Van Cleef & Arpels’ move into literature is part of luxury’s latest cultural shift

We are used to luxury brands collaborating with visual artists, partnerships that lend themselves to hyped-up limited-edition collectable products. But when a luxury house turns to literature, it opens a new chapter in cultural collaborations, one that’s worth noting.

This month (June 2025), L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, joins forces with Italian publishing house Franco Maria Ricci to launch Dédale, a multilingual series of pre-existing but repackaged literary works, all loosely themed around the world of jewellery and the pleasure of collecting.

The Dédale series, named after the Greek craftsman Daedalus – a nod to the beauty of invention and discovery – debuts with three titles: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Stefan Zweig’s The Invisible Collection, and George Sand’s Laura: A Journey into the Crystal. Each book is published in English, French, and Italian, with two new volumes to be added to the series each year, one in spring and one in autumn.

The project is the brainchild of Nicolas Bos, former CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels and now CEO of Richemont Group, who in his youth was an avid reader of The Library of Babel, a series of classics curated by Jorge Luis Borges and published by Franco Maria Ricci. Around a decade ago, during a visit to Ricci at his headquarters at Labirinto della Masone, an idiosyncratic museum-cum-bookshop surrounded by the world's largest bamboo maze (Labirinto in Italian), the idea of a future collaboration took root.

The partnership is, in marketing jargon, totally on-brand. Van Cleef & Arpels’ jewellery has long drawn inspiration from literature, from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet to classic fairy tales and, in a more recent high jewellery collection, Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Publishing also aligns with L’École’s mission. Founded in 2012 by Van Cleef & Arpels, the school has released over 60 publications to accompany its free exhibitions and share the work of its research department. One such publication, the digital dossier Jewels and Literature, developed in partnership with France's Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library), marked the first in-depth exploration of the links between jewellery and the literary world.

Unexpected as it may seem, this publishing venture is in step with a broader cultural shift focusing on literature. During Milan Design Week 2025, Miu Miu held its second book club focused on classic female authors; in June, Chanel will award its inaugural Prix de la Mode et de la Littérature; and Montblanc is funding the €35 million restoration of Goethe’s house in Weimar, in addition to the various literary prizes and initiatives it supports. If luxury once sought credibility through visual art, today it’s moving into more layered cultural territory, and literature, with its associations of introspection as well as female empowerment – cue the many women-led book clubs, from Oprah Winfrey’s to Dua Lipa’s – offers rich ground.

The new series of books is available to buy at lecolevancleefarpels.com