How does a jewelry home replace an iconic assortment that’s basic to its backside line? In the case of Van Cleef & Arpels and the juggernaut Alhambra effective jewelry line, you lean into refined transformations. This month, the French jeweler is including new convertible items that may be worn a number of methods.
The first is a lengthy Magic Alhambra necklace with an attachment that may both be one other layer of the necklace, or its personal bracelet. The second is a ring within the Vintage Alhambra fashion, with a reversible head that may include both rose gold and grey mom of pearl or white gold and chalcedony with diamond. The wearer can flip the top over and showcase one aspect or the opposite relying on the temper.
This shape-shifting nature of those items additionally occurs to be a tenet of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry design going again to the mid-Twentieth century, and is exemplified by the model’s Zip necklace, which could be opened and shut across the neck just like the zipper of a jacket. Originally commissioned by Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, in 1938, it was not produced till 1951, nevertheless it continues to be a hallmark of the model’s excessive jewelry.
The Alhambra assortment of rings, bracelets, watches and necklaces options four-leaf clover motifs outlined with tiny beads of gold. The clover shapes themselves could be semi-precious stones, like malachite and carnelian, or carved gold or mom of pearl. Since this massively widespread line is so key to the Parisian jewelry home, I needed to chat with CEO Catherine Rénier about what goes into making modifications and additions. Here’s our dialog, edited for size and readability.
How do you retain a recognisable line like Alhambra recent?
Alhambra was born in 1968 and since then has at all times been a part of the maison’s expression. And the symbolism behind Alhambra, luck and the optimistic imaginative and prescient of life, has been core to the maison since earlier than even that. The new assortment is a play with alternating motif sizes that we started with Magic Alhambra in 2006, however this time including the transformability that’s pricey to the maison—the place a lengthy necklace turns into a brief necklace and a bracelet. That’s the primary that we’ve introduced this side of our inspiration into Alhambra.
Even after a few years with the maison and loving this assortment, once I see a new color or stone in Alhambra, I at all times really feel that it’s a new assortment. It does carry a new identification each time.
Well, the “high council” are our stone consultants. Because the massive query is whether or not the standard of the stone we wish to use is inside our requirements and whether or not there may be sufficient availability. Sometimes there are stones and colors that we like a lot that we determine to launch them regardless of small portions. And these are what we name our “rare materials,” which we all know won’t ever have sufficient of for the market, however nonetheless they’re including to the identification and the story of Alhambra. For occasion, turquoise or lapis lazuli have been there for a very long time, however at all times in very small portions as a result of the availability is extraordinarily restricted.
How a lot of a proportion of your effective jewellery enterprise does Alhambra symbolize?
I can not share numbers. Of course it’s an iconic assortment for the maison. But past the numbers, it’s actually the identification—and has constructed the notice—for Van Cleef & Arpels with a clientele at giant. Since it was created, Alhambra has been a regular signature due to its fashion, its play with colors, and the truth that it’s completely renewing itself.
Would you ever do leather-based items with Alhambra motifs? Or go into different classes, the way in which Bulgari has baggage with snake-shaped clasps?
We’ve carried out such tasks up to now, and in the long run we like to keep the place we all know greatest. Meaning that we’re really jewellers. We have been for a hundred years, and we now have discovered that one of the best expression is throughout the space we’ve mastered: jewelry, and naturally watches. There is not any level for us to go and take it a lot additional in areas the place we might not add worth on the craftsmanship.
How necessary is it for you to develop the effective jewelry enterprise past Alhambra?
It’s no more necessary right now than it was yesterday. We’ve at all times been extraordinarily inventive in our expression. For us to carry new symbols, new methods to reinterpret our patrimony, that brings our artisans inspiration and motivation. This 12 months we launched a new assortment simply this month with Flowerlace, with new formed flowers in gold. We strive to have a everlasting, ongoing inspiration, not solely in excessive jewelry, however in effective jewelry as effectively. This is what provides us this gas of creativity.
By Chris Rovzar