#Van Cleef & Arpels’ Sweet Clovers collection celebrates luck

As Jacques Arpels — the nephew of Van Cleef & Arpels’ founders Estelle Arpels and her husband, Alfred Van Cleef — was fond of saying, “To be lucky, you must believe in luck.” 

The French jeweler clearly believes: Just look at the storied maison’s signature motifs — from fairies and unicorns to ladybugs and four-leaf clovers.

The house’s latest Perlée Sweet Clovers collection, launching June 14th, continues that lucky streak. Featuring bracelets and rings in three gold finishes — yellow, rose and white — the line shimmers with slimmed-down takes on the house’s existing Perlée Clover line. (All the better for mixing, matching and stacking to your heart’s content.)

The new line showcases two brand signatures — four-leaf clovers (which first appeared in its archives in 1906) and Perlée creations, dotted with tiny golden beads.

Although the official Perlée collection debuted in 2008, it was modeled on vintage Van Cleef & Arpels pieces dating back to the 1920s. In the 1960s, those same beads were wound into VCA’s Twist collection, used to accentuate pearls and other stones. By 1968, the glistening globes popped up in the Alhambra collection, enhancing lucky pieces with a clover-inspired quatrefoil — a motif that debuted in a long necklace and has remained a pillar of the brand ever since.

Today’s Perlée clovers are framed by two rows of hand-set golden beads, each shaped into a smooth sphere and hand-polished to a high gleam. Each shamrock is shaped around a single gold bead at the center, surrounded by four brilliant round diamonds of exceptional color and clarity for intense sparkle. 

The delicate new “sweet” clovers pieces are embellished with 10 clovers on each bracelet and five on each ring. Double or triple their impact by wearing them in mixed-metal stacks and mingling them with other Perlée pieces. 

Or — for an unforgettable gift — do as Jacques did all those years ago when he discovered a four-leaf clover in his backyard: Offer it to someone who needs a boost, along with the uplifting poem “Don’t Quit,” by John Greenleaf Whittier.

All at London Jewelers, 2046 Northern Blvd., Manhasset, LI and at Van Cleef & Arpels