Van Cleef goes on the Grand Tour

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A yearning for escape has taken over the high jewelry maisons. Boodles embarked on a European tour, naming his high jewelery suites after cities; The title of Harry Winston’s Majestic Escapes collection says it all; Louis Vuitton took us back billions of years to the beginning of evolution. Bulgari and Tiffany evoked a more unique sense of place with the beauty of the Mediterranean and the mysteries of the oceans.

and then there was Van Cleef and Arpels, who presented her own travel-themed collection in Rome on the day of the summer solstice. Le Grand Tour Raconté Par Van Cleef & Arpels revives the European journey that had its heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning in England with obligatory stops in Paris and Italy, often passing through Switzerland and Germany, before returning home. Lasting for several years, young aristocrats and the intelligentsia would undertake the Grand Tour as a form of education and cultural enrichment. It makes sense that Van Cleef & Arpels would approach the subject, considering his own desire to travel: check out his 1920s Egyptian-inspired jewelry, his 1960s pieces that looked to India and Persia, or even the collection with California issues more than a decade ago.

The transformability is a signature of the house, so the jewels will not remain in the safe.

“The Grand Tour is quite well known in the UK, but not so much in France and even Italy. But then you tell people that tourism comes from the Grand Tour, and you get their attention,” says Nicolas Bos, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, who has long been fascinated by tradition. That sense of discovery, or rediscovery, is apt for this collection: “It’s a tribute to the time when travel was knowledge.”

The 70-piece collection is themed eight suites representing key destinations, from London to Baden-Baden. The Villa Medici in Rome hosted the launch. There are waist-length sautoirs hung with giant medallions and tassels; huge brooches that the models threaded onto silk belts and wore jauntily at the hips; and twirling earrings that brush the shoulders that evoke the ambitions of the Renaissance jeweler’s. The Teatro ring is inspired by the majestic Teatro di Pompeo in Rome from the year 55 BC. C. and features a 3.93 ct Zambian emerald nestled in a circle of diamonds and a set of golden steps. Or grab the stunning Trésor Antique ruby ​​and diamond earring, which cascades down with three large pendants: the jewel nods directly to a pair of Castellani earrings from the 1860s, when the jeweler drew inspiration from archeology and art. Etruscan.

The jewel-tone waters of Venice make their way into the exquisite Chant Des Gondoliers necklace, set with 16 cabochons of vivid turquoise, complemented by diamond-paved arches reminiscent of the city’s low bridges. The maison pays further homage to the cities of Italy in a quartet of Escale bracelets set with gemstones representing Venice, Rome, Florence and Naples, the mix of brightly colored gemstones set in mosaic-like squares. Bos especially likes this set. “He takes a fairly wide bracelet like a rectangular canvas and uses it to represent a landscape,” he explains. “When used, it strikes a good balance between the figurative, which evokes different cities, but also the abstract.”

Despite the historical references, the designs are distinguished by their modernity, many are transformable for multi-use. The Alpine-inspired, tassel-style Fleuve De Glace pearl sautoir, for example, features detachable elements that allow the jewel to be worn in seven different ways, including two brooches, two bracelets, and a shorter necklace. Transformability is a house signature: Van Cleef & Arpels’ historic Passe-Partout caused a sensation in 1938 for its ability to be worn as a necklace, choker, bracelet, belt or brooch. Bos says such engineering helps ensure that what is essentially formal jewelry doesn’t linger in the safe for long. “They will be used, which is very good.”

All of this year’s high-jewelry launches, unveiled in early summer and typically staged in exclusive destinations, have felt utterly escapist. That’s because travel and luxury “both provide the same thing,” says Erwan Rambourg, HSBC’s global head of retail and consumer research, “to escape the everyday. The idea [today] it is thinking about things that are more positive, more ambitious, more satisfying.” Global demand for private jets has risen more than 14 percent since before 2020.

At the Van Cleef & Arpels launch, guests wandered through the sumptuous gardens, admiring the jewelery worn by the artists in what was a remarkably private event. “We’re not looking for maximum impact and visibility,” says Bos. “I don’t care much about getting hundreds of thousands of likes on an Instagram photo; I’d rather have 20 people attending a class at L’École [Van Cleef & Arpels’ own jewellery school] for the first time and really discovering our world.”

Model, Paula Soares in Select. Casting, Cococasting. Hair and makeup, Martina Lattanzi using Byredo and Kristin Ess. Photography assistants, Edoardo Confort and Cristian Spaziani. Digital operator, Antonino Donato. Shot in Villa Medici, Rome