Once upon a time, Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucigne, one of the last great socialites of the 20th Century, defined the ball as ‘an amusement, of aristocratic nature, made up of scenes or appearances that are allegorical, mythological, satirical or burlesque, mingled with music, dance and poetry’. And that is exactly what Van Cleef & Arpels aimed to achieve with their new pieces.
Nicolas Bos, creative director of the French house, has chosen five famous Balls to inspire five sets of jewels. Each tells the story of an unforgettable evening, guided by a sparkling feminine dancer (since 1941 Ballerina clips have been part of the artistic heritage of Van Cleef) in the shape of brooches.
Included within the pieces are some fabulous rare gems, such as a 20 carat Colombian emerald or a 18 carat natural pearl, which have been painstakingly discovered by the Maison’s buyers from all over the world.From ‘The Winter Palace Ball’, given by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna in St Petersburgh in 1903, is a necklace made of lapis lazuli beads (like the blue roofs of the Orthodox churches) covered with diamonds snowflakes. The Zima necklace is a piece so covetable, that is has in fact already been sold as this was written.‘Le Bal du Siecle’, hosted by Charles de Bestegui in Venice in 1951, gave the inspiration for the ‘Bauta’ ring. The bauta is the classic Venetian mask and here it acts as an adornment to a 25 carat Sri Lankan sapphire.The art deco style of the New York Plaza Hotel, where Truman Capote’s ‘Black and White Ball’ happened in 1966, was the base for the ‘Heavenscraper’ set, made up of a bracelet, a long necklace and a pair of earrings, naturally in pearls, diamonds and onyx – black and white…
0 comments:
Post a Comment