Elsa Schiaparelli

The spotlight is on Elsa Schiaparelli, once again. She closed her shop in Paris almost six decades ago, yet her whimsical creations look as cutting edge as ever. Lady Gaga or Madonna could wear her shoe hat on stage and no one would bat an eye.

Schiaparelli, or “Schiap,” as she was known (pronounced Skap), was well ahead of her time. You can find her iconic creations in two exhibitions in New York City: Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: On Fashion opening on May 10, 2012, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones now through April 15, 2012, at Bard Graduate Center Gallery.

Those shoe hats she designed from a sketch by Salvador Dalí are at both exhibits. The Met also has Schiaparelli’s insect necklace (below) and the tear dress (as in “rip”), another famous collaboration with Dali. The shoe hat, which first appeared in her 1937/1938 collection, has inspired at least one recent imitation, a collaboration between Manolo Blahnik and hat designer Stephen Jones, milliner to the stars, who curated the exhibit at the Bard.

Somehow, the contemporary version with its stiletto heel lacks the subtle charm and shock-laugh of the original (left). Schiaparelli’s shoe hat actually looked like one of her distinctively-sculpted hats – following the sleek curve of the wearer’s head – until the moment you realized it was a shoe.

Elsa Schiaparelli shared Dali’s sense of humor and love of visual puns, as well as his desire to shock and entertain at the same time. He supplied the puns and iconic images;  she managed to make them both absurd and chic all at once. Soon after these collaborations, Dalí began to seriously design his own jewelry.

Salvador Dali's ink drawing over photo (by Horst P. Horst) of a model wearing astronomical necklace of Galalith stars from Schiaparelli's summer 1929 collection (Baltimore Museum of Art)

Schiaparelli was born in Rome in 1890 and lived for a while in New York City before settling in Paris, where she and Coco Chanel became famous rivals in the world of couture. She worked between 1920 and 1954, when she closed her Paris shop, but her heyday was the decade before the war.

She drew from all the popular art movements of her day, including Modernism, Futurism, Cubism, Deco, African art, but was particularly drawn to Surrealism. Along with Dalí, Jean Cocteau and Albert Giacometti collaborated on designs with her. Cecil Beaton and Man Ray photographed them. All considered her a friend and equal.

When Elsa Schiaparelli launched her first fashion craze in 1927—sweaters with trompe l’oeil bows—she had no training in clothing design. Two years later, she was outfitting the world’s most glamorous women and rocking fashion conventions with her bold colors and body-conscious designs.

By the mid-thirties she was famously straddling the worlds of fashion and art. “She is responsible for the feeling of spontaneous youth that has crept into everything,” Vogue raved in 1935. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn wore her form-fitting suits, mannish trousers, and cocky hats. She designed the suits Rosalind Russell wore in The Women (1939).

Elsa Schiaparelli also created some memorable costume jewelry and accessories, including the necklace (left) that made the wearer appear to have a parade of insects crawling around her throat.

Her jewelry designs probably began with the fasteners she designed for her clothes – buckles, hooks, zippers, and buttons. She worked with Jean Clement to design buttons of wood, china, celluloid, glass, crystal, amber, white jade, sealing wax – buttons shaped like shoelaces, snails, tops, padlocks, nuts and bolts, coffee beans, lollipops, peanuts, spoons, fruits and vegetables. In 1935, Albert Giacometti designed a set of metal and clay buttons and surreal ornaments for her new salon.

Some may recall the jewel-like buttons and embroidery on some of her couture, not to mention the ankle boots that sprouted floor-length monkey fur, from Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli, which opened in 2003 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Schiaparelli donated the bulk of her personal collection to that museum in 1969.

Still Life with Head of Nefertiti photo by Madame Yevonde, 1935, with jewelry by Schiaparelli (The British Council, London)

Not even the curator of that exhibit was entirely sure why. “She knew Man Ray and had been to see the Barnes collection and, during the war, was in Princeton,” curator Dylis Blum speculated at the time. “She had one or two clients in Philadelphia and probably knew of the Duchamp collection.” (The PMA has a room full of famous Duchamps, including Bride Descending the Staircase.)

Cristóbal Balenciaga called Schiaparelli “the only true artist in fashion.” Her accessories alone prove that. Some of her collaborations with Dalí were punk statements 50 years before punk was invented. Among the many innovations she pioneered were designer logos, wrap-around dresses, wedge shoes, culottes, mix-and-match sportswear, reversible coats, plunging backs, and richly embroidered evening jackets. She also apparently created the runway show as we know it today: a spectacle with music, art and boyish-figured models.

“The moment people stop copying you,” Schiaparelli once said, “you have ceased to be news.”

Related posts:

Salvador Dalí: bejeweled surrealism

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Toussaint of Cartier

Alexander Calder’s jewelry: going mobile

Man Ray’s jewelry by Gem Montibello

Art Smith & Sam Kramer: heyday of Modernist jewelry

Jewelry by famous artists

                          

Liz at Wolftrap the night I saw her. You won't find any famous jewels from this hubby at Christie's.

Rahul Kadakia met Elizabeth Taylor at an auction in Cannes in 1999. “I was a young boy and here was Miss Taylor, Hollywood star and humanitarian, and she was right there beside me, helping me raise funds for the American Foundation for Aids Research,” says Kadakia. “I thought, you know, this is the mark of a real star.”

Now head of Christie’s U.S. jewelry department, Kadakia finds himself organizing the auction of Taylor’s famous jewelry. “She was very, if had to use one word, approachable.”

I saw Elizabeth Taylor myself when I was a kid. My parents had season tickets to Wolftrap Farm Park in 1977, the year she hosted their opening gala. As I recall, she lured an all-star lineup to the sticks that night – Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minelli, Henry Fonda – and wore a flowing green caftan to camouflage the weight she was gaining, probably bored out of her mind as a senator’s wife in Virginia. (Just a few years earlier she and Richard Burton were dodging paparazzi along the Riviera). But she was still a Hollywood queen, a major draw, and it was thrilling to be in her presence.

One of those green caftans is up for sale at Christie’s, a later model (1989) that Liz wore to Malcolm Forbes’ 70th birthday party, part of the online-only sale Christie’s announced yesterday – 950 items estimated between $100 and $10,000 – that will take place Dec. 3-17. You can see highlights from the sale here and, starting on November 18, the full catalog.

Yes, you too can own a piece of Hollywood legend for as little as $100. You don’t even have to pay the $30 admission Christie’s is charging to peak at the more fabled goodies, like the Peregrina pearl, that will go on the block during the glam gala evening sale on December 13. It seems Liz also wore costume baubles, such as a JAC Deco-style bracelet and earrings (est. $100-200) and a turquoise squash blossom necklace (est. $400-600).

Highlights from Christie's Elizabeth Taylor online-only sale (Dec. 3-17) include a gold, sapphire and pearl hummingbird brooch by Ruser, Cartier "Love" hoop earrings and a multi-gem cocktail ring (not shown), all estimated under $5000. (Christie's Images)

Like the last sale of her jewels at Christie’s, this one will benefit her favorite cause. Proceeds from the catalog and exhibition will go to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Here’s a bit more from my interview with Rahul Kadakia:

I imagine you’ll get huge crowds for this sale, right?

I hope so! Yeah, all around Rockefeller Plaza here in New York.

Ball ear clips of diamond and multi-colored sapphires by JAR (Christie's Images)

Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry shows she was interested in history as well as the big rocks she was famous for. How would you characterize this collection?

It’s fabulous in its range. It goes back to the 17th century, but even when she bought contemporary jewelry on her own, she went to the master, Joel Arthur Rosenthal. There’s a beautiful pair of sapphire and diamond ball ear clips by JAR in the sale.

When she purchased, when Richard Burton purchased, when Mike Todd purchased, when Eddie Fisher purchased, they purchased the best. And this is the underlying fact about the entire collection. They purchased from the best periods, they purchased from the best jewelers, they purchased the best quality.

You just named a lot of men. I wonder if they got into competition with each other. You couldn’t give this woman ordinary jewelry.

Diamond and ruby suite by Cartier given to Taylor by Mike Todd (Christie's Images)

Look, I’m not Richard burton or any of the other guys so I don’t know what was behind the purchases. What I do feel from the way the collection has been put together is that no matter who she was with, at whatever point of time in her life, all of the jewels were bought because of great moments in time that she shared with all of these men. And you see this in her own words in the book [My Love Affair with Jewelry], when she talks about all of the purchases. They were happy times, birthdays, an anniversary or she’d just become a grandmother at 39.

There’s a great suite of Cartier diamond-and-ruby jewelry in the sale which Mike Todd gave to her one afternoon at poolside when they were on vacation and she famously put it all on, jumped into the pool and started doing laps.

Her jewelry tells a lot of stories. What’s the most important story – is it about a bygone Hollywood era or a love story?

It’s about a Hollywood star, a Hollywood queen and her way of life. She referred to these jewels as her friends and her babies. And they were part of her life from very early on, right until the end. I think they reminded her of her really superb life in terms of the Hollywood star and in terms of the loves she had in her life, the families that she created through all of these times.

Are there any overlooked pieces, anything that we aren’t expecting?

There’s a lot of jewelry. We’re going to have 80 lots in the evening sale on December 13. These are more or less all of the iconic pieces, all of the jewels that she’s seen photographed in, so not too many surprises there but that really is the epicenter of the collection.

Then we have close to 200 pieces in the day sale and there are a lot of nice jewels in there that are at a different price point, things like a mirror that was made by Bulgari in the 1950s with a Egyptian revival theme, bought when she was filming Cleopatra. It’s a fabulous object. So you have interesting pieces and jewelers and objects and memories all through the sale. People will be surprised.

Related posts:

Elizabeth Taylor: jewels of a lifetime

Van Cleef & Arpels: celebrity style

JAR: designer jewelry as calling card

                          

Bracelet (left) of amethysts and emeralds, c. 1937, by René Boivin, and two by Suzanne Belperron of amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite (center) and tourmalines, emeralds and peridot (Christie's Images)

[Update 11/27/11: René Boivin bracelet on the left sold for $245,756, more than expected, but Suzanne Belperron's design with green stones, far right, sold for $330,980, a record price for a Belperron bracelet and more than double the estimate. Further proof that Belperron's reputation is continuing to grow, along with the value of her jewelry.]

Bracelet on the left was designed by Juliette Moutard of Boivin around the time Suzanne Belperron created the two on the right. Moutard took over as chief designer at Boivin in 1931, the  year Belperron went out on her own, having working for Boivin since 1921. The bracelets have the characteristic bold, geometric style and unconventional materials for which the house of René Boivin became famous under Jeanne Boivin.

Suzanne Belperron and Juliette Moutard of the René Boivin were both rising design stars in the decade before World War II, after which gold and lavish gems became difficult, if not impossible, to come by – especially in occupied Paris.

Their bracelets show how similarly the two women were designing at the time, even though Belperron had left Boivin several years before. Like Moutard, Belperron’s career was launched by Jeanne Boivin, who took over the firm after her husband’s death in 1917 and continued his legacy for bold innovation. Even though the Boivin jewels created in the following decades carry his name, what you’re really seeing, for the most part, is the collective, creative genius of a small group of women.

One of the bracelets by Belperron (center) is made with amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite; the other (right) has tourmalines, emeralds, and peridot. Each is estimated to sell at Christie’s Paris on November 24 for $110,000 to $165,000. (For more about upcoming jewelry auctions, visit our auction calendar.) The Boivin bracelet is expected to bring a bit more ($137,600 to $206,400). Here’s a closer look at that one:

Gold bracelet with amethysts and emeralds by René Boivin, late 1930s (Christie's Images)

Soon after designing this piece, Juliette Moutard would abandon bold, geometric work for a more naturalistic style. Unlike Belperron, who went out on her own, Moutard stayed with Boivin for the rest of her career, well into the 1970s. Boivin’s daughter Germaine joined the firm as a designer in 1938 and took over running the company after her mother retired.

Related posts:

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Poiret Boivin

Women who paved the way: Suzanne Belperron

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Toussaint of Cartier

Jewelry & watch auctions 2011

Related products: (Buying from links on this site doesn’t cost you extra but does add a few pennies to the maintenance of this blog.)

                          

Brooch pendant of mokume gane, Maube pearl and diamond by Fullerton-Bahr

John Bahr and Lynda Fullerton like to learn new things. Having designed jewelry together since 1990, they had the basics down a while ago. But they get bored easily so they developed an annual tradition. As each year draws to a close, they put their heads together and come up with something both want to learn.

For creative spark, they invite artist friends over for a Christmas gathering at their home in San Gregorio, CA, and ask them to bring something they’re working on. “Everybody is exploring new stuff,” Fullerton says. “You get inspiration from your friends.”

Once they agree on the next challenge, the couple sets about mastering it. Over the years they’ve tried roller printing, press forming, stone cutting, colored patinas and enameling.

At the end of 1999, they decided to try mokume gane. They had no idea what they were getting into. In retrospect, that was probably a blessing.

Mokume gane (pronounced “mukoomay gahnay”), the Japanese technique of stacking and fusing different metals, is far more complicated than it appears. As many as 20-40 layers are fused into a solid sheet in a kiln, then cooled, hammered to a quarter-inch sheet, and sliced. The process is repeated to get the desired patterns, which range from stripes to a swirling wood grain, depending how you slice it. (Cutting straight down produces stripes; diagonal cuts produce a wood grain; and drilling holes creates circular patterns.)

The trickiest step, they discovered, is the firing. Every metal has a different melting temperature and the Fullerton-Bahrs use several, including green and white gold, palladium and shakudo (a gold-copper alloy).

“When you use as many different metals as we do, the problem is that a eutectic alloy can form,” Fullerton says. “Two metals come together and form a new alloy that may melt at a lower temperature than either of the two original metals. We’ve ruined a few pieces that way.”

A year after they took it on, they had made considerable progress and mokume gane had become an integral part of their jewelry, but they were a long way from mastery. So they decided to put the annual tradition on hold for a while. They had found, for them, the ultimate challenge and an endless source of fascination.

“We will probably study this to our graves,” Fullerton says, laughing. “We got addicted to it. We’re still developing the technique, and probably always will be.”

To see more of their mokume gane creations, visit the Fullerton-Bahr Jewelry site.

                          

Man Ray’s most famous pieces look a little challenging to wear, but they are superb pieces of craftsmanship – thanks to Gem Montibello, the Italian firm who produced them – and more functional than they appear. His Optic-Topic gold mask, for example, would appear to completely blind the wearer, but if you look closely, you can see a network of tiny drilled holes forming a spiral pattern.

Optic-Topic gold mask designed by Man Ray, 1974, 79/100 edition, produced by Gem Montebello (Diane Venet collection)

“You see through them as well as with glasses. It’s interesting,” says Diane Venet, who owns this gold mask, one of 100 produced, along with most of the jewelry on display. “Man Ray was always breaking his glasses and he loved to drive fast. So he had a discussion the Giancarlo Montebello about glasses and finally, after a few months, they came up with this.”

Pendantif-Pendant earrings of 18kt red gold by Man Ray, 1970, edition of 12, Gem Montebello

I’m not sure if she was implying he wore this while driving fast. If so, he was crazier than we thought. Man Ray was born in Philadelphia in 1890, which means by the time he designed the mask, he was 84. He died in Paris, his adopted home, two years later.

The spiral gold earrings (right) recall the spiral shapes in Man Ray’s work during the early years of the Dada movement and the title, Pendantif-Pendant, reflects his obsession with puns and alliteration. But most people refer to these as “the lampshade earrings,” because the design stemmed from a lampshade Man Ray designed in 1919.

The earrings shown have a conventional post but the originals are 5 1/2 inches long and hung from a wide curve of wire. They weren’t designed to hang directly from the lobe but to loop over the top of the ear. Clever. Man Ray’s idea – or Giancarlo Montebello’s?

Montebello produced this gold and platinum ring, signed and dated by Man Ray, in 1970, around the same time as the earrings. Venet proudly owns one of an edition of twelve.

LeTrou ring of 24kt gold and platinum by Man Ray, edition of 12, Gem Montebello (Diane Venet collection)

Man Ray had a couple things going for him that Picasso and Ernst lacked: an extensive background in fashion photography and a genuine interest in creating unique, high-quality, wearable sculpture. He also had Montibello producing his jewelry.

Giancarlo Montebello set up his workshop of highly-skilled craftsmen in Milan, in 1967, inviting a select group of internationally-known artists to contribute designs. Montebello’s team collaborated closely with the artists. Not all artists are household names, at least not in the U.S., but their jewelry definitely stands out above the rest.

You can find other results of these collaborations at the MAD exhibit, including some gorgeous geometric gold pieces designed by sculptor Pol Bury and several whimsical figurative pieces designed by sculptor/painter Niki de Saint-Phalle and executed in colorful enamel by Montebello.

Montebello is still producing artist-made jewelry, evidenced in the exhibit by a lethal-looking spiky gold ring designed by German artist Günther Uecker dated 2011. It was inspired by his Chair with Nails sculpture. (Ouch.)

Montebello, now in his nineties, was planning to attend the exhibition in NYC when I spoke to Venet earlier this month. “I want him to see all this,” she said, waving a hand around the exhibition. “He worked so hard.”

Related posts:

Alexander Calder’s jewelry: going mobile

Salvador Dalí: bejeweled surrealism

Jewelry by famous artists

Jewelry by Picasso: the secret stash of Dora Maar

                          

Much of it is a delight and a surprise. Some is forgettable. Some is the kind of jewelry made by conceptual artists who don’t respect the medium as an end in itself. As Audrey Friedman, owner of Primavera Gallery and collector of jewelry by Dalí and Calder, once told me: “A lot of artists have the idea that because they’re artists, because they’re sculptors, they should do things that are weird, difficult to wear, outsized. I say, if you’re going to make jewelry, make jewelry that can be worn and that doesn’t make the wearer look absurd.”

In other words, some of the jewelry is a failure of the form-follows-function rule. The Frank Stella pieces in the exhibit are an interesting case – a solid effort, recognizably Stella, visually provocative. But do they work as jewelry?

Necklace prototype of gold painted on metal by Frank Stella, 2008 (Diane Venet collection)

Before Venet showed up to take me through the exhibition yesterday, I was staring at this 11-inch-wide neck piece from different angles, trying to figure out how it was worn. It’s a giant bow with no visible means of securing it to the neck. It almost looks like it was assembled as a choker – that if you pulled those curved wires free on both sides, it might hook behind the neck – but then, at the last minute, the artist turned it into a bow. (It would have made a stunning pendant on a choker wire.) But it sounds like he didn’t approach the project casually – and it doesn’t really look that way either.

Frank Stella's Memantra sculpture, Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Viewers familiar with Stella’s sculpture will recognize the curves formed by the wire from full-size pieces like Memantra in the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (right).

In the end, maybe he was more concerned with creating a minimized piece of his iconic sculpture than in producing easily-worn jewelry.

Venet says she begged Stella for years to make a piece for her collection, first directly and then through her husband, fellow sculptor and friend of Stella’s. Stella was, flat out, not interested. Then one day when the Venets were visiting, he produced this piece from a drawer and presented it to her as a gift. She was thrilled.

Diane Venet is a beautiful woman with that Parisian instinct that allows her to pull off just about anything and make it look chic. I’m sure the Stella neck piece is no exception. But when she told me she wears it on a black turtleneck, the image that came to mind was the oversized bowtie of a clown. Was Stella being tongue-in-cheek? Yet the central motif, viewed up close, is not at all casually done: a lovely piece of three-dimensional sculpture made sparkly by painting metal with gold.

The bottom line is that when you convince Frank Stella to make a piece of wearable art, you take what you get – and in Venet’s case, you wear it with pride.

Gold ring designed by Frank Stella, 2010, edition of five (Diane Venet collection)

A second piece by Stella is a polished gold ring, of which five were produced. I had seen photos but was surprised to see how enormous it was firsthand, more than three inches long and quite bulky.

When I asked Venet if it was wearable, I could tell by her smile that it falls into the category of wearable in the loose sense – as in yes, she manages to lug it through an evening on her finger. And I’m sure it makes an excellent conversation starter.

“You wear nothing else,” she said with her French accent. “Maybe just a simple black dress. And you keep your hand here.” She put her left hand on her right shoulder, and posed for a moment gazing sideways, then laughed.

Obviously, half the fun for Venet is finding a way to wear these pieces – and then wearing them.

Picasso to Koons: The Artist as Jeweler runs through January 8, 2012, at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City.

Related posts:

Jewelry by famous artists

Jewelry by Picasso: the secret stash of Dora Maar

Alexander Calder’s jewelry: going mobile

Salvador Dalí: bejeweled surrealism

                          

Anna Torv wearing Lorraine Schwartz earrings with more than 80 carats of carved rubies at 2011 Emmy Awards

Sofia Vergara wearing Lorraine Schwartz emerald-and-diamond earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Aubrey Plaza wearing Lorraine Schwartz diamond cuffs and 20-carat diamond drop earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Elisabeth Moss in Lorraine Schwartz bronze champagne diamond earrings (and bronzed platinum diamond ring) at 2011 Emmy Awards

For the grand finale, when was the last time you saw fire opal mixed with amethyst on the red carpet – in an over-sized matching floral set? It took Heidi Klum to pull that one off:

Heidi Klum wearing Lorraine Schwartz floral earrings of fire opal, amethyst and diamonds at 2011 Emmy Awards and...

...her matching floral ring

It’s not the first time Heidi has strolled the red carpet wearing over-sized carved gems in nature-theme jewels. Here’s what she wore in 2008:

                          

January 11-14, 2012: International Jewellery Tokyo 2012 & 4th Tokyo Design & Fashion Watch Fair, Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

January 14-19, 2012: VicenzaOro Winter (gold jewelry, silverware and watches), Vicenza, Italy

January 18-22, 2012: London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London, UK

January 29-31, 2012: Printor Lyon, Euroexpo, Lyon, France

Hall of Dreams at BaselWorld 2011

FEBRUARY 2012

February 1-5, 2012: Iberjoya, Madrid, Spain

February 5-9, 2012: Spring Fair International, Birmingham, UK

February 9-13, 2012: Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair, Bangkok, Thailand

February 10-13, 2012: Inhorgenta 2012 (international trade fair for jewellery, watches, design, gemstones and technology), Munich, Germany

February 16-20, 2012:  Hong Kong International Jewellery Show, Hong Kong

MARCH

March 4-7, 2012: Montreal Gift Show, Montreal, Canada

March 8-15, 2012: BaselWorld (international watch and jewelry show), Basel, Switzerland

March 16-25, 2012: TEFAF Maastricht art and antiques fair, Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre, The Netherlands

MAY

May 19-23, 2012: VicenzaOro Spring, Fiera di Vicenza S.p.A., Vincenza, Italy

May 30-June 3, 2012: New Russian Style 2012, All-Russian Exhibition Centre, Moscow, Russia

JUNE

June 1-4, 2012: JCK Show, Las Vegas

June 21-24, 2012: Asia’s Fashion Jewellery & Accessories Fair and June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

June 22-24, 2012: Hyberabad Jewellery Pearl & Gem Fair, Mumbai, India

June 28-July 4, 2012: Masterpiece London 2012, Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, U.K.

JULY

July 3-4, 2012: Jovella International Jewelry Exhibition, Tel-Aviv, Israel

July 12-15, 2012: Singapore International Jewellery Show 2011, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

July 13-16, 2012: 13th Beijing International Jewellery Fair, China World Trade Center, Beijing, China

July 19-22, 2012: Malaysia International Jewellery Fair, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia

AUGUST

Aug. 12-14, 2012: JCK Toronto, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

August 28-30, 2012: Japan Jewellery Fair 2012, Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center, Tokyo, Japan

SEPTEMBER

September 2-4, 2012: JAA Australian Jewellery Fair, Sydney Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia

September 2-5, 2012: International Jewellery London, Earls Court 2, London, UK

September 4-5, 2012: Printor Paris, Palais Brongniart, Paris, France

September 8-12, 2012: VicenzaOro Fall, Vicenza, Italy

September 12-16, 2012: Iberjoya, Feria de Madrid, Spain

September 19-25, 2012: September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, AsiaWorld Expo and Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

NOVEMBER

November 10-13, 2012: Dubai International Jewellery Week, Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Dubai

Related posts:

Best craft shows in the U.S.

Jewelry trade & antique fairs in the U.S. 2011

Related product (Buying from links on this site doesn’t cost you extra but does add a few cents to the maintenance of this blog):

                          

Ralph Esmerian arrested in November

Manhattan federal Judge Denise Cote also ordered Esmerian to perform 1,800 hours of community service and forfeit $20 million. Esmerian is 71.

Accused of defrauding creditors while seeking bankruptcy protection for Fred Leighton, Esmerian pleaded guilty in April to wire and bankruptcy fraud and concealing assets.

“Ralph Esmerian tried to game the financial system and the bankruptcy process for years to finance his businesses,” Manhattan District Attorney Preet Bharara said. “As a result of his frauds, the lenders who trusted him have lost tens of millions of dollars.”

The sentence puts the final disgrace on a respected family legacy. Esmerian and his forefathers were among the world’s most famous gem and jewelry experts, relied on by top-tier jewelry houses like Cartier. For the fascinating back story on Esmerian and a look at some of the treasures that made his fortune and reputation, check out these posts:

Bankruptcy sale of Ralph Esmerian’s historic jewelry

Ralph Esmerian: rise and fall of a jewelry connoisseur

Ralph Esmerian: lost legacy of jewels

Christie’s sells Fred Leighton jewels

                          

You’d be amazed how much thought goes into the jewelry on this show, even for the background players. The only ones who get short-changed are the guys. Lawson discusses his approach to the fashion of each male character but not one watch or cufflink enters the discussion, not even for Cary, known as the clotheshorse of the men.

Photo: Eike Schroter/©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc.

The women, on the other hand… If you’re a fan you’ve probably noticed that the females on this show have very distinct styles. They all work in a law firm – not known as the most creative halls of fashion – and yet all manage to look stylish and individualistic, as well as professional.

The first season opened with Alicia Florrick, a politician’s wife played by Julianna Margulies, re-entering the work force after a long hiatus. With her husband in prison, she’s rediscovering her individual identity, thrust into the limelight by her husband’s much-publicized affair with a prostitute. At the firm, she dresses elegantly but conservatively, doesn’t wear much jewelry but isn’t afraid to wear some serious stiletto pumps – four inches high at least. They lend her authority while showing off Margulies’ impressive gams.

“Julianna and I had a big discussion about her jewelry and we felt like the last thing she’s going to think about is jewelry,” Lawson says. In the first few episodes she wears nothing but diamond studs in her ears. But by the end of that season, she’s wearing necklaces, usually multi-strand silver or gold chains, sometimes a bracelet, varying her pieces from outfit to outfit. “She’s starting to think about it a little bit,” Lawson says.

Kalinda, my favorite character on the show, gets to wear the most outrageous ensembles, but the boldness is in her clothes, not her jewels. She favors a pair of boots you don’t find too often in a law firm: roll-down, knee-high black boots with stiletto heels – sort of streetwalker-meets-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean. She also wears mini-skirts, sometimes ruffled, fitted waists with wide belts, lots of black leather. Black works with the glossy hair piled on her head and her dramatic, black-rimmed eyes – definite hints of sixties-Mod with Kalinda – and is often paired with fitted tops in rich colors like violet and saffron.

With a look this bold, Lawson was probably right to go easy on the jewelry. Kalinda wears the same diminutive silver pieces in every scene, a small circle pendant on a delicate chain, small earrings, one bold ring on the middle finger – a finger I’ve never seen her lift but you know she would if this show was on HBO instead of CBS. The jewelry emphasizes Kalinda’s femininity – she’s tough but in an all-girl way. “She knows she looks fabulous. She doesn’t have to add anything to it,” Lawson says.

Kalinda defies so many clichés. She’s a loner, tiny but capable of destroying a car with a baseball bat in five strokes, or deducing the evil scheme of a foe and formulating a counter-scheme on the spot. She does whatever the situation calls for, is always right, and always gets her way – which is very satisfying. I love her relationship with Alicia and hope they make up in the next season or I’ll be very sad. (New season begins September 25.)

Archie Panjabi, the actress who plays Kalinda, says in the special feature that her character “is already so larger-than-life,” that she wanted to avoid clichés. Kalinda is a woman of mystery. “I felt the costume, to some extent, heightened her a little bit,” Panjabi says. “Just from seeing her, you can tell a story about who she is and where she’s from.”

Christine Baranski who plays Diane Lockhart, a partner at the firm, gets to have the most fun with her jewelry. “She’s more fashion-forward, her finger is more on the pulse of contemporary fashion,” Lawson says, adding that he had covered several tables with jewelry when she came in for her first fitting. “Oh! I see we have a lot of jewelry,” she remarked.

“We didn’t want to make her foolishly accessorized,” Lawson says. “We wanted to tell the story of who she was and she does pay attention to accessories.” She often wears the same ring, a three-band platinum and diamond number, but  sometimes trades it for big chunky opaque stones in dark neutral colors.

She never wears the same necklace twice and they vary from long Chanel-like chains to dramatic pendants, chunky colored stones, and multi-strand pearls of every variety. She’s not afraid to throw in costume pieces by Kenneth Jay Lane or Trifari if they works with her outfit.

Diane is the only character who rocks the lapel brooch, often forgoing a necklace for a buttoned up jacket with a big vintage pin, forties and fifties styles – mid-century modern attracts, bird motifs, a dragonfly. Lawson says the vintage pins were Baranski’s  idea. Diane is supposedly Old Money, so the idea is that the brooches were passed down through her family.

“You’d think that a pin would read very old school but somehow it reads very modern and chic on her. That’s my goal for her: business and chic and elegant,” Lawson says. “All three women really do have very different sensibilities when it comes to their jewelry.”

Related posts:

Sex & the City: the jewelry

Van Cleef & Arpels: celebrity style

Jewelry heist movies

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