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1940s  jewelry
















1940s  jewelry





1940s  jewelry









Hollywood inspired a demand for gorgeous gowns and costume jewelry. 



The movies alsofed a desire for an exciting social life. They not only glamorized nights out on the town
dining in restaurants or dancing at clubs, but also helped popularize a new way of entertaining at home—cocktail parties held in the early evening.




This more casual conviviality required less formal dressing—more Chanel-style "little black dress" than traditional eveningwear. It became all the rage to accessorize this simpler night-time look with amusing, eye-catching costume jewelry.


Jewelry for the people


Like her archrival Coco Chanel, the leading Parisian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli encouraged women to use costume jewelry as a fashion statement. Schiaparelli's dramatic style was the polar opposite of Chanel's understated elegance. Closely associated with the Surrealist artists and their provocative dream-inspired imagery, she designed clothing and jew elry full of shocking surprises.



In the 1930s Schiaparelli worked with artists and designers such as Salvador Dali,
Jean Cocteau, and Jean Schlumberger to produce unexpected designs including telephone earrings, pea-pod necklaces, and lantern pins that actually lit up.



1940s  jewelry










 However, it is the jewelry she designed in New York City in the 1950s that brought her work to the masses. Her abstract and naturalistic designs used unusual iridescent "fantasy" paste stones and glittering rhinestones w hich were often copied but never bettered.The development of the cocktail style


The outbreak of World War II led to America's isolation from Europe and shortages of imported raw materials such as rhinestones. By the time the United States entered the conflict in 1941, the government had imposed restrictions on base metals which were needed for the war effort.


Despite these adverse conditions, American costume jewelers thrived by substituting sterling silver for base metals and using new plastics such as Lucite in place of cabochon-cut pastes.



 Without European trends to influenee their designs, US jewelers started to produce the first completely American look. One of the most distinctive features of this American style w as the lavish use of deep yellow vermeil, or silver gilt as it is also known. These new designs were often dominated by enormous stones. Another key characteristic was the use of jarring combinations of colored faux gems, for example aquamarine blue against ruby red.





1940s  jewelry


These free-form pieces were more dynamic and streamlined than their Art Deco predecessors. One frequent source of inspiration was the machine in motion; another was abstracted design that looked like drapery. Bold sculptural bows and scrolls were also common.









 The new American style became known as cocktail jewelry, after the fashion for wearing it to cocktail parties and other dressy evening assignations. The style was exciting and assured: costume jewelry now set the trend while real pieces followed in its wake.

1940s  jewelry





 
Quality and mass-production


Coro and Trifari were the pre-eminent American costume jewelers of the 1940s. Both firms originally found success imitating Art Deco precious jewels. Inspired by Carrier's designs, Coro was the first costume jewelry manufacturer to produce interlocking double clips that could be used together or separately





 Called "Duettes," they became immensely popular. Meanwhile, Trifari—under chief designer Alfred Philippe—made its name producing good-quality costume jewelry versions of tutti-frutti pieces.




Coro and Trifari were in the vanguard of cocktail style. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, they took the fashion for dressy costume jewelry forward in a fun, figural direction.



 The most notable Coro designs of the period include pins shaped like hands, donkey carts, and angelfish, while Trifari became associated with "Jelly Belly"animal pins made from Lucite.




In the mid-1950s, Swarovski developed a special shimmering rhinestone for Christian Dior. The company called its new glass gems "aurora borealis" after the famous northern lights.


These iridescent rhinestones were also used by Weiss, the New York costume jewelers, to create a range of jewelry for evening wear which became very influential. Weiss's "aurora borealis" designs consisted of a glittering cascade of marquise- and brilliant-cut rhinestones in fantasy hues such as plum,
smoky gray, and citrus orange.




 They were of first-rate quality and Weiss's ingenuity—for example, setting rhinestones upside down to make their shimmer more pronounced—earned the company accolades among its peers,

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