“…the most thrilling characteristic of jewelry is that it is a wearable art form.”
Understanding the history of a great house or the relevance of the collection of a contemporary designer is the study of ingenuity as applied to metal and gemstones. However, the most thrilling characteristic of jewelry is that it is a wearable art form. Where would the little black dress be without the proverbial single strand of pearls? Today we would trade that lonely strand for many, or combine them with a few gorgeous chains. We may even ditch that idea altogether and go with a fabulous pair of earrings and a bracelet or two.
What about a gem-laden knuckleduster? Rings offer a punch of color and still keep the look refined and tailored yet glamorous. How we wear jewelry is more than half of the fashion equation.
Clip Me
April 22nd, 2010
Jennifer Lopez, Back Up Plan Premiere wearing Cartier
Getting clipped can do wonders for your visage and an asymmetrical neckline. Notice the balance Jennifer Lopez achieves with those absolutely spectacular ear clips from Cartier. What I particularly like here is that the earrings read more like an oversized huggy, which side steps the sometimes distracting exaggeration of a big hoop. The expanse of diamonds focuses our attention to what is going on between the two ornaments: her sultry eyes and warm smile. Ms. Lopez makes a great case for the fitted earring, and it is a look that can be adapted to day or evening wear. I breezed through Lord & Taylor’s sale today looking for a fitted pair of Harry Winston-esque earrings that I had admired months earlier. They were gone.
I See A Pattern Here…
April 15th, 2010Pattern. It’s the word on every stylist and editor’s lips these days. The New York Times’ Ruth La Ferla did a story about the way women are putting together a potpourri of textiles crazy with color and swirling in scheme. This look isn’t for everyone, and that’s why Heaven made jewelry. One of the gentler ways to approach your inner bricolage is with pins and brooches. Throw one or more onto a wild pattern and watch what happens — just make the two elements dissimilar enough so that you can clearly delineate the pin from the textile. This is not rocket science but creative play so make sure you love the mix before you set off for the day. If you have a copy of my book, Brooches: Timeless Adornment handy, there are a number of pages where I show pins on prints, beginning with the cover shot. All the images from my book were photographed by David Behl.
Images added 4.16.10:
Mrs. Obama
Mrs. Obama
Pin on plaid
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
No, pattern mayhem, just pin crazy. Image from Vogue.com
Miriam Haskell stick pins, image by David Behl for Brooches: Timeless Adornment
Molly Ringwald Introduces Alex to Oscar
March 11th, 2010
Molly Ringwald wearing jewelry by artist Alexander Calder at the Academy Awards 2010
It’s rare that we see a true modernist statement on the red carpet. Sculptor, artist, and jewelry craftsman, Alexander Calder, might be amused at the thought of the jewelry he gave away as gifts and tokens of affection (and on the rare occasion, commissioned) as being the bright stuff of red carpet fare. Mr. Calder’s brass and silver hammered wire (he once said that he thought best in wire) have done the fashion runway, been featured at a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and now his work shines at Academy Awards. What does this say about jewelry as art? Volumes. As for Molly Ringwald? She gets kudos for being a maverick, and herself at the same time. Pens ready, editors?
Empress Josephine, Jewelry Stylist Nonpareil
February 23rd, 2010
Below is an excerpt from a story in the The New York Times, November, 30, 1913, entitled, “Hints On Wearing Of Jewels”
“Josephine never wore but one jewel at a time, although she loved them and had so many that they would not all get into the large jewel cabinet which belonged to Marie Antoinette. But Josephine understood the value of wearing only one, so that one would shine out in all its glory.” Read the rest of the article here.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…non? (Translation: The more things change, the more they stay the same)
Study Guide on Oscar de la Renta Fall 2010: The Clip Notes
February 18th, 2010There is something to be said for versatility in jewelry. The dress clip makes this case. Popular from the 1920s through the 1950s, these practical sparklers could be found in almost any metal and motif and were commonly designed in two parts so that they could be worn as a single ornament, or separate, mirror-image coordinates. What they do for the neckline — or backline — of black dress cannot be overstated.
Some Styling Notes from Fall 2010
February 16th, 2010
Luca Luca Fall 2010
Not sure if Luca Luca designer Raul Melgoza intended this collier to be worn slightly off-center, still the hint of imbalance adds a note of spontaneity to symmetry of the dress.
Here ignorance is bliss. Completely overlooking the shape or silhouette of a neckline can work when the chain is just long enough to relate yet not interfere.
Luca Luca Fall 2010
Straightforward and easy to emulate. The brooch works to harnass the juncture where all points meet.
Monique Lhuillier Fall 2010
Zac Posen gets points for dreaming of a place for a pin that even I hadn’t considered. As a stand in for a button, perhaps he could sell me this concept if it was positioned higher up on the waist. Seems a little too low for those of us who aren’t the owners of miles of leggy real estate.
Zac Posen Fall 2010
Paris: What It Is That Alber Elbaz Does at Lanvin
October 3rd, 2009
Lanvin Spring 2010
He wraps, folds, drapes, and knots fabrication around the body. He applies jewelry to the whole by piling decades worth of inspiration that messes with this historian’s head — how can a pickpocket mix of mid-century, the rifts on Seaman Schepps’ wooden gems, 1960s blends of clashing color, David Webb-esque beasts chomping at the bit, and 1950s neo-Victoriana, work? Yet they do — and well. This is designer Alber Elbaz’s gift to Lanvin. He is a framer. It is is a well-known premise that a picture frame works best when it so compliments the art it surrounds and the environment in which it is viewed, that it becomes practically invisible.
Lanvin Spring 2010
Lanvin Spring 2010
Lanvin Spring 2010
Lanvin Spring 2010
Lanvin Spring 2010
Paris Fashion Week: Rick Owens Bare Bones Beauty
October 2nd, 2009
Rick Owens Spring 2010
This image struck a cord — the austere black top, a slash of pale skin, white shorts (are those shorts?), and of course the bangle bracelets that look as though someone had wrested the spikes off a Stegosaurus. Clearly, Owens woman is not to be messed with — lean the clothes may be, and in many moments poetically beautiful in their draped details — but woe to the man who tries to tame this creature in conventional chains.
New Exhibition at Museum of Arts and Design: Madeleine Albright, Read My Pins
September 29th, 2009Sorry the pics are not great — I did my best…
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sept. 29, 2009 at Museum of Arts and Design
Exhibiton at Museum of Arts and Design: Read My Pins
The review:
This morning I attended the press preview for the opening of a new exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York entitled Read My Pins. At the center of the installation is our nation’s first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, Secretary Albright shattered a glass ceiling that lead to opportunities for future daughters of diplomacy. In person, Secretary Albright is extremely calm, dignified, and dare I say, seemingly approachable. In her brief remarks at the beginning of the program, she recounted various pin moments — how she wore certain pieces for state occasions, such as the eagle brooch she sported on the day of her Swearing-In ceremony. The pin, an antique with what the Secretary describes as a complex fastener that she didn’t quite understand, hung precipitously off of her jacket for the entire occasion. It did not, however, fall on the bible as she feared. This wasn’t recorded on camera — a rather funny and kind coincidence.
The tour of her notable examples ended poignantly with a pin bestowed upon her by a source she would not foresee. After giving a speech at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, a young man approached her bearing a box. Inside was quite a lovely pin –a fiftieth wedding anniversary gift from the young man’s father to his mother. His mother had just died during Katrina and his father wanted Secretary Albright to have the pin. The reason is given in the book that accompanies the exhibition (p. 158), “…my father and I think she would have wanted you to have it. It would be an honor to her if you would accept it.”
The power of symbolism is strong, be it in a flag, a uniform, or a pin. Leave it to a smart woman to figure that out.
See the exhibit, it is sensibly organized and easy to navigate. You will come away inspired. The show begins September 30, 2009 and will remain on view until January 31, 2010. Visit MAD for further details.
Exhibition: Read My Pins, Museum of Arts and Design
Exhibition: Read My Pins, Museum of Arts and Design
Milan Fashion Week: For Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier Accessories Make It Personal
September 28th, 2009
Bottega Veneta Spring 2010
Bottega Veneta Spring 2010
Sarah Mower’s review of Bottega Veneta’s Spring 2010 runway on Style.com quotes Tomas Maier, the label’s designer, as saying, “‘I think of it as a collaboration with women. The clothes are meant to be a backdrop, a blank canvas, so the wearer can play with color and accessories to change the look and make it her own.’” With the exception of the first image, which I leave to your imagination, as you study the last two note the way he styled the jewelry. It’s simple, straightforward, and yet the pieces have a strong presence that place the focus near the face so as not to distract from the supple silhouette of the dress.
Bottega Veneta Spring 2010