Van Cleef & Arpels celebrates the beauty of the skies with its Zodiaque jewelry inspired by astrological signs.
Love and nature’s beauty are perpetual sources of design inspiration for Van Cleef & Arpels. The brand was born out of love with the marriage of Alfred Van Cleef and Estelle Arpels, who were both from families that were jewelry merchants. The pair married in 1895 and opened the doors to Van Cleef & Arpels in 1906 on Paris’ Place Vendôme.
The brand’s interpretations of natural beauty include flora and fauna, as well as the heavens. The star and moon themes are often found in the brand’s jewelry and watch collections. Van Cleef’s Zodiaque jewelry evokes the skies and humanity’s interpretations of the mysteries of the stars in the constellations.
Historical Inspiration
“Enthralled by the spectacle of the celestial bodies and the heavenly vault, Van Cleef & Arpels honors them with collections that recreate the symbolism of the constellations,” the brand said in a statement. A set of 12 gold Zodiaque medals is directly inspired by Van Cleef’s collections in the 1950s, while 12 long pendant necklaces are a “veritable homage to the colored pendants designed by Van Cleef & Arpels in the 1970s,” the brand said.
The contemporary medals are a series of 12 in either yellow or white gold that can be worn as necklace pendants depicting symbols of each of the astrological signs. The highly detailed medals are hand-carved in relief and intricately hand-polished on both sides with the dates and depictions of each sign. They are modern versions of the brand’s zodiac collections first introduced in the 1950s.
Hear Me Roar
Over the ensuing decades up until the 2000s, zodiac charms, pendants, bracelets, cuff links and clips were a consistent theme in the maison’s collections. The medals revive the archival collections in a new size of 21 millimeters. The gold Leo pendant pictured was made in 1970.
The set of 12 long rose gold Zodiaque necklaces evokes Van Cleef’s designs from the 1970s. They feature rare ornamental stones that form a backdrop for exquisitely detailed hand-carved symbols corresponding to each sign. The necklaces’ pendants are two-sided, with one side depicting the figures associated with each sign and the second featuring depictions of the symbol of each sign, its name and its calendar dates.
What’s Your Sign
Each sign of the Zodiaque necklaces has a unique ornamental stone background evoking its associated element (water, fire, earth and air). Like all stones that Van Cleef & Arpels chooses for its jewelry, each is carefully hand-selected, -carved and -polished. Because of the stones’ natural variations of color and pattern, no two of the new necklaces will be exactly alike.
The water signs have blue-hued stones evoking the seas as a background for the gold relief: Cancer’s is blue quartz, Pisces’ is sodalite and Scorpio’s is turquoise. The earth sign’s green stones “echo the luxuriant nature that has inspired Van Cleef & Arpels ever since its foundation,” the brand said. Virgo’s stone is malachite, Taurus’ is aventurine and Capricorn’s is amazonite. The air sign’s stones evoke colors of the night skies. Gemini features blue lapis lazuli, Aquarius’ stone is blue aventurine and Libra’s is gold obsidian.
Light the Sky
Van Cleef & Arpels’ zodiac theme extends to their timepieces, the first of which were introduced in 2014. The brand is world-renowned for its watchmaking savoir faire, and crafts new movements specifically for its Poetic Complications timepieces. The Lady Arpels Zodaique Lumineaux Cancer watch depicts an interpretation of a crab, the sign’s symbol. The dial is crafted of blue sparkly enamel, evoking a starry sky. The translucent enamel balls on the watch’s dial illuminate on demand.
