Singapore bag brand Aupen launches its first jewellery line in partnership with LVMH
The debut fine jewellery collection as well as an archival bag collection will drop on Nov 1
[SINGAPORE] Local bag brand Aupen, known for its A-list celebrity following, will launch its debut fine jewellery collection on Nov 1. This is in partnership with LVMH Metiers d’Art – an initiative under the LVMH luxury conglomerate that bridges the best manufacturers with maisons – as part of a collaboration announced in July last year.
Named C’est La Vie (French for “that’s life”), the gold and diamond jewellery are embodiments of Aupen founder Nicholas Tan’s reflections on his personal journey. Drawing inspiration from Australian writer and former palliative carer Bonnie Ware’s book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, each piece revisits a key moment in Tan’s life.
Wave – first worn in January 2024 by American actress Dakota Johnson as a pair of silver earrings gifted to select personalities – transposes the movement of tides into a gold and diamond pendant. For Tan, a former South-east Asian Games gold medalist swimmer, it is a symbol of both strength and letting go.
Meanwhile, Potent is a bullet-shaped piece studded with multi-coloured diamonds as a tribute to Shanghai’s dance club of the same name.
Tan, a Harvard graduate, turns to address his long nights of study in the university library with Veritas – latin for “truth” and the official motto of the Ivy League school. The shield-shaped pendant evokes his regret of intellectualising too much, as well as the promise to live in the present moment.
In Parallel Hearts, a heart-shaped pendant is partially filled with gold and diamonds to represent words that should have been said and the pledge to speak from the heart before it’s too late.
A more light-hearted piece is a golden chocolate bar with a bite mark and 2AM spelt out in diamonds, inspired by Tan’s favourite chocolatier 2am:dessertbar by Janice Wong. It is a tribute to strong friendships, just as another piece, Athena, is named after Tan’s childhood friend “who always told him straight”.
The pendant embodies the goddess of war and is a statement of inner strength, with an arrow symbolising courage and the wisdom to prevail through clarity and conviction.
Along with the jewellery launch exclusively on Aupen’s website on Nov 1 at 10am (Singapore time), is a drop of some of its archival bag designs. One of them, the Joy bag, was recently seen on American actress and singer Selena Gomez.
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