Despite the searing warmth of yet another London heatwave, Catherine Princess of Wales looked cool as a cucumber at the 2026 Wimbledon men’s final, clad in a grass-green dress and classic mother-of-pearl Alhambra jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels.
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As royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the Princess attends the finals at Wimbledon every year and awards the championship trophies to the victors and runners-up of the competition.
This year, the Princess stepped into the Royal Box for the final day of the Championships wearing a soft green summer dress by British designer Emilia Wickstead and her trusty mother-of-pearl Alhambra earrings by Van Cleef & Arpels.
She was joined in the Box by her family, including her husband William, Prince of Wales and their two eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Both children, the Princess revealed to semi-finalist Arthur Fery, are also avid tennis fans.
The Princess’s delicate, clover-motif earrings have had several high-profile outings in the past, including to the BAFTAs in 2020, where the Princess paired them with a matching necklace, a royal tour of the Caribbean in 2022 and then again a year later at a concert to celebrate the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Introduced in the 1960s, Van Cleef & Arpels’ emblematic Alhambra collection was conceived for a new cohort of free-spirited women who were increasingly buying fine jewellery for themselves and wearing it every day. Though clover designs have been a part of the Parisian maker’s repertoire since the early 1900s, the innovative motif as we know it first appeared in 1968 on an opera-length necklace featuring 20 four-leaf clovers.
Its design was inspired by the traditional good luck charm, a favourite of Jacques Arpels (a nephew of one of the maison’s founding families), as well as the exotic quatrefoil motifs that decorate the Moorish Palace in Spain – from which the jewel derives its name.
Chic and endlessly versatile, Alhambra was quickly embraced by tastemakers such as Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor and went on to become a bestseller. Today, the range has expanded to include rings, earrings, bracelets and watches, and it remains one of the most collectible jewels in the world, popular with A-list athletes (Simone Biles, Jack Grealish, LeBron James), musicians (Central Cee, Offset, Cardi B) and even royalty (the Princess of Wales, Queen Camilla) who perhaps embrace the motif for its lucky associations.
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