L&A Jewellers, the last remaining family run jewellery business in Antwerp that still does all stages of the production process in-house, has a well-deserved reputation for striking luxury jewellery. The Van Camp family has a lasting passion for jewellery design manufacture. And the business continues to be run by the founders’ eleven children. Myriam Van Camp is L&A’s general manager while her sister Hilde is the company’s chief designer.

   

 

L&A’s position within the heart of Antwerp’s diamond district, the centre of the global diamond industry, provides the means and the daily inspiration for their successful business. Antwerp’s diamond district is home to almost 400 jewellery workshops, boasts 12,000 expert diamond cutters and polishers and that accounts for over 50% of the world diamond trade. It is here that jewellery retailers come to source their diamonds. In such a highly competitive environment, jewellery firms continually challenge each other to remain at the cutting edge of the latest and most effective design and manufacturing technology.

The latest jewellery design software with 3-D modelling enables L&A’s designers to create intricate and complex pieces with astonishing accuracy and in a remarkably short space of time. In the current collections, Scented Garden and The Full Circle, the work is extremely fine and complex, necessitating state-of-the-art machine-work combined with personal craftsmanship. While the emphasis is on the production of the latest collections, L&A’s designers are able to create one-off pieces at individual request. Customers are encouraged to provide their own sketches or pictures which Hilde and her design team can then translate into inspirational designs.

 

L&A’s latest collections are particularly striking. The Scented Garden, a range of exquisite flower designs, takes its inspiration from the extraordinary and delicate beauty of the floral kingdom while The Full Circle consists of a series of strikingly original and attractive circular designs. All designs are made with 18 carat gold or 95% platinum, which provides a luxurious, high-quality product. Myriam Van Camp says that they would rather use more gold than credited in order to ensure a premium product.

 

The company’s commitment to superior quality has resulted in international recognition and accolades. L&A is the only Belgian Made jewellery company to have a regular stand at the most prestigious professional diamond fair on the global calendar, the Basel World Fair in Switzerland. They are also one of only a handful of jewellery design companies that have a Swiss carat certification stamp of approval upfront, a certification required for jewellery exports to Switzerland. L&A designed one of the Queen of Morocco’s jewel necklaces for the royal wedding in 2002. Another honour was being selected in 1986 for the design and manufacture of the music industry’s prestigious “Diamond Award,” this was the first time in history that something of value was given using real diamonds.

 

Diamonds are forever, as the saying goes. Elegant, regal and yet humble, these symbols of beauty, purity and strength are timeless, produced in the earth’s core billions of years ago and prized for their almost magical qualities. As timeless as diamonds are, the designs that accentuate their beauty are more influenced by the ebbs and flows of the world fashion scene.

 

Thus while L&A’s core product has traditionally been the diamond engagement ring, the Van Camps are keen to further enhance their brand by collaborating with international design collections and showcasing their products to discerning jewellery customers worldwide. L&A already has a strong international presence, exporting 50% of their creations around the world, particularly to luxury jewellery stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

 

In order to further enhance this reputation and to remain constantly innovative, the Van Camps are looking to take advantage of exciting international design trends. The time is right to showcase the best of Belgian jewellery to the world and to attract more publicity in the upper end of the international jewellery market.