Van Cleef & Arpels has opened a new 564-square-metre boutique at Alexandra House, creating a more spacious setting for its fine and high jewellery, watches, fragrances and heritage pieces. White sculptural petals appear to hover across the textured glass façade, while oak, limestone and greenery shape the interiors. Inside, the store is arranged as a sequence of salons and intimate rooms around a central staircase of limestone and oak, crowned by a hand-embroidered ceiling. After dark, the glass exterior catches the city’s lights, linking the maison’s new address to the energy of Central.
Designed by Studio Jouin Manku, the boutique builds on the designers’ earlier work for Van Cleef & Arpels in Hong Kong. Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku revisit the earlier store’s natural materials, greenery and interplay of light, while giving the new space a distinct character. A calm palette of cream, beige, laurel green and warm wood carries through the interiors, where light filters across glass, fabric and plaster. On the ground floor, a rounded oak-panelled salon has an inviting, residential feel, with botanical wall coverings made for the maison. Nearby, a smoked-oak bookcase conceals a private salon; a display case emerges when a jewel is ready to be presented, turning the viewing into a considered reveal.
Other rooms draw on the maison’s craft and history. The tea-ceremony salon features a rose-toned mineral surface developed in collaboration with L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts in Hong Kong, while the upstairs watch salon pairs midnight blue, beige and wood with a ceiling motif inspired by the guilloché patterns of Van Cleef & Arpels timepieces. The fragrance room recalls the maison’s historic boutique at 22 Place Vendôme, with perfume-organ-inspired alcoves, layered glass and textiles, botanical details and touches of gold leaf.
The design also reflects the studio’s long-standing fascination with Hong Kong’s meeting of mountains, water, vegetation and dense city streets. Those influences appear here in a more subtle, abstract form, across a larger setting that gives each of the maison’s worlds room to breathe. A dedicated exhibition area will present four shows each year, beginning with Welcome to Van Cleef & Arpels’ Universe, featuring pieces from the maison’s heritage collection. At the heart of the boutique is an invitation to slow down, set aside distractions and spend time with the objects on display a quiet gesture in one of Central’s busiest neighbourhoods.
