That one jewellery from every old money edit comes in pink now

Van Cleef & Arpels' Alhambra line first appeared in 1968 and never really left the shelves as it kept fetching strong resale numbers (it retains 80-90% of its value, if collectors are to be believed). The delicate pieces were inspired by real four-leaf clovers that Jacques Arpels collected from his backyard in Germigny-l'Évêque, France.

The Alhambra has evolved through a rich palette of materials, from onyx, carnelian and mother-of-pearl to guilloché gold and Sèvres porcelain, and now comes in a translucent pink enamel.

Van Cleef says it took the brand several years of research within Van Cleef & Arpels' enamel workshop, and the pink was achieved by a "gold ruby" technique, which apparently dates back to the 17th century.

But it says more about the end of quiet luxury than it lets on. The black onyx Alhambra, favoured by the Grace of Monaco (who would style the monochrome Alhambra sautoirs with almost everything in the seventies) used to be a sneaky symbol of a trust fund or at least bottomless credit, till a certain time.

Between 2023 and 2025, Van Cleef made several price changes to its flagship models and hiked up the rates when this piece of jewellery became the most obvious old money marker on Instagram and Tik Tok.

Fakes and cheap copies flooded markets across the globe; the real stuff costs something around $3,000 to $5,000+ for basic bracelets and pendants, while the fakes cost much, much less, and some of them were even masterful replicas.

Realistically speaking, dissecting a fake Alhambra from a dupe is a big challenge for a non-collector's eye. So, Van Cleef needed something else, something with 'look at me' energy.

What's behind Van Cleef's monetisation of the old money reset

The black onyx and mother of pearl Alhambra pieces had unshakeable dominion in the early 2020s. And if everyone is sick of it, it's likely because the internet over-indexed on quiet luxury. It goes without saying that the whole old money aesthetic lacks imagination, of course and was limiting for retail.

Not to mention, pink is targeted at the post-minimalist luxury consumer who may not want their luxury spends to be so quiet. Richemont, Van Cleef’s parent company, generates an estimated $3.5 billion+ annually from the brand, with the jewellery division delivering double-digit year-over-year sales surges.

To protect those numbers, Van Cleef couldn't let its primary revenue driver feel stale. Pink may act as a high-margin reset button: it breaks the monochrome fatigue without requiring the brand to invent an entirely new product line (not that it needs to though).

The dopamine styling thing comes into play too. Old-money style leans heavily on high-end outerwear, structured coats, tailored trenches, and heavy wools in charcoal, navy, and camel; a monochrome black or white pendant disappears against a dark winter coat.

A pink pendant can be a high-contrast accent piece. It allows the consumer to keep their $5,000 coat strictly minimalist while "micro-dosing" colour with a high-margin accessory.

Abandoning old money styling codes?

Van Cleef doesn't just sell metal and stone; it sells access. The colour pink in the new line is generated not by pigments, but rather by the presence of fine gold particles in the composition of the material.

By introducing difficult-to-source or complex pink variations perfected by the maison, the house may simply be creating artificial bottlenecks.

The holiday season is only a few weeks away and in the West, restricted supply drives immediate resale spikes. On secondary platforms, rare or holiday-edition pink Alhambra pieces frequently trade at 130% to 180% of their original retail price.

From a brand positioning perspective, pivoting to pink is a tightrope walk. Too bright, and you look like plastic and too pale, and it gets lost on camera.

But then again, Van Cleef may simply be chasing posterity in the TikTok era. Inserting a high-margin, gold-fused hot pink enamel trinket into its most recognisable silhouette is a great way for an old maison to tackle luxury's fatigue problem.

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