As if being an actress, director, mother and U.N. goodwill ambassador didn’t keep her busy enough, Angelina Jolie is collaborating on a jewelry collection.
She has teamed with Robert Procop, a former chief executive officer of Asprey, who now makes bespoke pieces under the name Robert Procop Exceptional Jewels, to create a collection of jewelry with statement stones.
Procop has been designing pieces for Jolie for the past decade, and they began their collaboration over the last year. The actress wore one of the pieces they created, a faceted black spinel necklace bezel set in rose gold, to the premiere of her film “Salt” in Berlin last summer.
“Angelina has very classic style,” said Procop, who showed items from his collection in London last week. “These are pieces she wears herself.”
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Among the collaborative pieces are a pebble-size, pale green 353-carat beryl pendant, in a rose gold setting and worn on a chain of cushion shape beryl stones, and a graphic, tablet-shape 12.02-carat vivid green emerald ring set in rose gold. Procop said Jolie’s design for the emerald was inspired by “ancient tablet engravings,” and is based on a similar design she created with Procop as a gift for her partner, Brad Pitt.
Pieces from the collection will not be sold in stores, but will be sold privately through Procop’s network of clients, with all of the proceeds from the collaborative designs going toward Jolie’s charity, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. Each piece will be priced individually.
The collection follows Jolie and Pitt’s collaboration on a capsule jewelry line with Asprey last year, which also benefitted the actress’s charity.
Procop designed and sourced pieces that Jolie wears in her new movie, “The Tourist,” including a vintage diamond choker and a pair of yellow sapphire, rectangular cushion cut earrings.
In addition to serving as ceo of Asprey for two years, Procop was ceo of the then-Asprey & Garrard from 1999 to 2000. After the brands were split, he was ceo of Garrard from 2006 to 2008. For the latest venture, Procop said he was drawn to his roots in “exceptional jewels.” Procop has opened a design studio in Beverly Hills, as well as a laboratory in Geneva and offices in New York and Hong Kong.
He noted that in uncertain economic times, many of his clients see major jewelry purchases as investments. Procop works with stones such as emeralds sourced from Colombia, sapphires from Brazil and red and pink diamonds from the Argyle mines in Australia. Among his current designs are a 77.45-carat, brilliant step cushion cut sapphire ring and a 77.7-carat paraiba ring set in rose gold.
“The design of the jewelry starts with the stone, and how to maximize its brilliance and color,” Procop said. “I design the piece of jewelry around it — a beautiful stone should sit by itself.”