The jewels that can be transformed: from necklaces to bracelets, or … ♦
Long live the quick-change jewels. The queens and princesses of the European courts have known this for a long time: if tiaras and bracelets are so precious and expensive, at least they are versatile. And, in fact, in royal collections, tiaras become chokers when needed, diamonds are replaced with colored precious stones for less formal occasions, earrings lengthen in the evening and shorten by day. The artistic director of Van Cleef & Arpels, René Pouissant, also tried his hand at this work at the suggestion of the Duchess of Windsor, creating the famous Zip necklace in 1951.
A sort of zip that opens in the shape of a V and goes around the neck. Closed, however, the necklace is placed on the wrist and becomes a bracelet. On the sides, instead of the gold fabric worked in herringbone and hearts cut out with a diamond in the center and a long precious tassel hangs from the cursor. So, quick-change jewels are certainly not new, but fortunately there is something new in their contemporary version: they are not only relegated to high jewelery or models with a traditional aesthetic. The Italian Nanis, for example, has even called Trasformista a line of jewels that can change their appearance and use.
Among the jewelers there are those who are inspired by the game of Meccano, like the Cypriot designer Myriam Soseilos, those who hide one ring inside the other as if they were matryoshkas, like the Dutch Bibi van der Velden. And who, like Kiki McDonough, a brand much loved by the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, creates an entire collection of earrings with interchangeable parts of colorful semi-precious stones. Or there are those who, like Michela Bruni Reichlin, combine jade, white diamonds, gold and rubies to go out of their way.
