Field Trip! Part VI - Grace Kelly at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Mystery Set
Sapphire and Diamond earrings
owned by Elizabeth Taylor.

Welcome to Part VI, Personalities.  This should be the last segment of our look at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, but there are so many interesting stories I may have to stretch it out to one or two more.  "Personalities" is the segment everyone loves the most because it looks at famous individuals who owned and wore some of the most beautiful jewelry ever made. But as Elizabeth Taylor once said, "I’m fortunate to have some very important pieces of jewelry. I don’t believe I own any of the pieces. I believe that I am their custodian, here to enjoy them, to give them the best treatment in the world, to watch after their safety, and to love them.” She also wrote, "Sometimes I wonder what will become of everything, because just like the Duchess of Windsor’s collection, they will all be up for auction one day. They will be scattered to the four corners of the world, and I hope that whoever buys each piece loves it as much as I do and takes care of it and realizes that having jewelry is a temporary gift. In truth, we ‘owners’ are just the caretakers… Nobody ever owns anything this beautiful. We are only the guardians.”

This is so true.  It's a testament to how pearls, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other stones found naturally in the earth and sea, and the jewelry made from them, stand the test of time and live on, much longer than those who have temporary custody of them. Stones can be re-fashioned, re-cut, re-set, even re-turned so they can live on for others to enjoy.

While researching the personalities and their jewelry for this blog, I spent hours looking for videos and photographs of not only famous people and their VC&A jewelry, but the famous people wearing their famous VC&A jewelry.  I got lost while viewing You Tube videos (actual home movies in most cases) as if they were photos of my own children or family pictures from when I was a little girl.  The pictures and videos took me back to a nostalgic time when things were easier and life was better...or so it seemed, anyway. We are drawn to celebrities because their fantasy lives take us away from our mundane existence, and the way we read about them and follow their lives, we feel we know them well.  We have opinions about their spouses, children, clothes and more, and even grieve when they pass away - just like they were a member of our own families.  

Grace Kelly was one of those people.  Born and raised in Philadelphia, my home town as well, the Kelly family almost felt like one of the neighbors.  A trip to downtown Philadelphia with my father always included a "Kelly Mansion" drive-by.  In reality, the "Kelly Mansion" is much smaller than I remembered as a little girl, given the size of the mac-mansions that exist in suburban neighborhoods today.  Kelly, became a devoted VC&A client, but not until she married Prince Ranier III in 1956.  After their marriage, Ranier made VC&A the official jeweler of the Royal Family of Monaco.

Grace Kelly, wearing the wedding ensemble of naturally found pearls fashioned by Van Cleef & Arpels into a necklace, bracelet, earrings and ring.  If you remember my June pearl post, naturally found pearls, as opposed to cultured pearls, are extremely rare.  Cultured pearls started to replace natural pearls in jewelry starting in the late 1800's when Mikimoto perfected the cultured pearl process.  Prince Ranier III gave these pearls to Grace Kelly in 1956, the year they were married.  This suite is extremely valuable due to the size of the pearls used, as well as the number of pearls needed, in order to make a triple strand necklace and double strand bracelet...all made with perfectly matching natural pearls in size, color and luster.  

Grace Kelly temporarily owned 
one of the most beautiful tiaras ever to sit on a head.  

Today this tiara is in Van Cleef & Arpels’ Private Collection.

Princess Grace wore this diamond tiara only once, at the pre-wedding ball honoring her daughter Caroline and Philippe Junot in 1978.  It was made in platinum, set with pear-shaped diamonds, marquise-shaped diamonds and round diamonds, and weighed 77.34 carats.  That is a very heavy thing to wear on your head.  It is rumored she immediately resold the piece back to VC&A after the wedding.  I had no idea Grace churned jewelry...especially to VC&A.  I get hysterical thinking of Grace Kelly, the day after a big event, appearing sheepishly at the counter of VC&A, with a bag holding the tiara and the receipt, making up a story and trying to convince the salesperson why the tiara didn't work out.  Buying jewelry to wear to an event (usually to impress friends) is an annoying but common practice among some customers.  We know when customers are doing it but can't really stop them, however, we do fantasize about the piece getting lost or stolen...just to teach them a lesson.

Daisy Fellows
platinum, diamond and emerald
manchettes,
hooked together as a necklace.
Paris, France, 1926

Please take time to view this You Tube video.  Entertainment Tonight - 70's Style!  Sorry that it is another one in French but bear with it until 2:15 when you will see footage of Caroline's pre-wedding ball.  Grace invited many celebrities from her day including Ava Gardner, who has so much jewelry in her hair she looks like a Christmas tree, and Gregory Peck, looking awkward doing the Robot, then swinging Ava back and forth obviously trying to shake the jewelry out of her head.  Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo and her mother eye up Cary Grant in a very weird way, and, at 3:56, a woman wearing what could possibly be Daisy Fellows' diamond and emerald manchettes worn together as a necklace, followed by a woman in red wearing another amazing diamond necklace.  But the pièce de résistance is toward the end of the film where you will see Grace Kelly, gloriously celebrating her daughter's upcoming wedding, and looking beautiful wearing her diamond tiara, sparkling like her head was on fire.    

Van Cleef and Arpels “Transforms” the Royals in Monaco

Océan as a formal  necklace.

VC&A continues their tradition with the royal family of Monaco with the commission by His Serene Highness, Prince Albert, and Her Serene Highness, Princess Charlene, to create a set of jewelry on the occasion of their marriage in Monaco on July 2, 2011.

The diamond and sapphire necklace, named "Océan" by Prince Albert, was described as a “love pledge," although according to recent reports it might be more like a bribe to get Charlene to stay in Monaco for a while. And, in keeping with the VC&A tradition of “transformation," the piece can be transformed multiple ways: into a less formal necklace, a tiara, and, as you will see in the video below, when the components are snapped out, they could possibly be turned into earrings or a pendant (or sold off individually as Wittstock secretly makes her way back to South Africa). A sparkler made with 1,200 diamonds and sapphires, VC&A had their stone searchers look for three different hues of perfectly matching blue sapphires that were used to represent the colors found in the ocean. The piece is topped off with a centered 4 carat pear shaped, D - Flawless diamond that would appear at the bottom when worn as a necklace or the top if worn as a tiara. 

Less formal necklace.

 Formal tiara

See how the Océan was made

The relationship between Van Cleef & Arpels and the Royal Family of Monaco dates back to 1956, the year that Prince Rainier III married Grace Kelly, and Van Cleef & Arpels became the “Official Supplier of the Principality” (which means Grace did not shop at the mall for her jewelry).

Prince Albert chose Repossi for Wittstock’s pear-cut diamond engagement ring. Rumor has it that Prince Albert called Repossi and asked them to send “something” when they got engaged.  He never actually “pulled out the chair” and chose the ring himself. How lazy can you be. It was also rumored that Wittstock was not a jewelry affectioniado and felt the ring was ostentatious and preferred something smaller. FYI - the idea of a surprise engagement ring always scares me. It pays to work together when searching for something this expensive and personal. 

Repossi 3 carat pear shaped diamond engagement ring reported to be worth approximately $100,000.  
Does this prove Kim Kardashian is truly  royal with her 20 carat ring worth $2,000,000? 

They chose Cartier for their plain, platinum wedding bands.

Wittstock wore little jewelry on her wedding day...only a huge diamond hair scrunchy.

It turns out Wittstock may have better taste in jewelry than all the royals combined.  She may not be the type to dig tiaras out of Grace's jewelry box or wear dusty old brooches from the 16th century.  Wittstock commissioned renowned French jeweler, Lorenz  Baümer to create a new version of a tiara with a design based on the movement of water. Her past as an Olympic swimmer may have influenced what looks like a splash of water with droplets on the end.  

Above: Lorenz  Baümer's new kind of tiara.  Made in white gold, the frame is set with 11 pear-cut diamonds, the largest weighing eight carats.

Above: Even though this video is in French, you can easily make out how Lorenz Baümer 
 designed and created this beautiful piece. 

Princess Charlene wearing Baumer hairspray at her wedding reception.  This kind of hairspray is not available at the drugstore.

Field Trip! Part V - Exoticism at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Van Cleef & Arpels in New York.  
744 5th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Part V – Exoticism at Set in Style at the Cooper Hewitt, blah, blah,blah.  We are almost done with this exhibit – one more to come after this.  This post is a little late because #1, The Duchess of Cambridge wore a yellow gold charm bracelet and #2, my sister and I went back to revisit this exhibit one more time before it closes on July 4th.  For those of you who didn't have a chance to see this exhibit, I hope you will enjoy these blog posts.

Dazzled by the beautiful stones during my first visit, I was much more critical the second time around, noticing age and wear on some of the jewelry, as well as a few mismatched stones.  The exhibit is still drawing a big crowd, including the obnoxious people all around me who were taking way too much time hovering over one item and clogging up the flow of traffic.  As a result, people were stomping their hooves and crowding all around my sister and me, like when you are checking out at the food store and the next person moves right up into your personal space where you should be in order to pay the cashier.  People please..... can you keep your coffee breath to yourselves and floss before you leave your caves.

The Exotics in the VC&A collection are just that - jewelry inspired by travels to the foreign and exotic lands that weren’t on the Average Joe's radar back in the 1920’s.  Some of the VC&A vision came from the Arpels' travels all over the world responding to commission requests from wealthy moguls, which in turn, expanded their global clientele even more.  Due to this growing international clientele, these exotic influences in design became a solid part of the VC&A aesthetic.

Platinum and diamond Cambodian bracelet. 1938

VC&A had many wealthy Americans as clients as well.  One of their first commissions was made by Eugene Higgins (1860-1948) heir to his father, Elias's, New York City carpet manufacturing fortune. A wealthy and handsome bachelor, Higgins sold the family business in 1889 shortly after taking control of it and spent the fortune on a leisurely lifestyle, i.e., he partied all the time. In 1908, Higgins asked VC&A to make a replica of his yacht, the 304’ Varuna. They complied with a duplicate Varuna sitting on top of a sea of smooth, carved jasper.  A white enamel life preserver floats on top of the jasper and when pushed, rang Higgins’ butler for duty.  Unfortunately for Higgins, calling the butler didn’t help in late in 1909 when the real Varuna was wrecked off the coast of Madeira.  Higgins lost a crew member and the ship.  Party over.

This is all he had left.  He played with it in the tub.

VC&A‘s jet-setting clientele encouraged them to design jewelry with "foreign" themes.  They created pieces which imitated the traditional style of these faraway lands using the materials that suggested those influences such as the use of lacquer and jade for a Japanese or Chinese creation.  

Sometimes they adopted exotic motifs for other pieces, as in the gorgeous bracelet below, reflective of the Egyptomania inspired by the excavation of King Tut's tomb in the early 1920s.

Can you believe this.....

Inspired this!  The Egyptian Bracelet.

The Duchess of Cambridge's New Charm Bracelet

Kate wearing her new bracelet and
the dress that sold out in minutes.

We are taking a break from Van Cleef and Arpels for just a moment to report on a new piece of jewelry seen on the arm of The Duchess of Cambridge, aka, Kate Middleton. You probably owned a piece like this at one time but felt it was a little outdated and may have recently "sold it for gold" to make a little extra cash.  So who but the world's current fashion icon is seen wearing a very traditional yellow gold charm bracelet with an initial disc hanging from it? Reports say it was a wedding gift from mother-in-law, Camillia, who wears a similar bracelet on her wrist.

No matter how hard Italian jewelry designers like Roberto Coin and Marco Bicego are working to return the trend to yellow gold, white gold has remained a strong trend for the last 15-20 years.  As a matter of fact, most of the gold that's being sold for cash these days is the yellow gold we all have laying, unworn, in the bottom of our jewelry boxes. 

Kate has the fashion power to turn the trend back to yellow gold.

That's a lot of "C"'s, standing for Catherine, Cambridge, Camilla.  
What other "C" words could go on Camilla's bracelet?
The disc charm has Catherine's monogram on one side and Camilla's on the other.
Both "C"'s are under a coronet but Kate's "C" has an extra curl while Camilla's is surrounded by a circle.

 

Not to be outdone by Diana's stunning sapphire and diamond engagement ring,
Camilla takes possession of Kate's other arm with a replica of her own charm bracelet. 

I had to post this photo because I just love his coat.
Prince William: wearing a better outfit than the Duchess. 

Field Trip! Part IV - Fashion at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Open Minaudiere. 1935

In Part IV of Set in Style, the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, we bring you Fashion.

As the story goes … in 1930, Charles Arpels was having dinner with friends, among them, Florence Jay Gould, wife of a philanthropist, when he noticed the tin box she took out of her purse that held her lipstick (some say it was a metal Lucky Strike cigarette box).  He was surprised that such a glamorous woman didn’t have a more luxurious container for her cosmetics, and, right there at the dinner table, the clever, ornate and utilitarian Minaudiere was born.





“Minaudières” by Van Cleef & Arpels from “The Spirit of Beauty” exhibition from Van Cleef & Arpels inspirations on Vimeo.

Taking inspiration from the smaller Nécessaire, Arpels decided it should hold everything (MacGyver style) that a fashionable woman could possibly need for a night out on the town.  It was an engineering wonder that contained fitted, hinged compartments which held lipstick, cigarettes, compact, watch, hankies, etc., and, when open, resembled a bejewelled piece of camping equipment.  Women looked so chic pulling a cigarette out of their Minaudiere's, however, the less dexterous may have needed help closing all those little lids because it looks like you could cut a finger off if you were in a hurry. 

Now this is my idea of a Kindle cover.
Black lacquer, gold and diamonds.

She came a long way from the tin box.
Pearl and diamond Nécessaire once owned by Florence Jay Gould.

Do you think this fits the IPhone?  
Ruby, emerald, sapphire, diamond, jade and gold Nécessaire, 1926.

An 18^th century version of the Minaudiere, The Nécessaire was smaller and only held a few personal items like sewing needles and small scissors.  My...how far we've come.  Just think of Minaudiere and Nécessaire as French words for "make-up bag."  Women still refresh their make-up at the dinner table, although with today's manners, it's not unusual to see a woman throw a piece of Samsonite up on the dinner table and do a full makeup – 10X magnified mirror and all.  Gone are the glamour days of just carrying your essentials on a night out.  We carry so much stuff in today's gigantor handbags that a girl needs a cortisone shot in her shoulders from time to time just to carry her Marc Jacobs around town.

But you would be wrong if you thought the diminutive Minaudiere was a complete thing of the past.  Judith Leiber, one of the longest sustaining luxury handbag designers, continues to produce some of the finest Minaudiere's you can find.  Emigrating to the United States with her husband in 1947, Ms. Leiber honed her skills by working for some of the leading handbag manufacturers in New York.  Starting her own company in 1963, her unique, intricate marvels were a cut above the rest.  Made from the finest Austrian crystals and, in some cases, semi-precious stones, they are not cheap.  Not only have her bags been found on the arm of most of our first ladies since the 1950's, and some of Hollywood's most famous women, but you can also find them as part of permanent collections in London, New York, Washington, DC, Houston and Los Angeles. Here are some of the more hysterical - I mean unique ones....

Habibi Minaudiere. $5995-This party is so boring I'm going to rub the side of this bag and when the genie comes out, I'm going to wish I was somewhere else.

Panda Minaudiere. $4695 - For those of you who have ever been addicted to a Panda Cam, now you can just sit this thing on top of your computer.

Beehive Minaudiere. $5600 - Are Pooh and Piglet available as key fobs?

Field Trip! Part III - Nature at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Believe it or not, this is a Van Cleef & Arpels brooch.
Would you wear it?

Welcome to Nature, Part III of Set in Style, the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Many of the pieces in this category were brooches and, no offense, brooches (or pins) are probably the most boring piece of jewelry one can own.  Even the word brooch sounds old, like it should come in a mothball can.

I think brooches are boring.
Unless we're talking about one of VC&A's Set in Style treasures,
then that's a different story.

Every now and then, a client will come to my counter (usually an older person) to ask if we have any brooches. When we say we don’t have any in stock, this person often looks at us like we are dumb as rocks for missing the biggest selling opportunity to ever come along.  Sometimes, this person will continue to give me an attitude, at which I say things like, “gee, I haven’t even seen a brooch in the past 30 years.” (Like, hello, go back to your coffin - it's almost daylight).

Therefore, if you are a younger person, most likely you don’t own a brooch since they haven’t been in style for a really long time. You might have one or two lying in the bottom of your jewelry box like I do, but you don’t wear them because you have so many other cool things that you wear all the time, however, there are those women who still wear them (corporate world, attorneys, etc) because of the way they can finish their look.

I think pins look best on suits, but women just don’t wear that many suits anymore.  Today, women tend to show a Iot more skin, and it’s hard to pin a pin on skin. I really haven't seen pins since the Alexis Carrington Dynasty days of the 80's when suits were structured and had runway sized shoulder pads. Pins actually soften the look of a suit, and that’s why women like Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright look good in pins because they can be somewhat cardboard in appearance when conducting business. However, take a look at Hillary Clinton at her daughter Chelsea's wedding last year. I thought she looked her best in her silky, turquoise caftan (rather than as we usually see her).

 

Looking more like wood.

Flowing and looking less like wood.

                                                                  
 
Someone who really knows how to wear a pin is Madeleine Albright.  She used pins to set a tone for important meetings during her tenure as Ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of State.  She, as many women do, used jewelry to commemorate an event or indicate how she felt.  She did this through pins, and she did it well.  She wore an antique snake pin when she met with Saddam Hussein, and a “hear  no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkey pin when she met with Vladimir Putin to indicate her position on the Chechen atrocities. Putin told President Clinton he could tell how a meeting with Albright might go depending on her pin.

This was an imaginative and creative use of jewelry, and her book, Read My Pins, tells us the thought process behind the pins she chose to wear depending upon whom she was meeting. Think about a woman as busy as Albright.  Not only did she have to do her hair and get dressed in the morning, she also had to pick out the right pin. I will never complain again about getting ready for work in the morning because one thing I don't have to do is coordinate my jewelry with history.

You go girl....I think she's pissed because she wasn't allowed
to go down in that hole and pull Saddam out!

 

But I digress. The brooches inspired by nature in the VC&A exhibit are magnificent.  The platinum and diamond “Orchid” brooch (1928), the gold and diamond “Snowflake” brooch (1948), the diamond and pearl “Bunch of Grapes” brooch (1915), the diamond and emerald (or sapphire or ruby) “Sycamore Leaf” brooch (1951), and my personal favorite, the enormous and completely ridiculous “Scarlet Macaw” brooch (1995). Made from diamonds, rubies and sapphires, the beak is made from coral and onyx. This brooch, as other VC&A brooches, is really big.  Of course, that means more precious stones, which equals more expensive, but that’s what VC&A’s is all about. I just get a fit of hysterics when I think of someone wearing this pin on her shoulder.  ARG!

My orchids always die.  I would take better care of this one.

What a shame you can you only wear this in winter.

The Grapes of Want.

I would have no problem raking these leaves if they fell in my yard.

Must be worn on the shoulder while on a wooden ship.

Field Trip! Part II - Innovation at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Today we are taking a look at another category of jewelry from the Set in Style, The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Today’s subject is “Innovation,” and who better to analyze than an original famewhore, the Duchess of Windsor and the “Zip” necklace.  Around 1939, the Duchess collaborated with Renee Puissant, the artistic director of VC&A, and asked the renowned jeweler to create a platinum and diamond zipper for one of her evening dresses. Zippers were relatively new at the time, but even for someone as ostentatious as she, a platinum and diamond zipper for a dress was a little over the top. Can you imagine having the kind of downtime that allows you to come up with such an idea?

Never mind the scarcity of platinum during this time. Keep in mind that even today, compared to silver and gold, there is relatively little platinum available. Per the Platinum Guild, “Platinum is 30 times more rare than gold. If platinum mining ceased today, the available supply would be exhausted in two years, compared to a quarter of a century for gold," so you can imagine how rare the metal was in the 1930s.  The Guild further states, “With the outbreak of war in 1939, platinum is declared a strategic metal in the USA, used for the manufacture of armaments. Its use for making jewelry is forbidden.” (But Wallis whined, "I need that zipper - buttons are so hard to do!"). So while it was a very creative notion on the part of the Duchess to use one of those newfangled zipper things as a jewelry idea, her self-focused sense of timing was terrible.  

Another bad idea.  We should not be making these PR decisions on our own anymore.

Although the zip was never actually sewn into her dress, VC&A achieved the first zip necklace around 1940 with two gold ribbons and small diamond set hooks on each side that slide into each other. It can be worn open as a necklace or zipped up and wrapped around your wrist and worn like a bracelet. In the image below, the back actually unclasps from the top of the necklace to form a bracelet.

Innovation.  Van Cleef & Arpels Zip Necklace.
  

It took a full 10 years to perfect the design technique, and by 1951 it was fully developed and the “Zip” necklace was born.  The Iconic Zip Necklace continues to be a formidable part of the VC&A collections.

       

Eve Best as Wallis Simpson in "The Kings Speech" wore a number of authentic Van Cleef & Arpels pieces in the film.

Some say the Duchess is famous for the quote, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” Well, she was rich and she was thin, and by 1950's, her cigarette induced, osteoporitic, wizzened frame was very fashionable. Today, when I see someone like that, I'm already doing calculations in my head about how long they have to live.  

Living the life of luxury can be hard on a girl.  Photo:  Richard Avedon.