Working with uncut emeralds at L'Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels
Laughter and wax fly out from the worktop where Carole, an expert jeweler, is coaching a student attempting to carve a wax mold. Across the room, master setter Frederic guides another pupil as she manipulates a graver into metal. Meanwhile, jewelry teacher Victoire keeps a watchful eye as I tackle a gouache painting.
It’s just another school day at L’École Van Cleef & Arpels.
L'Ecole in session
Opened in February in the Hôtel d’Évreux, a palatial, eighteenth-century townhouse on the Place Vendôme, L’École Van Cleef & Arpels is the first school of its kind—open to everyone, professionals and amateurs alike, with a passion for jewelry. Seven modules (plans call for 25 within five years) of four hours each span the intellectual to the practical, from jewels in mythology to distinguishing flawed from flawless diamonds.
It’s a rare window into a historically secretive industry and its preciously guarded techniques. Some things, including the surnames of our teachers, remain a secret.
Van Cleef & Arpels brooch, available through Neiman Marcus stores.
