Love Letters

President and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos, tells Y-JEANMUN-DELSALLE how the maison is sending hidden love messages with its latest high jewellery collection Le Secret

- Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle

VAN CLEEF & Arpels expresses its take on sentimental jewellery through motifs of nature and symbols of luck that transmit a secret code of love, friendship and affection in its latest haute joaillerie collection, Le Secret, which is also its most technical to date.

In a game of hide-and-seek, memories, treasures and surprises await through more than 100 high jewellery pieces with engraved secret messages, hidden compartments, labyrinths, puzzles, and pivoting components that entice us to open, twist and play with them to reveal secrets within.

“Historically, jewellery was made to be seen by others — it was an expression of taste, power, social status and wealth — while at the same time, very personal...often integrating the idea of secrets. This interesting combination within the same piece is what we have worked on,” says Nicolas Bos, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Le Secret drew inspiration from the culture of secret watches during the 1910s and 1920s, when jewellers created mechanisms to conceal watch dials in bracelets, necklaces or brooches, as it wasn’t considered elegant for ladies in polite society to be seen looking at the time.