Joining the Van Cleef & Arpels troupe is this en pointe beauty resplendent in yellow sapphires. Photos courtesy Van Cleef & Arpels.

Round and pear-shaped diamonds provide a glittering backdrop for sapphires to stand out on.

BY KAREN AANONSEN

More than 70 years after the first Van Cleef & Arpels Ballerina clip debuted, the designer’s tiny dancers are still capturing imaginations. Taking center stage for the maison in 2015 are four unique, tutu-clad ladies whose costumes come to life in a vivid swirl of diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. Crafted to show their muses in a variety of poses, the brooches stick to brand tradition by outfitting the graceful figures with rose-cut diamond faces. Why continue to use such an antiquated cut? Because of the way its facets delightfully mimic the lines of the face.

—July 2015

The ladies’s costumes fan out from a white gold base.

The only dancer not bedecked in sapphires glides along in a skirt of round rubies.