40 ARCHDIGEST.COM
THINK PIECE
FRENCH KISS
Paris is for lovers—
and what better way to
keep the City of Light
close to the heart than
this Lady Arpels
Pont des Amoureux
watch by Van Cleef
& Arpels. One of eight
new iterations of
the signature timepiece,
the hand-enameled
scene features a romantic
moment on a bridge
overlooking the Seine.
At noon and midnight,
the mechanized couple
cross from opposite sides
to embrace. Of course,
love can’t always wait.
Thankfully, the kiss can
be relived at the press
of a button. $123,000;
vancleefarpels.com
—JANE KELTNER DE VALLEDESIGN
Special Effects
During the good-taste craze of the 1990s, Johanna Grawunder became bored
with beige. “I wanted a contemporary language, something that was almost
digital,” says the San Francisco– and Milan-based designer, who worked for
16 years with Italian legend Ettore Sottsass, 12 of them as partner at Sottsass
Associati. Light, she discovered, gave her access to “colors you couldn’t find
in a Pantone chip.” Using colored bulbs, she illuminated tables, bookcases,
chandeliers, and entire homes. The effects were both freaky—a heavy cabinet
might appear to hover off the ground—and flattering. “Pink makes everyone
look healthy and happy,” Grawunder notes. “It’s why they painted walls in
Pompeii bright red.” Now she is bringing her digital-age color theory to Milan’s
Palazzo Reale for an exhibition of historic jewelry and objects by Van Cleef &
Arpels, opening November 30 (palazzorealemilano.it). Across 14 rooms, amid
silk walls, inlaid floors, and frescoed ceilings, she will inset minimalist cases—
many of them made of glowing, colored mirror—that display more than 400
examples from the French brand’s illustrious archive. “It’s like time traveling,”
she says of the dialogue between old and new. “In one space you can seethings from the 18th century and the 21st.” grawunder.com (^) —HANNAH MARTIN