See the Latest Looks from Angelina Jolie’s Jewelry Line
Courtesy Robert Procop; Inset: Evan Agostini/AP
“It’s a labor of love,” Jolie’s co-designer, Robert Procop, tells PEOPLE. That’s in part because 100 percent of profits benefit the actress’s charity, the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. In fact, she’s planning to break ground on a school for girls in Qala Gadu, Afghanistan, using funds from jewelry sales.
“Our commitment is always supporting the children’s charity, which remains the overall intention and purpose of the collection,” Procop adds.
But there’s fun involved, too; Procop says the pair “strive for nothing less than artistic innovation with every jewel,” like the newest offering, a sleek emerald bracelet (above). “She is very classically chic,” he says of Jolie. “We cultivated this style, which echoes a woman’s timeless allure. When you see the collection, it has a distinction. When you look at it, you recognize that it’s the Style of Jolie.”
Last year, Procop told PEOPLE that Jolie was involved “every step of the way” in the design process. “[The collection] is what she enjoys wearing on the red carpet, but also what she enjoys when she’s at home,” he added.
She enjoys wearing it on her ring finger, too; Procop created her engagement ring with input from her longtime partner, Brad Pitt. According to a rep for the jeweler, “the feedback [on the ring] has been wonderful. It’s all about love.”
–Kate Hogan, with reporting by Mary Green
Colored Stones: Angelina Jolie & Robert Procop's New Jewelry Collection
Style
of Jolie bracelet with 50.59 cts. t.w. tablet-cut emeralds in 18k rose
gold; price on request; Robert Procop, Beverly Hills, Calif.;
310-276-6041; robertprocop.com
The Jeweler and Jolie
At age 16, Robert Procop spent his summer working at a pawn shop in the Mid-City district of Los Angeles, where he learned how to buy and sell diamonds. The income he earned from his trades allowed him to open his first retail store, Diamonds on Rodeo, in Beverly Hills barely a year out of college.Procop developed a reputation for handling fine stones, eventually leading him to London, where he served as CEO of the crown jeweler Asprey & Garrard from 1999 to 2000, while it was the subject of a legal dispute between the sultan of Brunei and his profligate brother, Prince Jefri. “The year I took over, the company had a 100 million sterling loss,” Procop says. He helped it break even before selling it to the Tommy Hilfiger group.
Procop then returned to Los Angeles in 2000 and began developing his Beverly Hills–based business around “exceptional jewels” worn by heads of state and A-list celebrities—A-plus, in some cases.
In August 2010, Procop began working with Angelina Jolie on Style of Jolie, a collection of sumptuous gemstone pieces distinguished by saturated colors in streamlined 18k gold settings. “We have a long-standing relationship through jewels I’ve done,” he says. “We wanted to do a collection with big jewels, but she doesn’t do anything unless it’s for charity.” (All proceeds from the collection fund Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, a nonprofit that helps educate children in conflict-stricken areas.)
Style of Jolie earrings with 17.40 cts. t.w. cushion-cut emeralds in 18k rose gold; price on request
To translate her preferred palette of green, black, and yellow into gemstones, Procop selected the finest-quality specimens of Colombian emeralds, black spinel, and “honey citrine” and set them in high-polished 18k rose gold. The monochromatic jewels start around $4,000 retail and top out at seven figures (for a rose gold necklace set with some 103 cts. of Colombian emeralds in a glowing, Platonic green).
The Procop alliance has gone so well that even Brad Pitt, Jolie’s longtime partner, has gotten in on the action. In early April, Jolie was spotted with a sizable diamond ring on her left hand. A statement from the jeweler confirmed the engagement: “Brad had a specific vision for this ring, which he realized over a yearlong collaboration with Robert.”
IHT Special Report: Jewelry
Stars Add Glitter to Jeweler's Designs
By VICTORIA GOMELSKY
Published: May 16, 2012
A fixture in the Beverly Hills jewelry scene since opening his first
store, Diamonds on Rodeo, in 1982, Mr. Procop had his most significant
moment in the limelight a dozen years ago, when he helped adorn 13
nominees and winners for the 2000 Academy Awards in Hollywood.
At the time, he had been recruited to oversee the financial
restructuring of Asprey & Garrard, the London-based jeweler to the
British crown. The company had run into deep trouble under the ownership
of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei’s profligate younger
brother.
“I figured we had to do something to bring people back to the store on
Bond Street,” Mr. Procop said from a small but light-filled showroom in
Beverly Hills, where he maintains an exclusive wholesale and
by-appointment business, Robert Procop Exceptional Jewels. “And I
thought, well, if I’m going to do the Oscars, I’ll do them at one time.”
Among the celebrities Mr. Procop worked with that night was Hilary
Swank, a best-actress nominee for her performance in “Boys Don’t Cry.”
He put her in an antique necklace that he created at the last minute by
deconstructing an Asprey & Garrard tiara.
“She won the Oscar, so it was her lucky charm,” he said.
As it happened, Mr. Procop was equally charmed that night. He made the
acquaintance of Ms. Jolie after dressing her in an antique Asprey &
Garrard Art Deco bracelet.
As the two got to know each other, Ms. Jolie became, if not quite Mr.
Procop’s muse, then an enthusiastic collaborator. She brought her first
idea to him in 2008, when she suggested they co-design a snake-themed
collection called The Protector, with proceeds to go to the Education
Partnership for Children of Conflict, the nonprofit Ms. Jolie founded in
2007.
“She doesn’t do anything unless it’s for charity,” Mr. Procop said.
In 2008, Ms. Jolie asked the jeweler to help her design a pendant
bearing a hidden message as a Christmas gift for Mr. Pitt, setting the
stage for a co-designed collection inspired by ancient tablets.
“We studied all different kinds of tablets — old Chinese tablets, the
Ten Commandments, antique tablets from the Arabian peninsula,” he said.
“From there, we formulated how a diamond might look if we engraved it,
and then made a vessel to hold what you would think was a heavy stone,
and from there we made a pendant for Brad.”
The process by which the actress and jeweler worked — exchanging ideas
and sketches during carefully choreographed encounters in foreign cities
where their paths happened to cross — laid the groundwork for an even
more fruitful collaboration: In 2010 the pair embarked on Style of
Jolie, a collection of pieces featuring rich, saturated gemstones —
especially fine Colombian emeralds, black spinel and honey-colored
citrines — in sculptural gold mountings.
“She has a very classic, chic style; there is a pureness to it. She
doesn’t like the small micropavé,” Mr. Procop said. “We’re designing
things she would wear, that she really truly loves. Then we sell them
and give 100 percent to charity.”
The line, which incorporates both the tablet setting and plenty of
bezel-set gems in rounded cushion cuts, originated with a storyboarding
process that, to hear Mr. Procop tell it, Ms. Jolie approached with an
art historian’s rigor.
“She comes with more ideas and more research and books and images and
she finds things I can’t find,” he said, pointing to the wall, where a
series of storyboards plastered with images of full-bodied women from
Renaissance-era paintings provided the basis for the collection’s
trademark curves.
Style of Jolie will debut in the United States this autumn. But
interested buyers should take note of the collection’s high quotient of
one-of-a-kind and limited edition pieces, which, given the publicity Mr.
Procop has received, may soon be spoken for.
On the Monday in April that followed the first known sighting of Ms.
Jolie wearing her new engagement ring — a sizable tablet-cut stunner
flanked by straight-edged diamonds in graduating sizes — Mr. Procop said
he had to turn off his phone to stem the flood of media inquiries he
had received over the weekend.
He offered up a few tidbits in a statement: “The ring was entirely hand
carved in yellow gold. Every diamond is custom faceted to design
specifications of gem quality” but beyond those spare details, Mr.
Procop declined to elaborate, citing his respect for the newly engaged
couple.
“It’s their moment,” he said. “I’m hesitant to take the spotlight.”
