Why Van Cleef & Arpels’ Alhambra is Richemont’s lucky charm

When Van Cleef & Arpels first launched Alhambra – its discreet yet instantly recognisable line of jewels – in the 1960s, it appealed to a new, younger customer base who wanted accessibly priced yet high-end goods. It was jewellery’s answer to prêt-à-porter, as democratic as Rive Gauche at Yves Saint Laurent, and fed a seemingly insatiable consumer appetite for fine bijoux, especially for women, newly armed with their own incomes, who wanted to buy for themselves.

After nearly six decades of ebbing and flowing in popularity, Alhambra has blossomed once again, garnering a wide-ranging fan base. Wherever you turn, the four-leaf clover motif (prices start at £1,300) hangs from necks, wraps around wrists and dangles off earlobes both young and old. Rappers including Central Cee and Offset wear stacks of Alhambra bracelets, while Drake namechecks the brand in his songs. TikTok influencers discuss at length which iteration – from malachite to mother-of-pearl – is their favourite. The Princess of Wales wears Alhambra on the red carpet, as does Queen Camilla; England footballers’ wives and girlfriends wear them on the terraces. 

The renewed success of Alhambra, and Van Cleef & Arpels, has helped to buoy parent company Richemont, whose jewellery category was up four per cent (at constant exchange rates) in the past quarter amidst a broader luxury downturn. The company doesn’t reveal earnings for individual houses within its stable, yet Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail equity research at HSBC, says his company estimates the brand’s sales at around $4bn. 

It is worn both by rappers and Queen Camilla

“Given the environment we’re in, it’s a pretty incredible feat to be able to grow at all in luxury. And of that four per cent, we work out that [growth] is probably somewhere in the low-to-mid teens for Van Cleef,” he says, adding that the brand is “clearly gaining significant share internally within the group but also relative to peers”.

Much of the appeal of Alhambra lies in its amulet-like design. The brand has long promoted themes of luck, with the four-leaf clover appearing in the archives as early as 1906. Jacques Arpels, nephew of the maison’s founders and eventual CEO, was said to pick four-leaf clovers from the grounds of his house in France and press them onto cards to give to employees as a pick-me-up. 

The first Alhambra – a long necklace in plain gold, with 20 quatrefoil motifs – was made in 1968 in Paris. There are plenty of theories about where the name came from, the most common that it was in honour of the 13th-century Alhambra fortress complex in Granada, which is redolent with Moorish symbols. Another posits that an Arpels family relative, on a visit to Venice, mistook the gothic quatrefoils of the Doge’s Palace for the Andalusian palace, and the style was named after that. 

The title and design played on a perceived exoticism, and also exemplified the free-spirited cultural climate of the ’60s, which favoured long chains and medallions that could be layered over each other. The different materials of the quatrefoil, too, from coral to green agate, appealed to the era’s tastes for bold colour. In 1974, Françoise Hardy, queen of yé-yé, was photographed wearing the little clover motifs, as was actor Romy Schneider. Princess Grace of Monaco, in 1979, wore strands of plain gold, mother-of-pearl and onyx Alhambras over a pussybow blouse, while Elizabeth Taylor had an impressive collection that she continuously replenished over the years. 

In China, four or five years ago, it was virtually unknown

Today, Alhambra is as important to Van Cleef & Arpels as the Love range is to Cartier or T is to Tiffany & Co, thanks to what Rambourg says was a concerted marketing effort to “put Van Cleef on the map”. He adds: “Van Cleef is having a moment, but it took a while to happen… In China, four or five years ago, it was virtually unknown. They did a good job of creating events, advertising and developing in-store experiences to grow it.” 

This strategy was executed under the guidance of Nicolas Bos, CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels between 2013 and 2024, promoted this year to group CEO of Richemont. In the 2024 annual report, Bos attributed the brand’s success to a strong retail network spanning the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which it plans to grow further, as well as accelerated production capacity, with new workshop openings planned. 

Brand strategy aside, analytics platform WeArisma attributes Alhambra’s surge in popularity to “word-of-mouth”. “Paid influencer activities, despite growing more than 60 per cent year-on-year, are not a major focus for the brand,” says WeArisma founder Jenny Tsai. “They make up just four per cent of 2024’s [Van Cleef & Arpels] content and generate four per cent of interactions. Instead, [the brand] relies more on organic content.” TikTok influencer Chloe L, for example, mentioned Van Cleef & Arpels of her own accord in 52 posts over 11 months, including how to maximise Alhambra purchases through “girl math” as well as styling tips. (It’s a mix of “aspirational storytelling and subtle luxury branding”, says Tsai.)

The desirability of Alhambra is reflected in the secondary market, where sales are up 56 per cent year-on-year at luxury reseller The RealReal, with sales of the Vintage Alhambra pendant necklace up 64 per cent year-on-year. “The average price for Alhambra pieces has climbed significantly, with styles such as the 10 motifs necklace now selling for upwards of $1,000 more than before,” adds Hayley Powell, The RealReal’s merchandise manager of fine jewellery. Similarly, at high-end online marketplace 1stDibs, searches grew 20 per cent in the past year, with a spike in recent months. “In October, the volume of searches was up nearly 140 per cent versus the trailing 12-month average,” says Anthony Barzilay Freund, 1stDibs editorial director and director of fine art. And resale platform Vestiaire Collective reports a steady increase in Alhambra sales between 2020 and 2024, up 186 per cent.

“Alhambra is in that camp of: if I’m in a bar or restaurant, even at a distance, I immediately understand that he or she is wearing Van Cleef,” adds Rambourg. “And it’s increasingly ‘he’, because Van Cleef has been incredibly successful at becoming relevant to demographics that you could not imagine.” From next year the maison will continue to add new creations to the Alhambra collection. The messaging has paid off – and turned the line into a true, lasting icon.