In front of a Thomas Hudson portrait, in a highly decorative room that houses a commanding Chippendale settee, Van Cleef & Arpels’ CEO Catherine Renier is holding a piece from the Maison’s Flowerlace collection in her palms to illuminate the Maison’s long history of gold craftsmanship. We are in Dumfries House in historic Ayrshire in south-west Scotland to celebrate ‘Flora’ and two new jewellery lines that extend the Maison’s ‘garden’ alongside these new additions, rare patrimony pieces from the archives also make an appearance, highlighting dialogue between past and present and underscoring the enduring legacy of floral design in the House’s vocabulary.

“Interestingly, Flowerlace has this combination of nature inspiration and couture. It really looks like a ribbon of gold shaping a flower,” explains Reiner. “Gold has long been used by the Maison as an element of construction or fabrication of the piece itself. Around the roaring twenties, into the early thirties, the Maison was using a lot of gold almost as fabric, in the form of lace. We have pieces that look like gold lace, to make flowers, bows, or so. Then you find this ribbon-like design here, inspired by a piece dating back to the late 30s – the silhouette clip, that you saw yesterday – which is where the collection began.”

This evolution of Flowerlace draws on the Maison’s heritage, from the Art Deco Silhouette clips of the 1930s to the ethereal 2007 High Jewellery collection. Where earlier pieces emphasised white gold and airy delicacy, today’s creations bring warmth and volume through yellow gold, gently curved petals, and transformable designs that balance tradition with a contemporary spirit. Crafted with lost-wax casting and meticulous hand-polishing, the new jewels highlight asymmetry, couture-inspired lines, and a sunlit vibrancy that distinguishes them from previous iterations.

“The intricate setting work at the back is meant to protect the stones without being visible. The piece is meant to be worn daily, so it has to be both beautiful and durable,” demonstrates Renier. “It’s the work of the design studio, to think about that, to be inspired, very often by the past and take that idea and move it forward and reinterpret it, without reinventing everything, being innovative, creative, and finding a new way to make it contemporary.”

Throughout its history, Van Cleef & Arpels has had a strong affinity to the values of creativity, transmission and exchange and it is this commitment that has led them to the grounds of Dumfries House, where sits one of the largest and most diverse rose gardens in Scotland. In its longstanding support of the Prince’s Foundation – where both organisations are united in a desire to preserve beauty and enchantment of the natural world for the benefit of local communities – the Maison became the principal patron with the designation of preserving the Rose Garden within the walled garden at Dumfries along with sustainable developments within the Estate. It is an initiative Renier refers to as a simple approach with “bridges and connections that were very natural and organic”.

“I think for us, it’s mostly to contribute in other areas of expression that are important to the Maison. We do it with nature and gardens, we do it with protection of craftsmanship as well, or dance and contemporary dance more recently, because dance has been an inspiration since the 1940s.”

“We go where we know – territories of expression that are meaningful to us – but that share similar values and objectives: protection, creativity, transmission, education. These are the grounds,” shares Renier. “Here, it’s about protecting a garden and transmitting it for the generations to come. It’s a lot about supporting the creativity of young artists, but also transmitting this love and passion for modern dance, giving a chance for a festival to travel around the world, and so on and so forth. But when we speak the same language, then it comes to life very naturally.”

The protection of the natural world and keeping people and communities at its heart feels intrinsic and certainly a meaningful way to praise the beauty of flora and fauna. “I think it’s really the idea of bringing these, new flowers of our garden, of our jewellery garden, into a real garden that was linked to the Maison, that had a meaning for us, and that rose garden truly had a meaning,” says Renier. “We loved the fact that Scotland was unexpected, an experience as well, together with a strong partner that has very common grounds of respecting heritage, like in this building, sharing craftsmanship like the workshops today.”