HISTORY IN THE MAKING

The worlds of fashion, art, romance and high jewellery collide at the Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love exhibition in Seoul.

- Elizabeth Lee

With stunning flagship stores that look more like museums than retail spaces, Seoul has become known as one of the best cities for art and fashion in recent years. It's no surprise then that, when it came to choosing the next stop for the Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love exhibition, the French luxury house decided on the South Korean capital.

First presented in Milan in 2019, then Shanghai in 2022, and Saudi Arabia in early 2023, the Time, Nature,Love exhibition is now at the D Museum in Seoul, and showcases over 300 jewellery pieces, watches and special objects like vanity cases, clocks, lamps and more. Sourced from private collectors, as well as from the Maison's archives, this presentation includes some never-before-seen pieces, including a remarkable Jarretiere bracelet in platinum, rubies and diamonds that once belonged to famed actor Marlene Dietrich.

Curated by Italian scholar and author Alba Cappellieri, the showcase is centred on three thematic sections. "I consider Time, Nature and Love to be the most important and most representative values of life, and consequently of the objects that accompany our daily lives," Alba explains. "Jewellery is always in balance between eternity and ephemeral, tradition and fashion, love and investment, beauty and concept, nature and fiction.

"Van Cleef & Arpels has always had a strong focus on time [and] this exhibition will demonstrate its ability to represent a fragmented period like the 20th century, and the capacity to epitomise the eternal values of beauty and, at the same time, the fleeting power of seduction. Through the Maison's creations, nature becomes art, in terms of gems and craftsmanship, but also as a humanistic attitude towards harmony."