Run, don't walk to the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at 91st and Fifth Avenue in New York City.  Arrive early because the exhibit gets crowded quickly and there is a lot to see. Moving through this retrospective, you quickly understand the impact of this jewelry house on all of the David Webb designs.  The inspiration Webb takes from Van Cleef is akin to the way the immensely talented Fulco Verdura's work informs the entire Seaman Schepps oeuvre.

I loved the minaudieres in the exhibit, the compact jewel-encrusted evening bags, a sub-category of clutches Fiona Kotur has such a wonderful modern take on.  But my favorite jewelry was among the minority category of stones--the semi-precious--including tourmaline, amethyst and aquamarine.  I'm drawn to the palette of semi-precious stones, which I find so much more beautiful than precious stones.  And I feasted for twenty minutes on the knock-out necklace made for Elizabeth Taylor of Amethyst and Turquoise, one of my favorite pieces of the day.

But the revelation came after I left, which is that diamonds were the least interesting stones in the exhibit and certainly the least beautiful.  Let's face it: diamonds are cold, hard and colorless.  Why wear them when the dreamy colors of moonstone, tourmaline, chalcedony, labradorite, citrine and rose quartz are available?