Necklaces Van Cleef & Arpels

The iconic Alhambra necklace and its variations

Necklaces have written the history of Van Cleef & Arpels, from the passe-partout necklace of the 1930s to the zip necklace twenty years later. But it was even later, in 1968 precisely, that the Place Vendôme house gave birth to an authentic icon of French jewelry, the Alhambra collection, with its motif inspired by the four-leaf clover symbolizing good luck. The first piece of jewelry was then a sautoir adorned with 20 crumpled yellow gold motifs bordered by gold pearls, worn by Romy Schneider as well as Françoise Hardy or Princess Grace of Monaco. The collection was revisited many times, with Vintage Alhambra now as the bridgehead. It takes up the codes of the initial version by declining, in the form of pendants, chokers or necklaces, all-yellow gold clover motifs, paved with diamonds or set with mother-of-pearl, carnelian, malachite, agate or even chalcedony. The Magic Alhambra line also rose to iconic jewelry status starting in 2006, still featuring harmonious combinations of materials, but with designs of different sizes - 16 clovers, for example, on the sautoir. The six clovers necklace, for example, combines white gold with chalcedony and white and gray mother-of-pearl in a "joyful dance. But Alhambra, they are still the Byzantine Alhambra pendant, exclusively in 18-carat yellow gold, Sweet Alhambra with its miniature hearts or butterflies motifs, Pure Alhambra, with slightly domed clovers...

Nature and couture, the emblematic motifs of Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels' iconic collection unveils a signature of the House, the pearled strap, found in the necklaces and pendants of the aptly named Perlée line and its wide range of shapes and colors. The art of combining gold, precious, fine or hard stones so well mastered by the jewelers of Van Cleef & Arpels actually magnifies all of the House's jewelry, necklaces in mind. Frivole unveils heart-shaped petals worked in mirror-polished gold around a diamond, in single- and multi-bloom designs. The Two Butterfly pendants transcribe the grace and beauty of butterflies in flight, combining color and asymmetry, in rose gold, diamond and mother-of-pearl or diamond and sapphire. If nature is one of Van Cleef & Arpels' great sources of inspiration, couture is another. The House's creations around this domain are called Buttercup and Winter Tales, a series of necklaces in white jewelry around the ribbon motif. Their sobriety is answered by the colors of Bouton d'Or necklaces and pendants: the yellow gold Paillette motif is adorned, for example, with round diamonds, turquoise and lapis lazuli on the pendant, when the necklace plays with the colors of golds and stones, chrysoprase, onyx, carnelian, etc. The ensemble is inevitably reminiscent of the style of jewelry from the 1930s as imagined by Van Cleef & Arpels at the time, around themes such as Art Deco, the Orient and haute couture.