The high jewellery dreamed up by Van Cleef & Arpels can be fanciful, riding waves of imagination as far away as novels and fairytales, to the arts and cultures of ancient civilisations. These are the highly collectible thematic collections that espouse the furthest reaches of the maison’s creativity. But the Parisian house, founded in 1906, also offers a collection of classic high jewellery designs—a little simpler, no less beautiful—that express its exquisite craftsmanship and aesthetic sense.
Palmyre, introduced in 1978, is one such collection. In it, Van Cleef & Arpels draws inspiration from the oasis city of Palmyra in Syria to craft supple open-worked jewels that trace the movement of water with droplet cascades of diamonds and sapphires. The Palmyre line takes reference from the Greco-Roman colonnaded streets of ancient Palmyra, with delicate filigreed mesh structures in gold that are so light and nearly sheer that light passes easily through it.
When it was first introduced, the Palmyre collection was an all-diamond affair. In 2015, the maison enhanced it with the introduction of blue and pink sapphires that wear like painterly droplets on the skin. These modern designs were matched and set on either white or rose gold, to match the gemstones’ cool and warm tones.
This year, Van Cleef & Arpels quickens the current of the Palmyre’s cascades, enhancing the collection with four new styles of jewellery in both its blue and pink sapphire colourways. New one- and four-row earrings, and a three-row necklace and bracelet join the collection. The coloured gemstones adopt the same design philosophy as before: matched graduations of dark to light sapphires, accented with diamonds carefully and exactingly selected from D to F colour, and IF to VVS clarity.
What’s changed is the scale of the Palmyre’s lattice design. The new pieces span one to four rows of Palmyre strands, a refreshing set of proportions that fit a modern woman who desires to wear high jewellery in a more versatile and everyday manner. Van Cleef & Arpels’ new one-row earrings are a standout for their elegant simplicity: a line of gem droplets that starts with a diamond, then descends into a dégradé of blue or pink sapphires that deepens and ends at its tips like blackberries and raspberries.
Beyond Palmyre, Van Cleef & Arpels’ other high jewellery lines are centred on the maison’s recurring aesthetic themes like nature and couture, with its redoubtable savoir-faire at the forefront. The Snowflake collection, for instance, keeps an archival 1940s fleurette motif alive with seven diamonds forming wintry halos.
The À Cheval collection, meanwhile, is built on virtuoso rows of layered and ever-so-slightly overlapping gemstones with a subtle and heightened depth. The craftsmanship, in all cases, is meticulous; and follows the maison’s philosophy of placing the beauty of gemstones first and allowing precious metals to follow discreetly.
