A Breath of FRESH AIR

Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Catherine Rénier tells L'OFFICIEL SINGAPORE how the Maison stays true to its heritage while keeping up with the times - by sharing its passions and with new jewellery interpretations, like the Fleurs d'Hawaï and Flowerlace collections, which are imbued with meaning

- IAN LEE

Hi Catherine. We clearly see references to the Maison's heritage in the new Fleurs d'Hawaï and Flowerlace collections. How does the house maintain the perfect equilibrium between innovating and respecting its heritage?

You need to know exactly who you are and play within your field of expression, always going back to what you have done, either as inspiration or as a source of ideas, so it can go both ways. Our design studio, when given a brief, will go and dig into the archives and the patrimony collection and get inspiration to remain within our identity and signatures. And sometimes, it is one piece that will trigger an idea — what if we did it again like this, or what if we were working again with gold ribbon or flowers? It is a back and forth between our patrimony, our design studio's ideas — knowing who we are and what we have done, but always remaining within a field of expression that belongs to us. We want to innovate, but we don't want to step out of our ground just for the sake of innovating.

In luxury's ever changing landscape, how does the Maison stay relevant to the new generation of collectors?