ThVan Cleef & Arpels has long waltzed at the intersection of high jewelry and high art, drawing a boundless sense of poetry from the ethereal world of ballet.
From December 5, 2025, through March 10, 2026, the Maison invites connoisseurs to Les Jardins Secrets at The Raffles Hotel Singapore to witness a curated heritage collection that captures this storied romance. This enduring bond traces back to the 1920s when Louis Arpels frequently took his nephew Claude to the Paris Opera, an obsession that eventually blossomed into the Maison’s first signature Dancer clips in the early 1940s.
These delicate feminine figures are celebrated for their rose-cut diamond faces and bejeweled tutus that appear to flow in mid-pirouette. Among the treasures on display is a 1941 Dancer clip featuring a rich perspective of emeralds tucked within the interior of her tutu, alongside a trio from the late 1940s that showcases the era’s mastery of yellow gold and precious stones.
One particularly striking 1947 creation features a long, undulating skirt embellished with rubies, while later Sequin Dancer clips from 1953 evoke the sun-like, graphic designs that were the height of fashion in the 1930s.
The exhibition also highlights how these motifs extended beyond jewelry into the realm of precious accessories. A rectangular Swan Lake powder case from 1946 serves as a golden stage for an engraved scene of the Tchaikovsky classic, immortalizing the graceful motion of a dancer’s rising arms. Moving into the late 1960s, the Maison’s work became even more streamlined and athletic. A 1967 clip inspired by Suzanne Farrell in George Balanchine’s Jewels reflects a meticulous study of rehearsal poses, rendering the tangible tension of a ballerina’s body through the delicate curvature of a slipper.
Through this display of patrimonial wonders, Van Cleef & Arpels continues to share its core values of creation and savoir-faire within an enchanted garden setting.
