Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels

More than one hundred years of innovative jewelry design and exceptional craftsmanship – told through the objects and the personalities who wore them

Since it opened on the Place Vendôme in Paris in 1906, renowned jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has played a leading role in setting style and design trends in luxury jewelry.

Its timeless pieces have been worn by such style icons as the Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace of Monaco, Elizabeth Taylor, Maria Callas and Jackie Kennedy, and the company’s prestige has spread thanks to an unending list of prominent commissions issued by royal and imperial courts and the world’s rich and famous.

Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels explores the historical significance of the firm’s innovations and many contributions to jewelry design in the twentieth century. It features more than 350 celebrated works from museum and private collections worldwide, including jewels, timepieces, fashion accessories and objets d’art.

Six fascinating essays accompanied by 400 photographs, including previously unpublished design drawings from the Van Cleef & Arpels Archives, examine the precious pieces through the lenses of innovation, transformation, nature as inspiration, exoticism, fashion and personalities.

Sarah D. Coffin is Curator of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Decorative Arts and Head of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Department at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, catalogues and books, including Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table and Rococo: The Continuing Curve.
Suzy Menkes is Fashion and Style Editor of the International Herald Tribune.
Ruth Peltason is a New York-based writer, editor and lecturer. She is the author of Jewelry from Nature and co-author of Architect: The Pritzker Prize Architects in Their Own Words, both published by Thames & Hudson.