Ever since it was founded in 1906, Van Cleef & Arpels has been amazed by nature and has taken inspiration from the cycle of the seasons to design jewellery collections imbued with vitality. With this year’s Lucky Summer collection, the Maison is exploring a sunny assortment of motifs and colours. Six new creations unveil combinations of glittering gemstones that evoke this season’s spirit of easy living
The sensations of summer pervade Van Cleef & Arpels’ new Lucky Summer collection. With their promise of escape, sunny days have inspired the Maison to imagine six creations, each featuring a motif instilled with happy memories. A necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings, and three clips set the scene for the joyful reverie that accompanies the summer months, filled with magical, sun-drenched seaside breaks set to the sound of the ocean.
Through the lens of summer, waves, a starfish, and a seashell are brought to life by the radiance of precious and ornamental stones carefully selected and crafted by Van Cleef & Arpels’ artisans. In a sparkling harmony, yellow gold meets the brilliance of diamonds and outlines the vibrant shades of lapis lazuli and white mother-of-pearl, forming elegant compositions in holiday-inspired hues.
Waves traced in undulating lines unfurl on a jewellery set consisting of a necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings. Echoing the ocean spray, a symphony of motifs alternates different sizes and plays with asymmetry to give the designs a sense of graceful movement that produces a radiant effect when worn. Around the neck and the wrist, the waves form a glittering set interspersed by the gleam of creased yellow gold. The stones, accentuated by a beaded contour, poetically depict the gradient hues of the surf. The deep blue of lapis lazuli evokes the mysterious ocean depths, while chalcedony and turquoise summon up peaceful shores. Lastly, the iridescence of mother-of-pearl and the fire of diamonds conjure up the sight of sunlight skimming across the sea.
On the clips, boat, seashell, and starfish motifs form a seascape imbued with vitality, like a postcard from a dreamlike summer. Rose gold softly highlights the radiance of the Starfish clip while yellow gold showcases its most beautiful finery: textured on the Seashell clip and mirror-polished on the Boat clip. The precious metal adorns all the pieces with a beaded contour, like a halo of sunlight. An iconic signature of the Maison, the gold beads are soft and shimmering to enhance the radiance of each design.
Demonstrating Van Cleef & Arpels’ taste for precious and ornamental stones, the Lucky Summer collection showcases the resplendent palette of a bejewelled summer. The Maison draws on over a century of expertise, meticulously choosing stones with the most consistent and radiant colours to give each creation a particular intensity. On the Lucky Summer set, which showcases six different materials, a rigorous pre-selection process guarantees the motifs are optimally matched. They present the same decor on both sides to ensure that they are always shown to their best advantage. The slightly translucent chalcedony reveals a delicate shade of blue that complements the vibrant nuances of turquoise and lapis lazuli.
The diamonds, used to highlight the radiance of this summer scene, are also subject to a strict screening process by the Van Cleef & Arpels Stone department. In accordance with the Maison’s tradition of excellence, the gems are selected one by one, with only the best-quality specimens being chosen: D to F in colour, and IF to VVS in clarity.
The Starfish clip, meanwhile, showcases a variety of red jasper that has hitherto never been used on a Van Cleef & Arpels creation. This ornamental stone, with its beautiful terracotta shade occasionally shot through with subtle veins, was chosen for its opacity and vitality. The Maison’s beloved mother-of-pearl is selected by expert gemmologists, who ensure it is of the highest quality: an even sheen with no overtones for white mother-of-pearl, or with slight overtones for gray mother-of-pearl. This gives the marquetry work on the Seashell clip an elegant, iridescent harmony.
Given the small size of the elements, great care was used to cut out and assemble the stone and mother-of-pearl motifs. The marquetry on the Seashell clip proved a particularly delicate exercise due to the curved shape and thinness of the white and gray mother-of-pearl fragments. On the Starfish motif, a discreet nail setting holds the stone in place and blends in with the beaded contour – now an iconic Van Cleef & Arpels silhouette. After being formed using the traditional technique of lost-wax casting, the golden beads are reworked by hand before a final polish enhances the piece’s radiance.
The Maison designed the Lucky Summer Wave necklace to gently hug the skin by using joints to connect the motifs to one another. This extremely supple piece is finished with a box clasp, which is traditionally used in High Jewellery creations to ensure the continuity of motifs while securing the piece when worn.
The Maison’s penchant for seaside landscapes dates back to its beginnings. Shortly after it was founded, seaside resorts exploded in popularity, and many vacation spots emerged thanks to the expansion of the railways. In response to this new way of life, Van Cleef & Arpels opened boutiques in Dinard and Deauville, followed by locations on the French Riviera in Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo – destinations popular with the elite, who wanted to escape the city and enjoy some fresh air. The Maison most likely drew inspiration from this scenery to design creations presenting snapshots of the coast. A seagull in mid-flight comes to life on a brooch from 1926, revealing a silhouette paved with diamonds. Medals from the 1950s and the 1960s also feature carefree scenes such as sailboats out at sea or cocktails under a parasol, like memories meant to be worn close to the heart.
