Van Cleef & Arpels has just unveiled the Corps de Ballet, a new High Jewellery creation inspired by the Ballerina, featuring 10 brooches based on iconic dances from 10 classic ballets, including Giselle, The Nightingale, The Sleeping Beauty and The Firebird, once again paying homage to the beauty of classical ballet.
Van Cleef & Arpels' history with the art of dance dates back to the 1920s, when co-founder Louis Arpels was particularly fond of the art of ballet and often took his nephew Claude Arpels to the Paris Opera for ballet. Graceful dancing became an important inspiration for jewelry creation, and the "Ballerina" brooch series born in the 1940s is the most representative piece.
The new collection features the most iconic ballerinas in the stop-motion collection, where jewellers use their skills to create the graceful posture of the dancers and the delicate textures of the dresses, while the gold is hand-finished and polished, and set with carefully selected precious stones.
The cutest "Champs du Rossignol" brooch is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale adaptation of the ballet "Le Chant du Rossignol", with a one-legged dancer wearing a tsavorite and emerald dress, a sapphire necklace and a golden bird perched on the back of her hand; Spessartite garnets and rubies, like the orange-yellow feather dresses worn by dancers at the first performance in 1910.
Adage à la rose 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in rose and white gold, set with pink sapphires and diamonds.
Paying homage to the ballet Sleeping Beauty, which premiered in 1890, the brooch recreates the classic dance sequence from Act I, in which she dances a harmonious rose adagio with each of the suitors after they present roses to Princess Aurora. The diamond motif on the shoulder straps and dance skirt resembles delicate lace, and the pink sapphire skirt blooms with a rose-like hue that echoes the pink sapphire tiara and dancing shoes.
Caronne 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in white and yellow gold, set with rubies, yellow sapphires and diamonds.
Inspired by Giselle, ou les Wilis, a masterpiece of 18th-century Romantic ballet, this work freezes the ballet dancers on tiptoe with graceful and subtle gestures – a diamond dress with gold engraving and brushing to outline the slender waist, a white gold diamond dress with a yellow sapphire on the chest, and gold shoes set with two rubies.
Spectre de la rose 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in rose and white gold, set with pink sapphires and diamonds.
Inspired by the 1911 ballet The Spirit of the Rose, the design recreates the graceful and graceful posture of a ballet dancer dancing on tiptoe, with ruffles on the shoulders and a petal-like skirt that frame the rose girl's figure. The puffy dress is set with pink sapphires and the rose gold is mirror-polished to give the dress a warm glow.
Carnaval de Venise 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in white and yellow gold, set with emeralds and diamonds, and lacquered in blue.
Petrouchka 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in rose and white gold, set with purple sapphires, rubies and diamonds.
Vera 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in pink and white gold, set with yellow sapphires, spessartite garnets, rubies and diamonds.
Maria 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in yellow and white gold, set with emeralds, rubies, blue tourmalines, sapphires and diamonds.
Champs du Rossignol 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in yellow and white gold, set with tsavorite, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds.
Mathilde 金质胸针,by Van Cleef & Arpels
Crafted in pink and white gold and set with diamonds.