Almost 60 years since the launch of its iconic Alhambra motif, Van Cleef & Arpels has unveiled a new update in hot pink enamel and the results are super covetable. Read about it below.
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Beloved by everyone from Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor to sporting stars like Simone Biles and Jack Grealish to even the Princess of Wales, Van Cleef & Arpels‘ Alhambra jewellery has charmed legions of fans since it debuted in 1968 as an opera-length necklace.
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.
Over the decades, the Alhambra has been reinvented in a rainbow of different materials, including wood, engraved gold, Sèvre porcelain, rock crystal, and ornamental stones like malachite, tiger’s eye, turquoise, carnelian, and lapis lazuli.
Today, the maison has unveiled a chic new iteration in vivid pink enamel, chosen “to perpetuate the collection’s polychrome identity,” it has said.
The bright pink hue was achieved using an enamelling technique inspired by a 17th-century method called the ‘gold ruby’ process, where the colour is formed by the presence of fine gold particles in the material, rather than the use of pigments. It’s a complex procedure, requiring just the right size, shape and concentration of concentration of gold particles to achieve the perfect hue, and required years of research and development to create.
The result? A glossy, translucent pink enamel strewn with tiny reflective bubbles, which seem to shimmer with life and energy like champagne, set in yellow gold and guilloché engraved clovers.
As expected, each quatrefoil motif is also trimmed with Van Cleef & Arpels’ signature ‘perlée’ beading, a goldsmithing technique used since the 1920s. The frames are created with the ancient ‘lost wax’ method, then polished and finished by hand to ensure a perfect fit around the central piece of enamel.
The new collection is made up of a pendant necklace, bracelet, long and short necklaces and drop earrings, and is available now.
What do you think? Would you fall for the charms of Van Cleef & Arpel’s latest lucky clover?
And: Take a closer look at the classic Alhambra pieces worn by Catherine, Princess of Wales
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