Are Men Taking Over Van Cleef & Arpels?
Van Cleef & Arpels: A Legacy of Feminine Elegance
Van Cleef & Arpels has created a name for itself as a premium luxury jewelry brand catering to both the elegant sophisticated ladies of high society and the bold wild ones with a flare for the dramatics. If it’s jewelry, Van Cleef is the place to be. Van Cleef’s jewelry pieces have been adorned by Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Eva Perón, and even the Duchess of Windsor. All the ladies had a feminine soft quality reflected in the designs they adorned. Van Cleef & Arpels has a reputation for delicate gem work using a wide array of precious stones in their jewelry, including diamonds, sapphires, and carnelian, making pieces for royalty like Queen Sophia of Spain and the crown for Empress Farah Pahlavi’s coronation for which a team was employed to Iran to choose the gems that would be used for the crown and 11 months of work was put in before the company presented the empress with a crown made of emerald velvet set with 36 emeralds, 36 rubies, 105 pearls and 1,469 diamonds. Modern celebrities like Mariah Carey and Reese Witherspoon frequently flaunt their Van Cleef pieces.
The Unexpected Rise of Male Consumers
Van Cleef & Arpels Men’s Jewelry
Recently though, there has been a rise in the consumer segment for the brand. This time it is men eyeing the brand contrary to its popular belief of delicate feminine consumers being their main consumer segment. The 2024 Summer Olympics are in full swing in Paris where several male athletes were spotted wearing the brand’s jewelry while performing. This time the Olympics are being held in France making the event a hotspot for fashion and a golden opportunity for brands to partner with athletes to reach new consumers.
Chun Man Tang, a Badminton player from Team Hong Kong, was the first person spotted in a Van Cleef & Arpels golden bracelet during his mixed doubles match, fencer Cheung Ka Long also from Team Hong Kong wore a red Carnelian crystals bracelet from the brand. Previously, Lebron James and hip-hop artists Drake and A$AP Rocky have also worn the clover designs of Van Cleef & Arpels. Worn by American and European male sports stars and hip-hop artists, the classic four-leaf clover series of French luxury jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels has recently come into the trend spotlight, attracting attention from Chinese male consumers.
Van Cleef has many famous collections like their Van Cleef Mystery Set famous for their 1933 patented mystery technique where the prongs are invisible and each stone is faceted onto gold rails with a thickness of less than two-tenths of a millimeter and requires nearly 300 hours of work per piece. It is a sought-after design created in a limited number due to the precision required. Men however are raving about the Van Cleef & Arpels’ signature collection, the Alhambra, a four-leaf clover with a scalloped outline that represents luck, love, and health. The clover has been adorned with a wide assortment of precious stones, with mother-of-pearl reigning supreme.
Van Cleef & Arpels’ Signature Alhambra Collection
Luck has been a major guiding light for the brand as Four-leaf clover motifs first appeared in Maison’s archives as early as the 1920s, embellishing select creations over the years alongside other symbols of good fortune, including wooden talismans, charms, and benevolent fairies. Jacques Arpels, the nephew of the founding couple and an avid collector, would often pick four-leaf clovers in his backyard, offering them to his employees as good luck charms. “To be lucky, you have to believe in luck,” Jacques Arpels liked to say. This collection was created in 1968 and was inspired by quatrefoil motifs found on the Moorish tiles of the Alhambra Palace in Granada. This coveted collection spans rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and watches. The collection was initially meant for women but now men seem to have taken over.
If you don’t know, the brand first started as a family venture with a romantic story of the union of Estelle Arpels, the daughter of a dealer in precious stones, and Alfred Van Cleef, the son of a stone cutter. The couple married in 1895 and based on their love for jewelry Alfred and his father-in-law Saloman Arpels started building their store. Unfortunately, it was only after the demise of Saloman that the first store was opened in 1906, with his two sons-Charles and Julien taking his place. The boutique was opened in Place Vendome in Paris, directly across from the Ritz Hotel. This location attracted many European aristocrats who fell in love with Van Cleef & Arpels’ creations, thereby helping to spread the Maison’s timeless pieces with the world and soon after they were opening their boutiques in holiday resorts in Nice and Monte-Carlo, to name a couple.
Their first big recognition came from winning the grand prize at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts for their bracelet with rubies and diamonds fashioned as red and white flowers in 1925. Since then Van Cleef has been crafting delicate pieces for women with their prestigious craftsmanship and innovation. This later led them to make the romantic “Camellia” design flower recreation showcasing alternating rows of circular-cut diamonds and sapphires and the quirky “La Boutique” animal clip collection which was a playful range of cartoon-like animals in various precious stones and gems. Therefore the brand has always shown a wide range of tastes and preferences in women’s jewelry.
In 1968, the Maison created the first Alhambra® long necklace, composed of 20 clover-shaped motifs in creased yellow gold and trimmed with gold beads. This symbolic design achieved immediate success and was recognized as a token of luck, emblematic of Van Cleef & Arpels. A veritable signature of the Maison, the Alhambra collection has consistently reinvented itself over the decades to today’s current collection, enriched with a unique selection of materials, colors, and symbols. After handbags and androgynous fashion, the jewelry industry has seen a boost in men wanting to try out pieces for themselves. The Alhambra collection has been in the spotlight for its influence in America, Europe, and Asia, especially on men. With hip-hop culture rising in popularity from America to China, men want to incorporate brands and designs that have become synonymous with the genre. Van Cleef & Arpels Men’s Jewelry
Apart from this love for hip-hop, Chinese men have discovered delicate jewelry to perfectly fit their aesthetic. Not only does the brand carry a size large enough for men, but they can also pair it with their watches for an added sophisticated flair to their look. Knowing how to properly “stack” your Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry has become a subject of interest within the brand, exploding in search on TikTok, as people look to artfully display their luxurious purchases. Moreover, as the four-leaf clover series comes in basic colors such as silver, black, blue, gold, and green, some may even find it just the right amount of “pop” in color for their wardrobe. Many Chinese men also appreciate the symbol of luck behind the four-leaf clover gemstones.
This also hints at the potential for new trends to originate, especially after the Olympics for men and jewelry. It could mean brands creating pieces specifically for men and including bejeweled fashion for men on the runway. Expect to see bedazzled coats, shoes, jeans, and shirts for men. It might even have some futuristic take on it with metallics and golds mixed to create a unique look. They will likely be paired with darker colors to make them stand out even more. The possibilities are endless.
How Male Celebrities Are Shaping Jewelry Trends
Many Western male celebrities such as Harry Styles, Jaden Smith, and Lil Nax X have worn women’s clothing and embraced feminine silhouettes which has influenced more men to express their femininity through fashion creating a demand for such designs for men in the market. Artist A$AP Rocky has repeatedly shown donning pearl necklaces with streetwear and formal wear, which has led to a wave of the “Boy with Pearl” craze in the hip-hop music industry. There was criticism both in the West where people had spoken negatively about Harry Styles’ December 2020 Vogue cover where Gucci’s Alessandro Michele crafted a frothy, lace-trimmed dress for the former One Direction member as people on Twitter bemoaned the death of masculinity and China underwent a crackdown on ‘effeminate’ aesthetics in entertainment shows in 2021.
Of course, today’s fashion industry has undergone drastic changes, and traditional conservative jewelry brands have begun to follow suit. With the new generation of consumers gradually becoming buyers, luxury brands must target the young market. Brands such as Cartier and Tiffany & Co. have also been observed shifting to targeting the young market, however, Van Cleef & Arpels remains closely focused on its traditional image with no intention of falling into the trap of youthfulness and fleeting trends, staying true to its rich narratives, rather than focusing on short-lived hype and changes in the market.
