Against the pastoral elegance of Dumfries House in Scotland, Van Cleef & Arpels celebrated its floral universe with a poetic showcase of the maison’s beloved botanical motifs. The occasion brought together the style set from around the world to discover Fleurs d’Hawaï and Flowerlace, two new jewellery lines that extend the maison’s garden in imaginative directions. Alongside them, rare patrimony pieces from the Van Cleef & Arpels archives served as a living dialogue between past and present, underscoring the enduring legacy of floral design in the house’s vocabulary. In a roundtable conversation, Catherine Rénier, the chief executive officer of the maison, offered insights into how craftsmanship, storytelling and heritage continue to shape the future of Van Cleef & Arpels’s ever-blooming universe.
There’s a strong reference to heritage in your collections. How do you strike the perfect balance between heritage and innovation?
I think you need to know exactly who you are, and then create and explore within that field of expression—always referencing what’s come before, either as inspiration or as a starting point. Our design studio, when given a brief, dives into our archives and patrimony collection to stay grounded in our identity and signatures.
Sometimes it just takes one archival piece to spark an idea: “What if we reimagined this?” or “What if we revisited gold ribbon and floral motifs?” It’s a back-and-forth between patrimony and the design studio’s ideas. We innovate within our defined fields of expression. We never want to innovate just for the sake of it—it always needs to remain authentic.
With regards to the Fleurs d’Hawaï collection, could you tell us more about this new line?
The idea was to create a colourful collection, with fine gemstones forming the petals—similar in spirit to the original late-1930s collection, though that featured more emerald-cut stones. This time, we used pear-shaped stones, giving the flower a more elongated, dynamic look. It’s an evolution of the original design.
The flower centre features gold beads and diamonds, echoing elements from our Flowerlace interpretation. Diamonds enhance the coloured stones’ brilliance—making the entire piece pop and feel playful and inviting.
And with Flowerlace—it’s an abstract floral design. How does it expand Van Cleef’s floral universe, and what standout design details should we look for?
The collection began with a Silhouette clip shaped like a ribbon–flower hybrid. The latest pieces—launching in September—have a more modern feel. The gold is heavier and more sculptural. The petals are asymmetrical, and great care is taken to balance volume with lightness. You don’t want it to feel bulky when worn. It’s another showcase of our technical finesse and creativity.
Can you share any specific craftsmanship techniques or rare materials that distinguish this collection?
We work primarily with gold, so in terms of rare materials, it’s not about exotic resources but about the mastery of craft. Much of the innovation lies in stone selection—matching colour, clarity, and cut with an expert eye; making sure each piece feels comfortable and balanced; maintaining visual presence without heaviness; and ensuring functionality—rings that fit naturally between fingers, earrings that don’t drag, clips that don’t bend.
Every detail—from a leaf’s curve to the placement of the flower on a ring—is thoroughly prototyped. It’s not just about beauty; it’s about how the piece lives on the body.
What is it about Flora that allows it to remain in “perpetual bloom” at Van Cleef & Arpels? What do you hope these new lines will bring to the Flora universe?
I love the phrase “perpetual bloom.” Nature has always been central to our maison—from the beginning. But it’s not just any nature—it’s generous, joyful, playful. For Fleurs d’Hawaï, the colours of the stones and gold leaves evoke real flowers. The petal shapes are refined, the leaf curves are polished and engraved for realism. Every detail is studied to mimic nature’s fluidity.
We also engineered a unique gold setting at the back of the petals—it protects the stone while allowing lightness from the front. So it’s very wearable, yet visually delicate.
In contrast, Flowerlace is more abstract—less realistic, more imaginative. It could resemble a flower or a ribbon shaped into a flower. It’s whimsical, voluminous, and playful, yet still refined. Inspired by a 1937 clip in the form of a ribbon–flower hybrid, it represents a totally different design language.
So while all our floral pieces—from Rose de Noël to Frivole—share roots in nature and heritage, each collection contributes a unique expression to our “garden.” That’s what keeps it fresh.
See our recap of the celebration in Scotland here:
@grazia.sg Nothing says romance like an English garden in bloom—and @Van Cleef & Arpels knows it. ✨🌸 Naturally, they invited the style set to the storied Dumfries House in Scotland, where heritage meets horticulture in the most divine of rendezvous. There, we were transported into their enchanted floral fantasia, from bejewelled blooms of yesteryear to the triumphant unveiling of two new additions: Fleurs d’Hawaï—vivid, lush, exultant—and the exquisite, lace-like artistry of Flowerlace. It was a fabulous celebration of nature—utterly, breathtakingly sublime. #VanCleefArpels ♬ Fairy Tale Dreamland – Sheidideya
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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