From the outset, costume jewelry — also known as fashion jewelry — paralleled the styles of its more precious fine counterparts. Allowing the growing middle class affordable ways to adorn themselves, this category offered aesthetically pleasing but less expensive designs.
In her beautifully illustrated, fact-filled book Adorning Fashion: The History of Costume Jewellery to Modern Times, author Deanna Farneti Cera offers a comprehensive guide to the topic. An international expert on European and American fashion jewelry, she follows the category’s evolution over three centuries — from the mid-1700s through the 1980s — and discusses the materials, manufacturing techniques, inspirations and influences that went into the development of different styles.
Rise of the non-precious
In the late 18th century, the bourgeoisie was “a new social class born with the first Industrial Revolution,” and its members “wanted the privilege to wear jewelry previously reserved for royalty and nobles,” Cera explains. “As they were not rich enough to afford fine jewelry, imitation jewelry — with the same look but made in non-precious materials — started to appear.”
These non-precious pieces were “conceived with the same models, colors and techniques used in fine jewelry,” according to Cera, and during the 19th century, they gradually “acquired more and more success across society” as adornments.
Aiding this process in the early 20th century was French designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who declared “that really elegant women were those who could mix together different jewelry, real and fake, suitable for each occasion as foreseen by the dress code of those days,” Cera continues. This lent greater legitimacy to non-precious jewelry, with designers and makers conceiving different models and color combinations than those in fine jewelry. As such, she says, “bijoux de couture [non-precious jewelry meant for haute couture dresses] and fashion jewelry started to be created with the aim to complete an outfit and not as a status symbol.”
Culture and couture
As with fine jewelry, fashion-jewelry trends took their cues from what was happening in the world at large.
“Social/economic events such as the war in Germany against Napoleon (1813 to 1814) provoked the invention of iron jewelry,” relates the author. “In fact, the Prussian royal family, in order to raise funds to fight Napoleon, asked their women subjects to give in their gold jewelry in exchange for iron jewelry. The death in 1861 of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, caused the start of a new trend: black jewelry as a sign of mourning. It necessarily had to be made in unconventional materials for jewelry, including black jet and later its imitations.”
In the 20th century and beyond, the pairing of couturiers and the fashion jewelry created for their brands helped advance such jewelry’s popularity. The reason, Cera explains, is that “the success of couturiers, today and in the past, depends on how good they are at imposing a specific, recognizable style. A piece of fashion jewelry on a dress or coat, commissioned by a couturier, is the element that stresses his or her style and makes it even more recognizable.”
The simplicity of Chanel’s clothes, for instance, “is emphasized by her ornaments in the style of antique museum jewelry, mainly Byzantine and Medieval in accent, and traditional jewelry from Eastern cultures,” elaborates Cera. “Christian Dior’s love for classicism is accentuated by the traditional subjects of his bijoux de couture, such as flowers, swallows, hearts, love knots and angels. [Italian designer] Elsa Schiaparelli’s love for avant-garde art and surrealism in particular is [evident in] the subjects chosen for her fashion adornments and accessories in general.”
Cera counts Chanel, Versace, Dior, Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton as some of “the most important contemporary brands in costume jewelry.” While “traditionally, the names of craftsmen and designers who work for brands are kept secret and are practically unknown to the public,” she points to “a few names in Paris, such as Maison Gripoix, Robert Goossens and Stefano Poletti, who are known by a [wide] public because they struggled for a long time, year after year, to impose their name.”
The next generation
Today, environmental and practical considerations figure into the designs as well. “The most recent trend in fashion jewelry is to make adornments sustainable (see Stella McCartney) and durable, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak,” notes the author.
As a teacher, Cera was inspired to pass along her knowledge of costume jewelry to the next generation. “It took me five years to put the book together, and the pieces published in Adorning Fashion were collected and put aside for 35 years.” Each piece of non-precious jewelry that appears in the book exemplifies one of the category’s characteristics, she says: “historical importance, a new technique, a good example of the style of a certain couturier, a good combination of colors, etc.” Using the jewelry as examples, she notes, is “a particularly pleasant way to deal with a subject.”
Adorning Fashion: The History of Costume Jewellery to Modern Times is published by ACC Art Books.
Images: Dorillo & Roda; Francesca Franzò; Porro StefanoArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2020. To subscribe click here.