Christie’s is claiming no less than a dozen world records for the December 13, 2011, auction, known officially as The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor: The Legendary Jewels evening sale. Day after the sale, I posted about five of them. With a haul of almost $116 million, the sale was the most valuable private collection...
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...
If there was any doubt that red carpet minimalism is giving way to big gems and over-the-top glam, last night’s Emmy Awards proved it. And not just white diamonds – although there were plenty of those – but gems in all colors of the rainbow. Jewels by Lorraine Schwartz were a special case in...
I’ve been obsessed with Hendrix again since watching the 1973 documentary Jimi Hendrix, followed by the 2007 biopic. Hendrix was long gone before I was aware he existed. So I grew up listening to him, not watching him. I remember parking in a cornfield with a high school boyfriend on a summer night, listening...
You know you’re obsessed with a show when you have to watch every behind-the-scenes special feature on the DVD. That’s where I’m at right now with The Good Wife. There’s one feature on the final disc of Season 1 called “Clothing the Characters,” that I highly recommend. It focuses on the show’s costume designer...
Only a few years ago, Ralph Esmerian was riding high, a respected dealer and collector taking over the role of jeweler to the stars as the new owner of Fred Leighton. Charming and well-spoken, Esmerian was frequently photographed with famous actresses. In November, a different kind of photo appeared in major news outlets: a...
Some stunning Renaissance Revival jewelry is coming up for sale this month, renewing interest – yet again – in that 19th-century style, one of jewelry history’s most beautiful revisitations. Hollywood jeweler Neil Lane probably has his eye on these sales – and one piece in particular. “I know it sounds silly, but I actually...
With the death of Elizabeth Taylor today, we lost not only a Hollywood icon and often-amazing actress, but one of the world’s most famous jewelry collectors. Her vivid, colorful life went on for decades longer than Taylor had expected it to, given her history of life-threatening injuries and illnesses – not to mention five...
Curator Sarah Coffin talks about the “Bejeweled Lives” section of the exhibit opening this Friday at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels.
You may be surprised who pulls out the skull rings and cross pendants on weekends. Seems everybody wants to be a rock star. Just ask Gerard Marti, owner of Célèbrités galleries in Maui. His customers include Steven Tyler, Tommy Lee and Paris Hilton, as well as the co-founder of MySpace.
