image: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
When Van Cleef & Arpels invitations you on a press travel to examine infrequent rubies in Bangkok, you believe, Why no longer? you love rubies, and you've on no account been to Bangkok! So after a 22-hour flight—ever try gazing a celebrity Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody 4 instances each?—I arrive in Thailand, leisure up on the Peninsula resort excessive above the Chao Phraya river, and wake able to greet the day.
earlier than we see any jewelry, Van Cleef has geared up a few actions, the primary of which is a cruise to the marvelous villa of an expat French girl who has lived here for a long time and is glamorous and slightly mysterious. severe-faced local girls in lace blouses are gathered across the eating room table, prepared to faculty us in the satisfactory art of flower arranging. notwithstanding some in our community are fairly adept at this, for me it has all the pleasure of sewing on a button. but the apartment is lovely, the day is gleaming—and better of all—Van Cleef is enabling me to skip the subsequent recreation, a cooking category! (i know a way to get Thai food, and it contains a mobilephone, now not a pan.)
in its place, I order two dresses to be made in a single day by means of the resort tailor, after which talk over with the mall next door, Icon Siam. A member of the Van Cleef crew performs hooky with me; she buys a pair of dishevelled silk trousers for the equivalent of $47, and although she looks likes she weighs 100 kilos soaking wet, she takes the gigantic. (Ever are attempting to buy shoes in Tokyo? you're going to comprehend what I suggest.)
The day ends with a lavish dinner in the candlelit gardens outside the 100-12 months-ancient Wanglee mansion. after I observe that this area looks like Bette Davis's house in the Letter, i am met with blank stares. could that be pity within the young eyes looking at me? Come on, guys! It changed into nominated for seven Oscars in 1940.
photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
The next morning, a stern look after taps me difficult on the shoulder and mutters "sexy," when my partly visible shoulder tries to get into the Grand Palace. I kind of don't intellect being known as attractive (hardly the way my overstuffed baby doll trend is continually described), however I don't like being hit. very nearly overcome by means of the crowds and the warmth, we bag on the palace, as a result of basically, who cares a couple of royal estate? (I mean, I even have already considered the mall . . .) Plus, our subsequent stop is the cause we have traveled 8,000 miles from big apple—it is time to see what Van Cleef calls "The Treasure of Rubies."
They do not disappoint. among the 60 new creations on view is a cabochon ring nestled in a bed of baguettes and bracelet whose rubies and diamonds are laid out as a labyrinth. A fringy Deco-impressed necklace may be worn flung down your lower back like Picasso's buddy Sara Murphy did within the South of France in the 1920s; a retro bracelet would have proper Marlene Dietrich, who become now not simply a fantastic actor but a real hero of the 2nd World conflict. more dramatic even than Dietrich is a pair of earrings with dangling detachable pear-shaped pendants—one ruby and one diamond—as a result of who says earrings should healthy? (The expense may be severe, however the design can also be full of fun.) And, of direction, there is a edition of Van Cleef's noted zip necklace and a ballerina brooch, an icon of the maison. A 25-carat cushion-reduce ruby that will also be worn as a ring or round your neck (practical!) is so remarkable, so singular, that it's beneath a bell jar, but everything else is en plein air, begging you to the touch. You may now not.
Nicolas Bos, Van Cleef's CEO and president, is frankly enthralled with these items. He tells me that rubies symbolize power, blood, and hearth: "ardour you cannot manage." previous Van Cleef collections may additionally had been equipped around quite a lot of topics (a Shakespeare play might be, or a fairy story), however this assortment is a pure tribute to the glory of the stones themselves—their varied characters and personalities, their diversity and their richness.
photo: Courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
but all that glitters is not pink. On our ultimate day, we visit the reclining Buddha, a massive statue more than a hundred and fifty feet long and a masterwork in gold leaf. We put our Choos and Repettos within the plastic baggage offered for the goal, and walk barefoot into the Buddha's domestic within the Wat Pho temple. it is extraordinary and relocating, however now not in any respect solemn—in fact, this Buddha has a quite mischievous seem to be on his face.
How immediately the hours fly by means of! In what appears just like the time it could take to slap a labyrinth bracelet on my wrist, we suddenly need to head for the airport, to twist up in our lie-flat seats—oh, the heaven of company class—and dream of the treasure of rubies, whereas Gaga and Bradley play out their tragic love story, and Rami convinces us, as soon as once again, that even if or not we're soaking wet in precious stones, no matter if we are living on the Chao Phraya or the Hudson, we are indeed all of the champions of the world.
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