well-known jewelry brands including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget have released more than 200 models on e-commerce platform Tmall, such as Graff (which just opened a store on Tmall at the end of May), which launched a limited-edition butterfly phantom diamond necklace. Cartier also released an exclusive Trinity series bracelet and Swiss watch and jewelry brand Chopard launched limited edition products as well, according to a release Tmall sent to the Global Times on Friday.Luxury watch brands including Longines, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC have released 500 special new collections for Qixi on Tmall.In addition to limited-edition collections, such brands are also wooing customers with the help of high-tech such as AR fitting, 3D interaction and video customer services, such as Gucci, which introduces its jewelry on Tmall using AR so that customers can virtually try them on, meaning consumers can easily try on classic double G bracelets online.The epidemic has accelerated the luxury industry’s embrace of online channels. The Bain Consulting report predicted that the global luxury market would shrink by 23 percent in 2020, but China’s domestic luxury goods consumption would rise by 48 percent against this trend.Since 2020, there have been a wave of luxury brands to open stores on Tmall, and more than 200 luxury brands including Cartier, Prada and Armani have officially set up stores too, up from only around 80 firms in 2017.In April this year, Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com reached a cooperation agreement with Louis Vuitton, meaning Chinese consumers would be able to search for Louis Vuitton products on the JD app, gaining access to a customized page dedicated to the brand under the new deal.WeChat said in a report last year that in the past five years, the average annual growth rate of advertising in the luxury industry on WeChat has exceeded 90 percent. Meanwhile, self-operated mini programs have become a standard feature of brand social marketing.In July, LVMH Group, the largest company by market capitalization in Europe, released its financial report for H1 2021, showing that the group’s net profits were 5.29 billion euros ($6.21 billion), an increase of 62 percent compared to the same period in 2019. Of which, the Asia-Pacific market where China is located (excluding Japan) is one of the biggest drivers, as the market accounted for 38 percent of the group’s overall revenue.Global Times

See the new additions to Van Cleef & Arpels' Perlée collection

Van Cleef & Arpels‘ new line of feminine and versatile pieces are inspired by a centuries-old jewellery craft.

Flaunting signature tiny hand-polished gold beads that were introduced in 2008, the Perlée collection draws its aesthetic design and savoir faire from Van Cleef & Arpels’ rich history. Granulation, a jewellery method featuring beads fashioned out of precious metals, is said to have originated in Mesopotamia (now known as Iraq) and dates as far back as 2500BC. However, it was only in the ’20s, during the Egyptian Revival art period that followed the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, that the maison revived the ancient craft.

Showcasing minute, visually striking gold spheres that frame gemstones and motifs, these designs gained popularity from the Couscous line in 1948, as the beads were produced in various dimensions and incorporated in more styles ranging from necklaces to watches.

The shiny round nuggets took on an exuberant quality and made their way into the Twist collection in 1963, an era defined by supple, fluid shapes. Arranged in straight rows, braids or twisted compositions, they were paired with other precious materials such as pearls, coral and ornamental stones. Then, in 1968, the gilded spheres were included into the Alhambra collection by enhancing the iconic good-luck clover motifs with a textured border.

Today, the new six-piece Perlée Sweet Clovers range enriches the emblematic collection’s five sub-lines: Perlée Signature, Perlée Diamonds, Perlée Clovers, Perlée Couleurs and Perlée Pearls of Gold. Three bracelets and three rings – in white, yellow or pink gold – offer a fresh, sweet and highly feminine iteration of the range’s distinctive design. In addition to the familiar Perlée aesthetic of a glistening gold-beaded border, the Perlée Sweet Clovers pieces are punctuated with recurring clover motifs – 10 on the bracelet and five on the ring. Drawing from the aesthetic of Perlée Clovers, each motif features a central golden bead surrounded by four round diamonds for a subtle play of light and volume. Worn on their own, in twos or threes, the bracelets pirouette around the wrist in a nimble dance, while rings dazzle as they catch the light.

The new Perlée Sweet Clovers jewels lend themselves to a myriad of combinations with the collection’s other creations for unique and personal expressions of style. Their gleeful gleam enhance the various gold hues of the Perlée Pearls of Gold rings and bracelets. For more variation, the new pieces complement the glittering ribbons of the Perlée Diamonds collection for daytime or evening finesse. Or wear them with the calligraphic etching of Perlée Signature jewels for an elegance and a free-spiritedness synonymous with the maison’s creations.

As with all Van Cleef & Arpels creations, the Perlée collection reflects the maison’s tradition of excellence. From setting to polishing, a variety of expertise come together in the creation of each jewel. Each golden bead is laboriously worked on individually by an artisan and then hand-polished in a sequence of steps until a perfectly smooth, gleaming surface is created. The savoir faire of the maison’s gemologists also do complete justice to the skill of its craftsmen. Diamonds are selected according to the strictest criteria: D to F for colour and IF to VVS for clarity. Meticulously set, they enhance Perlée Sweet Clovers pieces with the most intense shine.

To highlight the collection’s playful yet joyful universe further, Van Cleef & Arpels collaborated with artists and graphic designers who are specialists in 3D animation. Selected for their creativity, French visual artist Arthur Hoffner, German 3D illustrator and art director Friedrich Neumann, and Singaporean motion design specialist Clement Chia reinterpreted the delicately refined curves of the Perlée creations in a series of visuals and short videos evoking grace and lightness.

(All images: Van Cleef & Arpels)

This story first appeared on Prestige – Singapore