{"id":41010,"date":"2026-02-28T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gioiellis.com\/?p=41010"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:44:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:44:34","slug":"miti-la-zip-di-van-cleef-arpels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/miti-la-zip-di-van-cleef-arpels\/","title":{"rendered":"The legendary Zip by Van Cleef & Arpels"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

One of the myths in the history of jewelry is the Zip necklace\u00a0 <\/strong>by Van Cleef & Arpels<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n

Do you know it? Here is a brief history<\/strong> of a milestone in luxury. There are myths that never fade. One of them is the Van Cleef & Arpels Zip necklace. If you don’t know this jewel, read this article and look at the pictures: it is, in fact, one of the milestones of jewelry. It has now turned 84, yet it is still a miracle of the goldsmith’s technique and is still inimitable. Moreover, it also has a noble history: the idea of \u200b\u200ba jewel in the shape of a zip zipper is attributed to the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson<\/strong>, American wife of King Edward VIII of England, who abdicated to be able to marry her (she was divorced) . According to this version, in 1938 the Duchess, a great lover of jewelry, suggested the idea of \u200b\u200ba necklace with a hinge to Ren\u00e9e Puissant, daughter of Alfred Van Cleef and artistic director of the Maison. Undoubtedly an original idea.<\/p>\n

\"Collana-bracciale<\/a>
Zip necklace-bracelet by Van Cleef & Arpels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Making the necklace that opens with a zip system, however, was not easy. To make a jewel like this in a workmanlike manner, it takes from 400 to 1,200 hours and, above all, a great craftsmanship. To tell the truth, the one created by Van Cleef & Arpels and which became famous was not the first hinge: the designer Elsa Schiaparelli, a high jewelery genius, had thought of it before, but without reaching that level of complexity and luxury.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Duke of Windsor, former King Edward VIII, with Wallis Simpson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the difficulty in making a jewel that opens and closes, it must be added that there is also another aspect to complicate the creation: the necklace is transformable. The closure, in fact, flows up and down, like the zip of a dress: in this way it allows the necklace to shorten or widen. Not only that, it can be transformed into a bracelet. Zip necklaces are made with different materials: in yellow or white gold, with precious stones, diamonds. They are still one of the Maison’s most fascinating jewels. Alessia Mongrando<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"La<\/a>
The transformation into a bracelet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lavorazione<\/a>
Necklace making<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Schizzi<\/a>
Sketches for the Zip necklaces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zip<\/a>
Gold, diamond, and ruby \u200b\u200bZip necklace from 1954<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Una<\/a>
A famous image of the Duchess of Windsor by Cecil Beaton<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the myths in the history of jewelry is the Zip necklace\u00a0 by Van Cleef & Arpels. Do you know it? Here is a brief history of a milestone in luxury. There are myths that never fade. One of them is the Van Cleef & Arpels Zip necklace. If you don’t know this jewel, read this article and look at the pictures: it is, in fact, one of the milestones of jewelry. It has now turned 84, yet it is still a miracle of the goldsmith’s technique and is still inimitable. Moreover, it also has a noble history: the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":76007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1532],"tags":[14,103,4941],"class_list":["post-41010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-da-sapere","tag-van-cleef-arpels","tag-collana","tag-elsa-schiaparelli","style--link-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41010"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141276,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41010\/revisions\/141276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gioiellis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}