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Did King Charles make me a nature girl? Seems so. Last week I got to tour the walled gardens of Dumfries House in Scotland with Van Cleef & Arpels (the main sponsor of the Walled Garden project) and I found myself swooning over colored roses and delphinium. Generally I am more of a Mystery Set ruby and diamond Peony clip girl. That 1937 jewelry masterpiece was there too. Van Cleef had invited us to see a new floral themed collection. (I loved the citrine watch. And the peridot blossom charm was a favorite. I think peridot is the new Paraíba tourmaline and was so pleased to see VCA using it so well. More on that in the September issue of T&C).
Stellene Volandes
Stellene Volandes
The debut pieces were shown alongside some Van Cleef archival and I was reminded once again of just how good they are with flowers. (Google the 8-flower yellow gold Frivole ring. Right? The bracelet too.) And the daring of 1930s jewelry design: the Van Cleef Passe Partout necklace with its yellow gold tubogas chains and aquamarine and ruby flowers is one of my all time favorite jewels. Seeing these pieces from almost a century ago there in all their glory was a testament to another thing I love most about jewelry—it remains. Through it all.
Stellene Volandes
Stellene Volandes
So do historic estates with incredible collections of Chippendale furniture, if someone takes care of them. Dumfries House was set to be sold in 2008 when the King’s Foundation raised funds to buy and preserve it. Now you can visit. Wander the grounds and think of me when you see those rows of delphiniums. It’s also available for weddings!
Now for the jewelry at hand.
The Best I Have Seen This Month
-A visit to Oak Spring, Bunny Mellon’s home and gardens in Virginia, should be a rite of passage for the editor in chief of Town & Country and Tiffany made it happen this month. The pilgrimage was in service to Jean Schlumberger, Mellon’s great friend and recipient of her patronage. We got to see the original Bird on a Rock he made for her (it was set on a huge chunk of lapis) as well as letters Schlumberger sent (oh, to have such a loyal and supremely talented friend!). Mellon’s Schlumberger collection is largely in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and I was lucky enough to sit next to the curator, Dr. Sylvain Cordierat, at a dinner the night before at the Occidental in DC (great food and a Ken Fulk interior). He is working on a Schlumberger biography. Given some of the stories he told me at dinner, it’s going to be a good one. And an important next chapter for understanding a creative genius.
There is a new collection inspired by Schlumberger that will launch this September at Tiffany but it’s under embargo. One thing I will tell you: Remember what I always say about turquoise in winter. And yes, being at Bunny Mellon’s house means believing in the power of wicker (the basket room!) and understanding that beauty is always possible, with enough perfectly folded Porthault (my post on the linen closet was probably the most popular Instagram I’ve ever done.) There is a famous story of Mellon asking someone to remove the cracked potato chips before serving them in the bowl and, true or not, it’s a way of understanding a style that seems casual in its way but that is always supremely considered.
Monila High Jewelry
Monila High Jewelry
-The Gucci x Pomellato collaboration that was previewed on the runway—and then made its official debut during Paris Couture—is one blessed Italian union. Pomellato was founded in the late 1960s as one of the first pret-a-porter jewelry houses. The mission was to create jewelry women could wear every day. Seems simple enough but it was a quite radical idea in an era when jewels had long been kept in safes and taken out for important occasions. That it would pair with the house that made loafers walking signifiers seems fated. And leather and diamonds is that rare thing these days: surprising!
Getty Images
-Ginevra Elkann at the Bal d’Été in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is the Platonic ideal of personal jewelry style. Vintage coral pieces paired with a sliced agate necklace and Valentino. (Valentino designer Alessandro Michele’s taste in jewelry is fascinating to me. He often posts his collection on Instagram; it’s full of vintage cameos and Grand Tour bracelets. Always something that makes me wonder “What is that?” Which is my favorite jewelry question.) Whenever I see jewels this interesting I immediately assume they are from Pennisi in Milan. I checked and these are not, but if you feel inspired by Elkann’s jewels, Pennisi is a great place to start acting on the impulse.
Celine
-Yes, I want a full load of the charm necklaces from Michael Rider’s debut collection at Celine. Those blue and white Italian horns especially. I’ll buy something for sure. I still have Celine jewelry from the Phoebe Philo era that I love. And until then, as I do every summer, I’ll wear the colorful horn necklaces from one of my favorite jewelry stores in the world, created and run by two of the chicest sisters in the world: Grazia & Marica Vozza in Capri.
–Paris Couture in July is high time for High Jewelry. I was sorry to miss it this year but T&C fashion director Dania Ortiz filled me in on all. Those Boucheron flowers!
Portrait Cuts
Those moments where art meets jewelry.
Frick Collection/ Joseph Coscia JR
There are just three paintings in the beautiful “Vermeer’s Love Letters” show open at the Frick right now through August 31 and you should certainly pay homage to the title of the exhibition by considering each letter in each painting. Has it been read before? Was it opened in haste? But also please note the pearls in each portrait, their luster, how they catch the light, and how enormous those drops are in the earrings in Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid, the Vermeer on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland. Ponder the meaning over the club sandwich at the new Westmoreland café at the museum.
Karolina Wojtasik/HBO
Then, rewatch The Gilded Age season 3 episode 3, and contemplate what the clue is when Gladys’s pearls break and fall on the floor. Her engagement to the Duke references Consuelo Vanderbilt’s engagement to the Duke of Marlborough, and by that fact those pearls reference the famed Vanderbilt pearls that once belonged to Catherine the Great and Empress Eugenie, and that were worn by Consuelo on her wedding day. If we are to follow this logic, do the pearls on the floor foreshadow a similarly doomed marital narrative for Gladys and her Duke? This is a developing story. Gilded Age jewelry (as in both the period and the HBO series) is fascinating because of how the new class of Americans used it to establish a history they did not have. Anything with a royal or European provenance was their thing. Famously, the biggest clients at the sale of the French Crown Jewels in 1887 were the Gilded Age American crew. Watching the show on Sunday nights makes me want to get thee to a Mikimoto.
A Perfect NYC Night
I like to say this is why we live here because otherwise, even I have to admit, it can get hard. My plans this month.
Stellene Volandes
–Shakespeare in the Park returns to New York on August 7 with Twelfth Night, starring Lupita Nyong’o, Peter Dinklage, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Have a lobster roll and baked clams at the Mark Hotel’s pop-up clam shack before if you are coming from the East Side. If from the West, take a bit of extra time to walk and have a tuna burger at Café Luxembourg and snatch some of the new postcards with Rob Wilson’s fun illustration. (The famous photo of the three naked graces has been retired. A photo rights expiration issue, I was told).
-American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Season at the Metropolitan Opera ends on July 19 which means that you still have a few days to see a performance. I’m going twice before it closes, and having dinner at the Grand Tier before Swan Lake on the 16th. It remains one of the most glamorous things to do in New York. If you missed the chance to do it for ABT, do it during opera season. I rarely do, to keep it special, but when I do I’m always tempted to do it more.
-Perfect thing to do on a summer weekend in the city: Diane Arbus at the Park Avenue Armory. Drinks and a burger at Donohue’s after. Arbus is on until August 17. Donohue’s is forever.
Getty Images
-Greek Summer? Yes, I am going but I’ll be back in time to relive it all at the Winter Garden. Mamma Mia is coming back to Broadway for a limited run (August 1-February 1). Sing your heart out and then go to Avra at Rockefeller Center around the corner. Order the octopus, the Marouli salad, the lobster pasta, and the soft serve ice cream. Have ouzo. The winner takes it all.
-The Conservatory Garden in Central Park is back open after years of work. One of my favorite walks.
Sticks and Stones
How a jewelry person organizes the random thoughts in her head.
Stellene Volandes
-I was in London for Wimbledon thanks to my friends at Ralph Lauren who host us there in their perfect way: Pimm’s Cup and strawberries and cream to go, tea complete with coronation chicken sandwiches between matches, status merch! The night before, as is my tradition with Ryan from RL, I saw the new Evita in London and I will go back and see it again before it closes on September 6. Yes you can, and should, stand outside the Palladium and see the balcony scene but you must also buy a ticket to watch it all from inside the theater. It was thrilling in every way. And this from a girl who asked for tickets to see Patti LuPone in Evita for her sixth birthday.
Stellene Volandes
-A PSA: The exquisite “Sargent in Paris” show is closing at the Met on August 3. It moves to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris from September 23 to January 11.
-Another PSA: You have until August 31 to see that gorgeous Hockney show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
-I have gone to Paros every summer for the last five years and rented a house through Five Star Greece. Had youvetsi at Sigi Ikthios. Watched the sunset at Siparos. Ate at Thalassamou and Mario’s and lunch on the beach at Blue Oyster. Had lamb chops at Klarinos and breakfast and everything else at Cannelait. Trying something different this year and doing Milos with the Museum of Cycladic Art and then staying at Skinopi Lodge, of Instagram sunset fame. Non-negotiable is time at Four Seasons Astir Palace in Athens. Will report back on all next month.
Large Featherlight Tote
-After I mentioned that I travel with a small rolling suitcase and a large tote no matter how long the trip, my friend Brooke Neidich (Sidney Garber!) sent me this Away tote and promised me it was light no matter how much stuff I packed into it. She was right!
P.S. If you want to chat about any of the above, email me at stellenesgemsofwisdom@hearst.com.
See you next month!
X Stellene
Editor-in-Chief Stellene Volandes is a jewelry expert, and the author of Jeweler: Masters and Mavericks of Modern Design (Rizzoli).