|Objects| Diamond Destiny From a subterranean mine to a mesmerising jewellery collection by Van Cleef & Arpels, Avril Groom traces the rarefied journey of the Lesotho Legend, the fifthlargest rough diamond ever discovered The Lesotho Legend, a 910ct rough diamond, prior to cutting W alking from bright sunlight outside into a darkened salon in the elegant Hôtel d’Évreux, where Van Cleef & Arpels unveiled its new high-jewellery collection during Paris Couture Week, the eye was at first confused by the lack of light and then dazzled by the scintillating display of diamonds blazing from the array of gorgeous pieces forming Chapter One of the Legend of Diamonds collection. If that were not enough to take the breath away, the realisation that all the big diamonds at the centre of each item – the largest almost 80 carats – came from the same, preternaturally pure rough stone found in Lesotho’s Letšeng mine four years ago, certainly was. The maison’s choice to set all these diamonds in designs using its storied Mystery setting, a preciousstone technique that produces a particularly rich and velvety effect that the house patented in 1933, makes this a collection without parallel. Although Van Cleef & Arpels is famous for its imaginative, feminine, whimsical designs and for using many coloured gem varieties, it is no stranger to working with unusually large diamonds, hardly PHOTO ILAN TACHE 56 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
