Now You See Me

Centuries of haute joaillerie culminate in the fashioning of transformable works of art in the early 20th century. Today, the appetite for such opulent style endures—here are the big-ticket items on the inventory this season.

- Nikita Nawawi

Enormously proportioned, festooned with rare sparklers in brilliant colours and comes with a price tag so hefty it makes Mr. Monopoly do a double take. Haute joaillerie is a beast of its own—this much we know is true. But the intricacies of jewellery-making here go well beyond those facile qualities, imperative as they are, distinguishing it from its fine counterpart.

Avant-garde, labourious craftsmanship akin to this corner of the luxury sector has given rise to a legion of unique showpieces. Some are conceived in the same vein as the classics, others push the envelope to the brink of tearing. Its most audacious endeavour? Devising modular designs capable of exciting metamorphoses—the ones that we lovingly refer to as transformable pieces.

It all began when jewellers took the age-old concept of parure and put it under the knife, experimenting with new techniques to integrate the items in a typical set into one grand masterpiece. It’s a Lucullian two-for-one deal, if you will, for humanity’s cream of the crop and one of the most attractive packages in the market was Van Cleef & Arpels’ Zip necklace.

Adopting the silhouette of the mundane zip fastener— suggested by the Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson, a dear friend of the brand, after it started appearing on garments at the time—the necklace that had been nearly two decades in the making came to fruition in 1950. It featured two gold ribbons bordered with tiny hooks that fit into one another and doubled as a bracelet upon closing.