Van Cleef & Arpels’ expanded Costa Mesa boutique unveils captivating salons
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
A striking minaudière, designed by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1937, inspired the pyramidal pattern of the elegant new ivory-and-gold facade fronting the French jewelry house’s reimagined boutique in Costa Mesa, which opened in 2002. The new 4,200-sq.-ft. space takes design cues from historic archival works alongside the natural landscape, flora, and fauna of its Southern California perch. The art deco roots of the facade motif reemerge inside, where two large display rooms are filled with creations that also share plucked-from-the-archives provenance combined with of-the-moment constructions. Five salons with libraries touch on dance, culture, love, nature, and fairy tales, and the space includes a bridal salon as well as the private Poetic salon.
Inside, Alhambra baubles drawing on the four-leaf clover with carnelian and guilloché sunbeam-like streaks across rose gold join the signature delicate gold beads of Perlée designs. Zodiaque collection themes blend nature and astronomy on pendants with elements of fire, air, water, and earth. Diamond-encrusted timepieces, including Midnight Planétarium evoking the constellations and Lady Arpels Heures Florales with its enchanted gardens and butterflies, sparkle in three-dimensional tableaus.
Lady Arpels Pont des Amoureux Jour 18K gold watch, $141,000.
High jewelry Brume de Saphir ensembles steeped in bezel-set blue sapphires bring to mind the changing colors of ocean waves as light reflects across the surf at Pacific Coast beaches a few miles away. Open-worked designs in white gold ripple with diamonds and dark and light blue stones to form cascading earrings, draped necklaces, and shimmering bracelets. Nearby, stunning drawings of house designs with faceted stones intricately shaped and shaded adorn salon walls.
The bucolic Flora and Fauna collections, as well as the blooms of Frivole with delicate heart-shaped petals, are also here. All the pieces are in conversation with French artist Marianne Guély’s vivid paper sculptures constituting the boutique’s new immersive Winter Garden installation. 3333 Bristol St., South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-545-9500; vancleefarpels.com.
The boutique’s private Poetic salon.
Feature image: Van Cleef & Arpels’ redesigned jewel box in South Coast Plaza.
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of C Magazine.
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