Industry |
|
---|---|
Founded | 1896 |
Founder | Alfred Van Cleef Salomon Arpels |
Headquarters | , France |
Number of locations | 155 (2022) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Julien Arpels Louis Arpels Claude Arpels |
Owner | Richemont |
Website | vancleefarpels |
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French luxury jewelry company. [1] It was founded in 1896 by the Dutch diamond-cutter Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law Salomon Arpels in Paris. [2] Their pieces often feature flowers, animals, and fairies, and have been worn by style icons and royalty such as Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Diana, Princess of Wales, Ava Gardner, [3] Farah Pahlavi, [4] Eva Perón, [5] Elizabeth Taylor, the Duchess of Windsor, Queen Nazli of Egypt, and Queen Camilla.
The Dutch diamond-cutter Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law, Salomon Arpels, founded the company in 1896. In 1906, following Arpels’s death, Alfred and two of his brothers-in-law, Charles and Julien, acquired space for Van Cleef & Arpels at 22 Place Vendôme, across from the Hôtel Ritz, where Van Cleef & Arpels opened its first boutique shop. [6] The third Arpels brother, Louis Arpels, joined the company in 1913. [7]
Van Cleef & Arpels opened boutiques in holiday resorts such as Deauville, Vichy, Le Touquet, Nice, and Monte-Carlo. In 1925, a Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet with red and white roses fashioned from rubies and diamonds won the grand prize at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts. [8]
Alfred and Esther’s daughter, Renée (born Rachel) Puissant, assumed the company’s artistic direction in 1926. Puissant worked closely with draftsman René Sim Lacaze for the next twenty years. [8] Van Cleef & Arpels were the first French jewelers to open boutiques in Japan and China.
Van Cleef & Arpels was charged with the task of making the crown of Queen Nazli of Egypt in the 1930s. [9]
In 1966, Van Cleef & Arpels was charged with the task of making the crown of Empress Farah Pahlavi for her upcoming coronation in 1967. A team was sent to Iran to choose the major gems to use for the crown. After 11 months of work, [10] the company presented the empress with a crown made of emerald velvet set with 36 emeralds, 36 rubies, 105 pearls and 1,469 diamonds. [11]
Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A. acquired the firm in 1999. [12]
Van Cleef & Arpels has 155 stores. Products are in standalone boutiques, boutiques within major department stores, and in independent stores. Standalone boutiques are present in Geneva, Zürich, Munich, London, Milan, Shanghai, and Paris, where the company has multiple locations, including its flagship store at Place Vendôme.
In the United States, the company operates standalone boutiques in Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Manhasset, Naples, Palm Beach, San Francisco, Bal Harbour, Chicago, Houston, McLean, King of Prussia, Short Hills, Aspen, Beverly Hills, Costa Mesa and Miami alongside their New York City flagship store, which was redesigned in 2013. [13] [14] The Chicago boutique opened in 2001 at 636 North Michigan Avenue and moved to a larger location within the Drake Hotel in November 2011. They also operate boutiques within selected Neiman Marcus stores.
The brand expanded to Australia in 2016, opening a boutique at Collins Street, Melbourne. [15] The following year, another boutique opened at Castlereagh Street, Sydney. [16] A second Melbourne boutique opened in 2018 in the Chadstone Shopping Centre. [17] They continued their expansion into Oceania in 2022, when a store opened in New Zealand on Auckland's Queen Street. [18]
They also operate independent boutiques in the Middle East, South America and Asia.
On 2 December 1933, Van Cleef and Arpels received French Patent No. 764,966 for a proprietary gem setting style it calls Serti Mysterieux, or "Mystery Setting", a technique employing a setting where the prongs are invisible. [19] Each stone is faceted onto gold rails less than two-tenths of a millimeter thick. The technique can require 300 hours of work per piece or more, and only a few are produced each year. [20]
Chaumet received an English patent for a similar technique in 1904 as did Cartier in 1933, however neither used the process as extensively. [20]
In 2010/2011, the company's estimated sales were €450 million in total sales and €45 million in watches. [21]
A 1936 Van Cleef & Arpels custom jewelry piece with a "Mystery Setting" sold for $326,500 during an auction at Christie's New York in 2009. [22]
In the 1952 novel, To Catch a Thief (later adapted into an Alfred Hitchcock film), a character buys multiple pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels in Cannes.
In the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever , Van Cleef & Arpels gets mentioned by Bond when Tiffany Case discusses the story behind her name: that she was born at Tiffany & Co. as a pre-term baby. Bond responds that she should be fortunate her name is not Van Cleef & Arpels.
In season 4, episode 23 of Frasier, the character Niles Crane is speaking on his mobile phone with his wife Maris, from whom he is recently separated at the time. On the phone, Niles says to Maris 'I miss you more...than Van Cleef would miss Arpels'.
In Issue 116 of New X-Men (2001 series), the character Emma Frost, who has recently gained the power to turn into organic diamond, tells a taxi, "the Van Cleef and Arpels store on Fifth at Fifty-Seventh, driver. I intend to have myself valued."
A tiara is a jeweled head ornament. Its origins date back to ancient Iran, which was then adapted by Greco-Romans. In the late 18th century, the tiara came into fashion in Europe as a prestigious piece of jewelry to be worn by women at formal occasions. The basic shape of the modern tiara is a (semi-)circle, usually made of silver, gold or platinum and richly decorated with precious stones, pearls or cameos.
Delvaux is a Belgian manufacturer of fine leather luxury goods founded in 1829 by Charles Delvaux. The company is the oldest fine leather luxury goods house in the world.
Compagnie Financière Richemont S.A., commonly known as Richemont, is a Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company founded in 1988 by South African businessman Johann Rupert. Through its various subsidiaries, Richemont produces and sells jewellery, watches, leather goods, pens, firearms, clothing, and accessories. Richemont is publicly traded as CFR on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the JSE.
Boucheron is a French luxury jewelry and watch house located in Paris, 26 Place Vendôme, owned by Kering.
Montblanc is a German manufacturer and distributer of luxury goods, founded in Berlin in 1906, and currently based in Hamburg. The company is most known for its luxury pens and also designs and distributes bags, small leather goods, and watches. Since 1993, Montblanc has been part of the Swiss Richemont group.
Galleria Department Store (Korean: 갤러리아백화점) is an upmarket South Korean department store franchise owned by Hanwha Group. It has 5 branches throughout Korea, notably the Luxury Hall West and Luxury Hall East, both in Apgujeong-dong, as upmarket luxury-brand fashion malls in Seoul.
Asprey, formerly Asprey & Garrard Limited, is a United Kingdom-based designer, manufacturer and retailer of jewellery, silverware, home goods, leather goods, timepieces, and a retailer of books.
The Empress's Crown is part of the coronation regalia used by the third Shahbanu (Empress) of Iran (Persia), Farah Pahlavi. The crown is part of the Iranian National Jewels, and is currently on display at the Treasury of National Jewels in Tehran.
Alexandre Reza was a Paris-based jeweler known for his diverse and rare collection of precious gemstones. He is lauded as the greatest gem collector of modern times.
Mimi So is a New York City-based American jewelry designer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and humanitarian known for a "distinctive and definitive fashion vibe" and a large celebrity clientele. Her company was founded as a partnership with luxury conglomerate Richemont, which subsequently sold its interest to Mimi So.
René Sim Lacaze was a French jewellery designer and artist. He played a major role in the development of the style known as European Art Deco.
Buccellati Holding Italia is an Italian jewellery and watch company formed by the merger of two previous companies with existing brands Mario Buccellati and Gianmaria Buccellati, which corresponded to the names and surname of two master goldsmiths, who were father and son.
River Oaks District is an outdoor shopping complex of global luxury brands in Houston, Texas, comprising 252,000 square feet of retail space with boutique styled shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, and an iPic movie theater among an expanding list of tenants. Additionally, there is 92,000 square feet of office space and two 5-story buildings with 279 residential apartments called Grey House, in the 650,000 square foot mixed-use development. River Oaks District was developed and is managed by commercial real estate firm OliverMcMillan, LLC. The design team included architectural firms Gensler, Pappageorge Haymes, the landscape architecture firm of Hoerr Schaudt, and engineering firm of Walter P Moore. Instead of a large anchor store, the developers opted for multiple smaller, high-end anchors.
Repossi is an Italian jewelry house, founded in 1957 in Turin by Costantino Repossi. The house is built around three generations that follow each other from father to son, and from father to daughter.
Lancel is a French Maison of luxury leather goods, founded in Paris in 1876 by Angèle and Alphonse Lancel and developed by their son Albert.
Oscar Heyman & Brothers is an American fine jewellery design and manufacturing firm. The company is known for its expertise in manufacturing and for its use of colored gemstones. The company is known in the jewelry industry as ′The Jewelers’ Jeweler,′ which is the name of the book on the company researched, written, and published by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Hélène Arpels was a French model, the wife of jeweler Louis Arpels, and later a shoe designer and retailer in New York. She was known for her catch phrase "Diamonds go with everything" and was on the annual "10 Best Dressed List" for more than a decade. Shoes designed by Arpels are in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.
Julien Arpels was a French American businessman who was the heir to the luxury jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. He served as president of the firm during the early 20th century and was responsible for its international expansion.
Claude Arpels Jr. is a French-American businessman, and investor who is the heir to the Van Cleef & Arpels fortune. He also owned the Italian brands Borbonese and Alessandro Dell'Acqua.
Anna Hu is an European-based Asian jewellery artist.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in Kyiv was opened up by the exhibition of they jewelers in the National Art Museum of Ukraine in 2019. Anzhela Cherkashyna filmed this event. Tetiana Chorna, Kyiv modern art jeweller, was featured in this video