Christian Dior said that Chanel Costume Jewelry revolutionized fashion, "with a black pullover and ten rows of pearls"...and perhaps Coco Chanel Costume Jewelry, faux pearls and a black sweater actually did!

With today's fashion designers adding fine jewelry to their runway collections, Designer Costume Jewelry has provided inspiration to the Haute Couture designers for nearly eight decades.

There have been so many great costume jewelry designers throughout Jewelry in Art History that trying to correspond jewelry designs with the jewelry designers can be overwhelming. With that in mind, I created a guide to Identifying Costume Jewelry by Designer...

Chanel Costume Jewelry is cherished by Antique Jewelry Investors. Chanel challenged conventions by mixing genuine and fake, and evening jewelry with daytime clothes. "Unconventionality" was the signature trademark for Chanel Costume Jewelry!

A legend of french haute couture, Coco Chanel, (1883-1971) was born, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in Saumur, France.

The craze for costume jewelry began during the decadent age of jazz, when Chanel took jewelry that was previously meant only to be imitations of actual jewels, and changed them around, exaggerating these pieces so that they would never be mistaken for fine jewelry.

Fine, Art deco jewelry was a major influence of the faux costume jewelry under Chanel and the handcrafted jewelry boxes, of fashionable women, by the late 1920s, held both fine jewelry and faux.

Chanel "imitations" were anything but copies, and worn outrageously, such as when flappers looped long strands of oversized pearls around their waif-like figures.

The richness of color and the size of these faux creations grew into exaggerated sculptural forms of astonishing beauty.

Costume jewelry, such as Chanel costume jewelry became a seedbed for design ideas, that look as fresh today, as when they were first created.

From Coco Chanel in the 1920s to Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s to Lanvin today, Haute Couture costume jewelry has been an eye-catching accessory to enhance a designer's view of fashion.

Verdura & Chanel

From 1929 to 1937, Chanel collaborated with Count Fulco di Verdura (not Vendura) who launched a series of extraordinary designs in rococo and baroque styles that included her signature Maltese cross cuff with multicolored stones; Chanel costume jewelry book pieces.

Many of her finest pieces from the mid-1920s to 1934 were designed by Fulco Santostefano della Cerda, Duke of Verdura (1895-1978) whose eccentric life in Sicily, provided a wonderful source of inspiration. Verdura, was also a source of inspiration for Mirian Haskell.

Chanel loved 'fallalery, fakes and imitations' which included, gold toned chains, and "poured glass" jewelry by Maison Grioix. Baroque pearls, often feature in many of Chanel's historically inspired pieces, such as her Byzantine and Renaissance style crosses, earrings and, pearls - faux pearls, not Cultured pearls, and lots of them!

The genius of Chanel, is that she managed to incorporate Costume jewelry into her haute couture fashion philosophy.

The new glamorous fashion jewelry was designed to complement the clothing worn on the runway and for photo shoots. At a time when fine jewelry defined a woman's status in society, Chanel removed the seriousness and daringly mixed it with pieces that were - fake. "Jewelry isn't meant to make you look rich," said Chanel, "it's meant to adorn you."

Chanel often copied her favorite fine-jewelry pieces, which included colorful renaissance-inspired designs, presented to her by her most important two lovers: the polo-playing English diplomat, Arthur "Boy" Capel, who was also one of her first investors, and the extremely wealthy, "Bend'or" the Duke of Westminster.

Reference:

Phillips, C., From Antiquity to the Present, Thames & Hudson, London, 1996.

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