Watches & Jewellery

Van Cleef & Arpels' new creations for the winter symbolise rebirth, beauty, and completion

Three elegant lotus creations join the Diamond Breeze collection, but the simplicity of their design belie several hidden intricacies. 

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The Lotus is not normally a flower one associates with the winter. But despite its delicate appearance, the lotus is a surprisingly hardy plant, able to weather the winter and begin growing again in the spring, an apt metaphor as we close out another trying year — and a fitting motif for French jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels' latest creations. We review all three creations, and the ethereal campaign shot by award-winning photographer Erik Madigan Heck.

The Lotus Between-the-Finger ring
 
Headlining the new additions is this stunning ring in white gold and diamonds. The simplicity of the design belies the ring's hidden intricacies: Each of the lotus' petals are delicately curved upwards at different angles to mimic the motion of a flower in the breeze, a detail that gives the ring an unexpected hint of dynamism.
The Lotus pendant
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Like the ring, the Lotus pendant hides another subtlety: It was created with an openwork back — a painstaking technique to create planned gaps in the structure — allowing more light to pass through each diamond, thus amplifying their brilliance.
The Lotus earrings

The three flowers on the earrings appear to barely graze each other, creating an illusion of being suspended in mid-air; the Maison's expert craftsmen called on several complex setting techniques to achieve the look.

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To photograph the new additions, the Maison turned to American artist and photographer Erik Madigan Heck, an artist beloved by critics for his surreal, dreamlike works rooted in Romantic-era art.
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Heck — who appeared on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2011 — has called himself "a painter who uses photography", and nowhere is that more evident than in his works for the Diamond Breeze campaign. There, Heck envisions an immemorial winter landscape flecked with statuesque birch trees, ruby red winter berries, and, of course, Van Cleef & Arpels' lustrous creations.

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