By encountering an distinctive tough diamond of 910 carats, often called the Lesotho Legend, an thought was conceived by Van Cleef & Arpels to create 25 distinctive excessive jewelry items, all of them adorned with diamonds lower from the identical tough stone. The result’s the dazzling ‘Legend of Diamonds – 25 Thriller Set Jewels’ assortment.

All through the years, Van Cleef & Arpels has constantly paid tribute to the great thing about gem stones, celebrating their colors, their brilliance, and their elegant shapes. Consistent with this custom, because the early 2000s, the maison has devoted excessive jewelry collections to them, most notably Assortment of the Century (2002), Pierres de Caractère (2006), Pierres de Caractère – Variations (2013), Émeraude en Majesté (2016), and Treasure of Rubies (2019). This 12 months, it has unveiled a major set of items that includes distinctive white diamonds, the product of an exhilarating journey of ardour and experience. 

The story of the ‘Legend of Diamonds – 25 Thriller Set Jewels’ assortment started in 2018, when the maison encountered a tough diamond, the Lesotho Legend. Introduced to Van Cleef & Arpels by diamond seller Taché, a long-time associate, the stone was initially distinctive for its weight: 910 carats. It was the fifth largest tough diamond in each measurement and high quality ever mined. It mixed an ideal D color, lovely crystallisation, and a extremely sought-after Kind 2A chemical composition. 

“The maison seldom works with tough stones. We historically begin with lower and faceted stones which might be already appropriate to be used in jewelry,” explains Van Cleef & Arpels President and CEO Nicolas Bos. “That is the primary time in a long time that we now have been concerned in a mission from its start line – the extraction of the stone – to the creation of a excessive jewelry assortment. The looks of this extraordinary tough stone gave us this distinctive alternative to inform a narrative across the diamond.” 

Van Cleef & Arpels and Taché sought assist from Diamcad – a number one diamond cutter in Antwerp – to plan the slicing and faceting of every stone. These specialists in slicing distinctive tough stones analysed the Lesotho Legend, which proved appropriate for producing massive diamonds. Working their approach across the stone’s inclusions, the specialists used state-of-the-art expertise to check the place of every gem within the coronary heart of the tough stone. This was a singular alternative for the maison to decide on a mixture of lower stones that matched its needs, each in form and measurement. These included a 79.35-carat specimen and others weighing 51.14, 31.24, and 25.06 carats. Van Cleef & Arpels labored hand in hand with the assorted specialists concerned within the mission to decide on the cuts more than likely to awaken the designers’ creativity. Each form, whether or not oval, pear, emerald, or Asscher, echoed the maison’s historical past and style for “fancy” cuts. The gems had been then given the perfect proportions, meticulously studied to finest improve their brilliance and wonder whereas assembly the aesthetic standards of the maison. Van Cleef & Arpels additionally had the uncommon alternative to create excellent matches, combining stones of equivalent measurement and weight. 

The mix of gems was determined with the assistance of 3D software program that allowed every lower diamond to be seen contained in the tough stone. For nearly a 12 months, gemologists’ eyes had been mixed with cutting-edge expertise to excellent these mixtures, keep away from inclusions, and restrict the lack of materials. 

“Creating Legend of Diamonds took about 4 years from the time we first noticed the tough stone to the discharge of the completed items. I’m very pleased with the gathering. Because of the work of all of the groups at Van Cleef & Arpels, I believe we now have efficiently proven that an distinctive diamond might be the place to begin for a unprecedented assortment that might be a milestone within the historical past of the maison,” Nicolas Bos says. 

On the coronary heart of Van Cleef & Arpels, the Design Studio was dedicated to upholding its extremely recognisable model by means of the 25 items of the gathering. The designers labored hand in hand with knowledgeable gemologists and the excessive jewelry workshops to design valuable settings impressed by the historical past of the maison for the diamonds from the tough stone. Van Cleef & Arpels opted to mix every of the gems with the Thriller Set: one of the advanced signature strategies mastered by the Place Vendôme Workshops. Bringing collectively curved strains and the extreme interaction of colors in rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, the Design Studio labored to infuse lightness and motion into probably the most valuable supplies. Inside the assortment, bows are three-dimensional, ribbons softly come undone, and asymmetry offers sure items a refined vitality. 

The whole assortment, the results of greater than 30,000 hours of labor, involves life due to the Mains d’Or (actually “fingers of gold”), the artisans of the Van Cleef & Arpels workshops on the Place Vendôme who stick with it the custom of experience that’s consistently being perfected. To satisfy every new problem, the jewellers, setters, lapidaries, and polishers communicated and shared their expertise to supply a collective work. Hyperlinks, invisible fasteners, and discreet articulations specific the maison’s distinctive excessive requirements, and the artisans’ meticulous consideration is obvious on each the entrance and the again of the items.

One other hallmark of Van Cleef & Arpels is its technical ingenuity. That is mirrored within the many transformable items that mark its historical past, such because the Passe-Partout mannequin created in 1938 and the Zip necklace from 1950. The creations of the ‘Legend of Diamonds – 25 Thriller Set Jewels’ assortment additionally endure astonishing metamorphoses, permitting as much as six alternative ways to put on a few of them. 

Proudly owning certainly one of these creations is akin to being a part of excessive jewelry historical past at Van Cleef & Arpels, however it is usually actually exceptional to personal a bit of a really extraordinary gemstone.