The Most Dazzling Additions to Van Cleef & Arpels’ Perlée Collection
Van Cleef & Arpels adds more pizzazz to its iconic pearls of gold — this year, the Maison’s feminine Perlée collection gets imbued with more colour than ever before. And truly making our Perlée world go around are the collection’s new watches, which feature mirror-polished beads encircling the timepieces’ dials, and even forming a yellow gold bracelet.
Living in a bubble isn’t a bad thing — not when that bubble is The Palais Bulles of Pierre Cardin, an enormous house near Cannes where the late couturier and art patron entertained guests. And it is in this remarkable ‘Bubble Palace’ — where almost every fixture and fitting is curved, circular or spherical — that Van Cleef & Arpels recently previewed the latest additions to its 14-year-old Perlée collection to the press. Most fitting, if you ask us: The Perlée collection, after all, is a joyous celebration of the Maison’s boldly lustrous yet delicate golden beads — each one perfectly at home in the effervescent Palais Bulles.
The house’s architect, the late Antti Lovag, likened the home and architecture in general to a “form of play — spontaneous, joyful, full of surprise”. And the very same can be said of Van Cleef & Arpels’ latest Perlée pieces, which include the new Couleurs rings bearing vibrant ornamental stones like turquoise and coral; the Couleurs 5-row rings that introduce coloured precious stones like emeralds and rubies to the Perlée collection; and Perlée pendants and bracelets that have been updated with lapis lazuli and coral. Perhaps even more notable is the introduction of new timepieces — five surprisingly versatile day-to-night jewels that tell the time.
On the Perlée watch, the Maison’s characteristic mirror-polished gold beads encase the dial, which comes in mother-of-pearl, onyx or yellow gold. A guilloché motif decorates each dial — so your timepiece is bound to subtly sparkle in the light. Where bracelets are concerned, there are interchangeable grosgrain fabric straps in classic pansy blue, black or white. Our bracelet of choice? The full yellow gold style composed of articulated gold beads, of course.
And while Van Cleef & Arpels has got the ball rolling with colourful new Perlée pieces, there’s no better time for the house to add three Toi & Moi secret watches to the Perlée family. The open bangle stunners, which were first launched three years ago, now come in striking combinations of rose gold with diamonds, turquoise, coral and mother-of-pearl; yellow gold with diamonds, turquoise and mother-of-pearl; and rose gold with diamonds, carnelian, black pietersite, and mother-of-pearl.
