Jewelry Lovers

This new fashion-conscious era expanded the market for costume jewelry. Decorative and amusing ornamentation became an essential. Even Chanel had crept out of retirement to reinvigorate the market with ‘multi-layers of gilt, glass stones and pearls.’ Chanel-inspired Renaissance jewelry remained in vogue well into the sixties. Christian Dior’s jewelry designs during the fifties were increasingly produced by his protege, Yves Saint Laurent.

The decreasing supplies of natural materials and the introduction of new plastics and technologies all fostered the continuing growth of the costume jewelry market after the war. Aspreys produced a highly successful brooch in ‘washable plastic’, but on the whole the attitude towards new materials was more conservative in Britain than it was in France and America where costume jewelry was more wholeheartedly embraced. Parisians loved ‘faux gems’ and many French couturiers encouraged the use of bold, but essentially classic designs. Christian Dior, who created the ‘New Look’, developed the theatrical qualities of costume jewelry.

There was a high level of competition amongst the retailing outlets of costume jewelry. The couture houses and leading manufacturers such as Napier, Corocraft and Trifari competed fiercely with one another, and started using the type of marketing techniques and outlets adopted by the cosmetics industry. Adrian Mann was one of the first costume jewelry wholesalers in Britain. He, and the other suppliers, started to popularize their goods with increased attention to excellent packaging and advertising.

The introduction of ‘poppet’ plastic beads in the early fifties offers an excellent example of how effectively new cheap jewelry fashions could spread throughout the Western market, using some of the outlets of the cosmetics trade. The beads were patented by Geoffrey Charles and sold through Walter Scaife Limited in the USA and Elizabeth Arden in Britain. In some respects they were the first truly ‘popular‘ jewelry item.

Another favourite form of jewelry at the time was the ‘bone-crunching’ charm bracelet. This was known as the ‘democratic accessory’ and was worn by America’s First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower. Charms were purchased to commemorate special occasions, or more personal motifs could be bought. Some were mass-produced to promote new hobbies and interests, including popular music and flower gardening.

Ankle bracelets were available for the first time as a variation on the wrist variety, and furry button earrings were produced as a cheaper, Surrealistic alternative to ones made from precious materials.

‘Suburban’ jewelry

A more conservative type of contemporary jewelry design was that produced for the mid-town suburban market that rose to prominence in the mid-fifties. Some truly unremarkable jewels were produced for the middle-class housewife of suburban America and this type of unadventurous design spread from there to the equivalent market in Europe.

The Artist-Jewelers

In contrast with the traditional jewelry houses who were concentrating increasingly on gem-set extravagances, a new division of the jewelry trade began to make its mark. This was the rise of the artist-jeweler. At this period the artist-jewelers worked particularly in silver. Their designs echoed some of the newly discovered molecular structures that had been illustrated at the New York World Fair and the Festival of Britain.

In America, the artist-jewelers were especially flourishing. Many of them were Europeans who had been teaching at the Bauhaus and had been forced to flee to America during the war. Bauhaus ideology became a major factor in postwar design debate, breaking down the boundaries between the fine and decorative arts. The work of several of the designers of the time is hard to fit into any traditional jewelry category. Sam Kramer’s pieces, for example, incorporate found objects, ‘aping other contemporary American fine artists who were using the sculptural and painterly technique of assemblage’. From onwards Kramer had a shop in Greenwich Village in

New York, where he explored the ideas current in the world of fine art, particularly abstract expressionism. During the fifties and early sixties his work became increasingly abstract. He put a great emphasis on texture, creating rocky formations and rough-edged contours that were in complete contrast with the smooth-faceted cuts used by the traditional jewelry trade.

The Swedish Vernacular

Design in Scandinavia followed its own individualist path, founded on their continuing craft tradition, their democratic principles and their enduring respect for the materials they used. An exhibition held in Halsinborg exemplified how the Swedish home was to be a microcosm of economical and socially egalitarian ideals. Their design styles became increasingly influential throughout the rest of Europe, especially their use of organic forms in contrast to geometric and mechanical ones.

Georg Jensen’s jewelry and silversmithing firm in Copenhagen was the most outstanding exponent of the Scandinavian vernacular style. He operated throughout the postwar period, and his son Soren Georg Jensen continued to maintain his traditions. He employed a number of other well-known designers such as Koppel, Pederson and Malinowski.

The advent of the sixties

It was at the start of the sixties that cheap travel and television heralded the true birth of popular culture. Fashion trends in the early sixties were no longer set by the old guard, but by youth cultures such as the Mods and Rockers, and the Teds. These previously disregarded sectors of society became ‘zingos who bolted the pack .. . crashed out of the mould and smashed it to smithereens . . . invented their own look, their own sound, their own age .. . knocked over the establishment and established themselves for today’.

The popular image of the sixties is of a society characterized by androgynous fashions, LSD, rock and roll, and women’s liberation. While this image has obviously been exaggerated, it has its roots in fact, and the sixties were certainly an era of more youthful and liberal attitudes than previous decades.

Early sixties Jewelry

Jewelry design inevitably reflected these changing attitudes. Whereas jewelry had still been divisible into categories of formal and casual wear, these distinctions begin to blur. Jewelry was worn in large quantities. Huge plastic and chunky necklaces were very popular. It was ‘hip’ for rich and poor not only to wear mini-skirts, but to flaunt fake jewels.

Designers ceased to adhere closely to the dictates of Paris fashion, and instead London became the fashion leader of the period. Mary Quant was the first fashion designer to open a ready-to-wear boutique in London with relatively inexpensive clothes and accessories for everyone.

Fashion magazines and films idealized the new style of modern extravaganza. It was favoured by the era’s ‘first goddess’, Jackie Kennedy, which immediately ensured that it would be widely copied, and it held sway from then until the time of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Handcraft Costume Jewelry