Van Cleef & Arpels’ L’ÉCOLE: Learning Pearls, Craft and Cultural Time
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
L’ÉCOLE School of Jewelry Arts, founded by Van Cleef & Arpels, reframes high jewelry as a shared cultural practice through hands-on education and exhibitions. The Hong Kong campus, designed by Sou Fujimoto, offers sensory learning spaces where students study pearls’ biology, history and environmental role—examining specimens like akoya, conch and melo melo pearls and learning to judge luster and form. Classes link jewelry to social, geological and environmental history. A companion exhibition at the University Museum and Art Gallery traced 200 years (1770–1970) of French jewelry design through gouache (gouache) drawings and archives, highlighting drawing as the creative and technical foundation of jewelry and the transmission of craftsmanship. L’ÉCOLE’s mission is public education—using tactile study and exhibitions to turn jewelry from luxury object into cultural knowledge—and it plans collaborations with Korean artisans to blend traditions and expand creative possibilities.
