My seg­ment on MARTHA today. I just got back from doing the show. It was won­der­ful. Martha is a con­sum­mate pro­fes­sional, and every­one who works on the show is amaz­ing beyond words!! There is a real treat in store for MARTHA fans for Valentine’s Day, and I encour­age all of you to tune in (you couldn’t pos­si­bly just watch me…the show is too good!) Please for­give me for being so brief as I am utterly exhausted and I have been MIA for my fam­ily for the last few days. I will back on the blog tomor­row with a new post so I hope you will please join me then. xo

Here is an announce­ment from Rizzoli’s pub­lic­ity depart­ment today:

We are pleased to announce that Lori Ettlinger Gross, author of Brooches: Time­less Adorn­ment, will be on MARTHA on Feb­ru­ary 8^th.

In NYC, MARTHA airs on WNBC/Channel 4 at 11am ET. Check other local list­ings for times and stations.

It was clear from the sparingly-applied orna­men­ta­tion that the peo­ple of Haiti were on the minds of Golden Globe atten­dees last night. And if you haven’t yet given what­ever you can to the Red Cross or any one of the emergency-relief orga­ni­za­tions seek­ing imme­di­ate fund­ing, please do! They need it most urgently now. Make this a life les­son for your chil­dren. When each of our three teenage boys heard that their par­ents had given money to these efforts, they inde­pen­dently and vol­un­tar­ily (and with­out inform­ing us until after­ward) donated from their own hard-earned sav­ings. A very proud moment in the Gross household.

Ok, and now for the show…

Given the dis­play of restraint, there were still a few bright spots, many of which would trans­late nicely to us civil­ians. Hands down Julia Roberts won the evening jewel-wise. She wore an absolutely incred­i­ble 1972 Van Cleef & Arpels eighteen-carat yel­low gold and cit­rine neck­lace with a sexy, petite-noir YSL dress. The look appeared effort­less, nat­ural, yet respect­fully appro­pri­ate given the zeit­geist of the evening. Loved the fact that Halle Berry, Jane Krakowski and direc­tor, Kathryn Bigelow were wear­ing pieces by geode-splicing Kim­berly McDon­ald; her work is very well exe­cuted and has an edgy indi­vid­u­al­ity rarely seen on the red car­pet. Courteney Cox played to her strengths in an extremely flat­ter­ing Vic­to­ria Beck­ham gown and deep brown Lor­raine Schwartz drop ear­rings. Carey Mulligan’s bril­liant head­band read refined ingenue; a nice touch that placed the focus on her adorable short do. Cal­ista Flock­hart made a defin­i­tive case for pearls — who­ever chose the color of the strand she wore had a superla­tive eye for sub­tlety — they under­scored the creami­ness of her skin to per­fec­tion and in a way the cam­era could cel­e­brate. Two understated-but-smouldering awards should go to Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Kris­ten Bell. Bell’s for her fit­ted VCA Folie de Pres neck­lace and her short, daz­zling white Jas­mine Di Milo dress, and Anis­ton in gold jew­elry and a black Valentino gown, a slightly less for­mal look, that proved the sen­su­ous­ness of yel­low metal. Tina Fey, one of my writ­ing heros, gets kudos for keep­ing real and wear­ing what suited her per­sonal style — a plucky Zac Posen with a Dior’s New Look vibe, and fit­ted yet gen­er­ous dia­mond earrings.

As for those who needed tweak­ing, well, I’ve been called to the mat recently for my can­dor so I’ll keep it as tact­ful I can here. The gor­geous Amy Adams should have rethought the brooch from Car­olina Herrera’s per­sonal col­lec­tion. I com­pletely under­stand what she was attempt­ing with the jabot pin, and I com­mend the effort. How­ever, the place­ment was off. When she turned side­ways it made it look as though a part of her anatomy was tipped in gold — a kind of Janet Jack­son wardrobe mal­func­tion with­out the dis­garded wardrobe. I would have rec­om­mended that the orna­ment be placed sim­i­larly, just higher up towards the shoulder.

All the asym­met­ri­cal neck­lines were lovely but why every­one felt the need to com­pletely divert the atten­tion to the wrist (far too many bracelets and/or ban­gles) or wear no jew­elry at all, was dis­ap­point­ing. Mag­gie Gyl­len­haal, who could not have worn that sculpted vision of pink bet­ter, went fairly bare; the sin­gle bracelet too tame for such inven­tive­ness. I also greatly admired Juliana Mar­gulies in her well-chosen Nar­ciso Rodriguez, and as she stated she kept the jew­elry sim­ple with a, “less as more” approach. Ok, but… small and slight is not nec­es­sar­ily less on the red car­pet, and it cer­tainly wasn’t more with the strong archi­tec­ture of the gown. She could have done a fab­u­lous, fit­ted ear­ring with­out upturn­ing her stream­lined look. Last but not least, Mariah Carey, whose jewel style I have admired here in pre­vi­ous sea­sons. That reveal of décolletage deserved far more elab­o­rate jew­els. If you are going to dress diva, then please go the whole way, not half. May West’s style as a buxom beauty included a slather­ing of dia­monds, opera singers have always dressed their dra­matic tal­ent in a show of gems, both fine and faux. Carey’s cur­va­ceous attrib­utes would have been bet­ter framed with jew­els of pro­por­tion­ate pres­ence. The lack of bal­ance is what brought her look to a halt­ing objection.

On another note: The folks at Philip Stein sent over one of their new Fruitz watches for me to try out their “nat­ural fre­quency tech­nol­ogy” which accord­ing to the com­pany, “… encom­passes the chief res­o­nant fre­quency of the nat­ural earth and is a fre­quency that is har­mo­nious and ground­ing to life… and con­sumers have reported bet­ter sleep, less stress, clearer focus and bet­ter con­cen­tra­tion when wear­ing Philip Stein watches…” The com­pany intro­duced it “elec­tro­mag­netic tech­nol­ogy” watches in 2003, and devel­oped their “nat­ural fre­quency tech­nol­ogy” in 2008. I’m wear­ing the white peach ver­sion for the first time today. Style-wise the watch is really cute, if not stream­lined (sporty would be a bet­ter word). It has a Japan­ese made quartz move­ment, comes in deli­cious col­ors with coor­di­nat­ing rub­ber bands, dis­plays a large, easy-to-read round face and lays com­fort­ably on the wrist. The all-white watch I’ve got on my wrist right now is equally attrac­tive, if not a lit­tle chic. I can­not tell if the “nat­ural fre­quency tech­nol­ogy” is work­ing yet — or at all. I’ll give it another day or two before I decide. I’m sure stress will find me by Wednes­day. I was won­der­ing, though, in order to get a bet­ter night’s sleep, do I have to wear the watch overnight? Hmmm… that would be a deal breaker. I am very selec­tive as to my bejew­eled bed part­ners. What kind of girl do you think I am anyway?

Gear­ing up for the Golden Globe Awards this Sun­day night, jew­el­ers, such as the haute house of Cartier, are cater­ing to Hollywood’s A-list. Up In The Air’s Anna Kendrick was get­ting the star treat­ment and try­ing on a
num­ber of rock-em/sock-em gems that would eas­ily knock-out the com­pe­ti­tion (and let’s not fool our­selves into think­ing that these events aren’t about scene steal­ing among the nom­i­nees). I hope that Ms. Kendrick made choices that played up her petite frame and per­sonal style. On the video, there was one neck­lace that looked truly beau­ti­ful on her. That par­tic­u­lar exam­ple would make an excel­lent choice. Not every­one goes with what suits them as much as what is trend-itiorial. In fact, try­ing too hard has become pan­demic at the GG’s — too much of even a great jewel is still too much.

I once was watch­ing an old 1930s news­reel of a Hol­ly­wood pre­mier. The actresses, whom I couldn’t iden­tify, seemed so relaxed and nat­ural, and yet, so ele­gant and refined at the same time. Their jew­elry was equally appro­pri­ate — gor­geous too — but it didn’t seem to bog them down in impor­tance. In fact, I would describe the look as not quite dowdy with an uplift­ing note of naive exu­ber­ance. Almost as if they were debu­tants wear­ing their grandmother’s heir­looms to their first social and didn’t know how to wear them with atti­tude. Ignor­ing the bauble on your arm as if were your own skin. That is the way to wear almost any type of jew­elry, and cer­tainly the way it appears most nat­ural. Just fyi…

Thomas Jefferson’s watch key con­tain­ing the plaited hair of his deceased wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson’s watch key con­tain­ing the plaited hair of his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson

On Jan­u­ary 22, 2010, Thomas Jefferson’s watch key will be sold by Christies. Watches in the eigh­teenth cen­tury were wound by hand using a key-shaped device; they had to be wound each and every day. This par­tic­u­larly remark­able exam­ple con­tains the plaited auburn hair of his deceased wife, Martha Wayles Jef­fer­son, who was thirty-three at the time of her death. Note the ele­gant engrav­ing on the front explain­ing its con­tents. Jef­fer­son was utterly dev­as­tated by the loss; Martha died shortly after giv­ing birth to their sixth child. The front of the key lists Mrs. Jefferson’s day of her birth as well as the day of her pass­ing: Sep­tem­ber 6, 1782.

Happy new year to all! I’ve just returned from the land of grand­par­ents and far too many good restau­rants: Palm Beach, Florida. So in my relaxed and rested state off I go to the gym to rid of my sins. In truth, I don’t really care. Togeth­er­ness can’t be counted in calo­ries. Um, well, actually…it prob­a­bly can. How­ever, for the first time in a very long while, I went on hol­i­day, and it was won­der­ful. No jew­elry, no gems, no anti­quar­i­ans, no haute houses. Just the beach, some shells, my hus­band, the sun, and our sons — who needed a state­ment necklace?

And now I’m back and ready to roll with the new year. Hope­fully I will have some excit­ing news to share in the not too dis­tant future. Too soon to dis­cuss still. Fin­gers’ crossed!

Michael Kors Spring 2010

In the 1973 futur­is­tic com­edy, Sleeper, Woody Allen is trans­fixed by “The Orb of Ecstasy,” a large metal ball that sup­plies him with a drug fix with­out actu­ally ingest­ing a nar­cotic. Such clas­sic Woody Allen sight gags have become the stuff of fash­ion fod­der, at least for Michael Kors and Alexis Bit­tar who teamed up for Spring 2010 to cre­ate a col­lec­tion of Lucite jew­elry inspired the film. How does the Kors/Bittar col­lab com­pare to Allen’s wit and socio-comedic wis­dom? It’s tough act to fol­low. As main char­ac­ter Miles Mon­roe states mem­o­rably, and with­out a hint of irony, “My brain…that’s my sec­ond favorite organ!”

As this year comes to a close, my last post is about look­ing back. No…not at 2009 — I should like this year with its finan­cial woes and pro­fes­sional fits-and-starts behind me. Instead, today, we are going back, oh, about one hun­dred and seventy-four years to the begin­ning of the reign of Queen Vic­to­ria. She ruled Great Britain for sixty-four years (1837−1901), and was the most influ­en­tial taste-maker of her time and for a cen­tury or more, after­ward. Dior’s mid-twentieth-century fem­i­nine New Look was accom­pa­nied by the flora, fauna, and ribbon-bow bounty of neo-Victorian jewelry.

We still feel the affects of how the Queen chose to express her mood. The mourn­ing jew­els she wore in wid­ow­hood are today’s street-wise Vic­to­ri­ana (a ref­er­ence term we might not have oth­er­wise). The recent return in the pop­u­lar­ity of the snake as a orna­men­tal motif is largely inspired by the jew­elry in her per­sonal col­lec­tion, and in par­tic­u­lar, the gifts from her beloved Prince Albert.

When you view these images, please keep in mind that the pieces worn by Emily Blunt in the film are not squarely Vic­to­rian, remem­ber the film takes place around 1837, her jew­els are tran­si­tional, or still retain the tra­di­tional expanse and for­mal­ity of decades prior. Prince Albert’s later con­tri­bu­tions to what we have come to know as Vic­to­rian jew­elry is not to be under­es­ti­mated. Here, a quote from the Queen, after his passing,

“He did every­thing — every­where! Noth­ing did I do with­out him, from the great­est to the small­est, from State Affairs, from Polit­i­cal Ques­tions to the arrang­ing (of) our Albums, our lit­tle pho­tographs, the design­ing and order­ing of Jew­elry, the buy­ing of a dress or a bon­net … all was done together; my first word was ‘I must ask Albert.’”

Best wishes to all of you who have spent time with me — thank you, and happy and healthy hol­i­days! Meet you back here in 2010…xo, LEG

The Young Vic­to­ria, movie poster

The Young Victoria

Gell­ner pearls and clasp

Aaron Faber Gallery is host­ing a Gell­ner trunk show that begins tomor­row and runs through Fri­day. Gell­ner is a com­pany that sources won­der­ful pearls and is known for a unique clasp­ing device that is both dec­o­ra­tive, and seam­less. The clasps are inter­change­able, offer­ing ver­sa­til­ity, and they may be worn sep­a­rately. The com­pany will also Gellner-ize a client’s already exist­ing strand of pearls so that it can accom­mo­date one of their clasps. Aaron Faber Gallery will be offer­ing an exclu­sive range, many designed by arti­san Michael Zobel. The con­cept is fun and orig­i­nal; the myr­iad of looks one can achieve by sim­ply chang­ing the clasp is out­stand­ing — I would highly rec­om­mend that you carve out time of your pre-holiday sched­ule to stop by and see the collection.

There will be one more post this week before we say adieu to 2009. Prob­a­bly Fri­day, or Thurs­day, if I can get every­thing else off my desk.

Princess Mathilde Cor­sage Orna­ment This six-inch rose was crafted in 1855 for Princess Mathilde, daugh­ter of Napoleon’s brother, Jerome. 2,637 sparkling Brazil­ian dia­monds. © Siegel­son Collection

about roses, that is. And there is some proof. It involves Joséphine de Beauhar­nais, wife of Napoleon, and her once glo­ri­ous estate, Malmaison.

Among the things I like best about being a writer is research. Ho-hum, you might say, but wait a minute, hear me out first.

Research can be a wind­ing road that almost always appears promis­ing. Taaa-da… your not there yet…and we don’t know when you’ll arrive, but keep going, there is light. And really, no, there’s not. All you see are the shad­ows cast from your own headlights.

Yet more often than not, there are moments when I am com­pletely trans­ported. You could even say hijacked. Fly­ing across cen­turies, hob­bling over cob­ble­stones, dirt roads, through forests so thick that slen­der shafts of day­light are as wide as your index fin­ger. Along these high­ways, you find intox­i­cat­ing lev­els of social strata, royal stand­ing, his­tory, and per­sonal style, revealed often by infer­ence or with such sub­tlety that mys­tery can be found within enigma.

I have been study­ing var­i­ous sub­jects for my next book. One was jew­elry of sur­pris­ing or secret prove­nance or ori­gin. One day, in speak­ing with a col­league at Siegel­son, she men­tioned Mal­mai­son, the home of Joséphine dur­ing and after her mar­riage to Napoleon (when they divorced, the estate became her per­ma­nent res­i­dence), and the rose beds that even­tu­ally became the most renowned in the world. This was part of a con­ver­sa­tion about the rose cor­sage orna­ment illus­trated above. She won­dered aloud where the motif came from, and what was its inspi­ra­tion. It’s owner was Princess Mathilde Bona­parte, daugh­ter of Napoleon’s brother Jerome. Would it be pos­si­ble to some­how con­nect Mal­mai­son to the cor­sage ornament?

I had the occa­sion to pose a ques­tion to old rose expert, author, and his­to­rian, Brent C. Dick­er­son about Mal­mai­son. This was his response, “In bring­ing together as many of the dif­fer­ent sort of roses obtain­able at the time, Joséphine gave rose breed­ers an impe­tus to cre­ate new roses and to start cross-breeding these new exotic sorts with more usual kind.” In quot­ing Jean-Pierre Vib­ert, the cel­e­brated rose-breeder of the first half of the nineteenth-century, Dick­er­son said, “Who doesn’t know that she brought together at Mal­mai­son one of the rich­est col­lec­tions of plants and shrubs…Fanciers, min­gle some­times with your plea­sures the mem­ory of a woman on whom Virtue imposes silence from all cliques, and whose name was as dear to Flora as it was to Mankind.”

Prior to com­ing across Mr. Dick­er­son, I had casu­ally combed the web for clues. Find­ing noth­ing, I moved on — jot­ting down my talk­ing points for my guest appear­ance on Martha Stew­art radio’s Mornin­ing Liv­ing, which was this morn­ing at 7 am EST. The show is repeated, in case you missed it. Check the sched­ule online. I was the first inter­view of the day.

And just like a tired lit­tle one pulling on your sleeve, and your heart­strings, some­thing about the cor­sage orna­ment and Mal­mai­son was tug­ging at my thoughts. The answer was there, I just had to find it. Some jew­els do that. There was one from Frances Klein, an Edwar­dian pen­dant done in plique ajour enamel, its cen­tral motif a Star of David with green foliage sur­round­ing it. A col­league con­tacted me and asked in half jest if the leaves were mar­i­juana. Look­ing at it by con­tem­po­rary cul­tural per­spec­tives, this expla­na­tion almost seemed plau­si­ble, and mar­ketable, just not in a good way. So I gazed at it longer, did some research and voila, the answer jumped through my com­puter screen. The pen­dant sym­bol­ized valiant national resis­tance, hon­ored great men, and showed sup­port for Israel’s nascent inde­pen­dence. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime min­is­ter, took his Hebrew last name from one of Bar-Kokhba’s gen­er­als in 1914, just about the time the pen­dant was made.

And now back to the cor­sage orna­ment and Malmaison…well, I did query Mr. Dick­er­son again about the rose. He in turn asked about its color — some­thing I hadn’t con­sid­ered since I assumed that Theodore Fes­ter, the jew­eler who cre­ated it, used the white dia­monds he could source at the time. Well, it turns out that the color of our rose was pos­si­bly sig­nif­i­cant. It seems that, as per the rose expert, there was a white Tea rose cre­ated in 1847, and its name? Princesse Mathilde. Now to muck things up a bit, Mr. Dick­er­son did say orig­i­nally that he thought the rose was what he called a Hybrid Per­pet­ual (HP) which dom­i­nated the rose world from 1845 to 1885. The form of the flower, the lush­ness of the leaves, and the fat buds and wide sepals as cre­ated by Fes­ter were con­sis­tent with an HP. But what about its color. Ah, it is here where the hue of the story turns a whiter shade of pale, as the song goes. HP are light pink to the deep­est black-red, red-purple. The rose Princesse Mathilde, accord­ing to Mr. Dickerson’s expla­na­tion, “…was described as being white with orange/yellow.” Another inter­est­ing tid­bit: the Princesse Mathilde rose was released by breeder Giraud d’Haussy of Neuilly, France — a for­mer gar­dener at Mal­mai­son dur­ing the time of Joséphine. Of course, more research to ver­ify the facts is nec­es­sary and the rose clas­si­fi­ca­tions need to be clar­i­fied, but taken as I was back to the edge of Paris — I arrived at the doorstep of Mal­mai­son and could almost smell the heav­enly scent in the air.

A rose is a rose is a rose — unless it the one of the rarest exam­ples of royal French jew­elry extant today. The orna­ment is cur­rently on dis­play in The Nature of Dia­monds exhi­bi­tion at The Field Museum in Chicago.