When Van Cleef & Arpels established L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, in Paris, in 2012, the French jeweller wanted to create a space that both the public and connoisseurs could visit to learn more about jewellery.
While other decorative arts are quite accessible, jewellery has always felt a bit intimidating to those outside the field, as Olivier Segura, director of L’École Asia-Pacific, explains in an interview in Hong Kong, where the school opened its first location outside Paris, in 2019.
“So this is a place that didn’t exist before, where you can meet experts and specialists based on three pillars: the world of gemstones, craftsmanship and art history of jewellery.”
Over the years, L’École has opened temporary locations in cities such as Tokyo and New York, and earlier this year L’École China, a third permanent location, opened in Shanghai.
“Ten years ago Shanghai wouldn’t have been ready for this – the level of understanding of luxury and sophistication were not there,” says Giulietta Yu, director of L’École China. “But when we started this project two years ago we felt that the local market was mature enough and there was a need for this type of education.”
She says the target audience in Shanghai is much younger than in Hong Kong or Paris.
L’École China is in the Twin Villas, a beautifully restored 1920s building in Shanghai’s former French Concession which Yu describes as “a hidden treasure”.
Segura says that there was no concrete plan to expand to different countries when the school first opened, and that it happened organically thanks to the great response from the public in France and beyond.
“When we first opened in Paris we decided to have these travelling schools and bring the teachers and workers around the world like a circus,” he says. “Everyone is passionate about jewellery and gemstones and everyone was asking to have L’École.”
Segura adds that an initiative such as L’École makes perfect sense for a jewellery maison and that the word “school” actually doesn’t do justice to all the programmes and projects that are part of L’École.
“Even though it’s named ‘school’, we have different paths to knowledge: exhibitions, publications, talks …” he says. “Everything is part of this transmission and education project because when you have passion for something you want to talk about it with friends and the general public and you want to share it.
“As a brand it’s difficult to invite people to the workshops to talk to experts or artisans, so the idea is to create a place where you can welcome friends, the public, clients, students …”
“When I started developing this course I was worried and asked my Chinese friends if it was right for L’École, a European institution, to do a class on jade but they reassured me that there was nothing wrong with a French school teaching jade because they were interested in finding out how we in the West perceive it,” Segura says.
The green mineral is one of his favourite stones, he adds, along with rubies and pearls.
As he explains, humankind, from its very beginning, has always used jewellery as a form of adornment, so jewellery in a way is the most ancient decorative art form.
“We aim to make jewellery not intimidating but welcoming for everyone and every age because ultimately it’s something that you wear and carry with you all the time.”
