An Exercise in Style, by Van Cleef & Arpels

An Exercise in Style, a poetic and successful one for two centenarian Parisians. Fruit of a poetic encounter between the high jewellery Maison Van Cleef & Arpels and the prestigious prestigieuse Gallimard Publishing House this coffee table book describes words, stones and metal for a literary and visual promenade.

This tasty and charming book that you go through with you best girlfriends or alone coiled in you couch sipping tea, is a feminine format book that you leaf through page by page taking your time to savour each detail… Thrilled by so much beauty and intelligence, I could not refrain from telling you about it.

Indeed, because each page is surprising and interesting in both the approach and the artistic and creative research. Drawings, images, text, mathematical formula… Every detail is polished and crafted like a high jewellery piece.

Twenty-five words dear to the heart of the jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels have been carefully chosen, defined and then described by a writer I envy, illustrated by an expert hand, taking us into the imaginary world of the high jewellery Maison.

These words were entrusted to friends of the Maison to give us their own interpretation.

I like the definition of luck by algebraist Laurent Derobert:

“Luck would be the product of joy by its improbability… the integral of happiness embedded in time multiplied by the value of the providence that grants it.”

Here is a beautiful extract from the book, it is of such pure magic that I cannot help but share it with you:

"For creation precedes the idea, it is the grand final of a permanent firework dedicated to sight, amazing even to those you have seen everything. That it crosses borders to reunite the hearts beyond the differences gives it a universal perfume.

In poetry, as one goes on a journey.

In poetry, as one enters a dream house.

For if the heart is stone, if it is loving, it is none the less soul and it is known for more than a century now that the noble houses in Paris describe this feeling as follows: first of all, it is a question of excellence and style."

- An Exercise in Style, extract – Van Cleef & Arpels -

It is a book that makes you feel good because beauty, art and elegance are undeniable sources of well-being, and depriving yourself of it is depriving yourself of happiness.

It is a book to entrust to all your girlfriends and certainly the perfect gift for a sophisticated mum, an amateur of art, literature or jewellery.

It is a book you can find in all good bookstores for 49 euros.