Fashion Jewelry Origins

October 14, 2010 – Our fascination and appreciation of fashion jewelry date back to 3,000 B.C. in ancient Egypt. At least this is just the earliest we’ve been able to trace it, through work done by a team in the 1920s to uncover King Tutankhamen’s tomb. By 300 B.C., the Greeks had caught on and were making multicolored fashion jewelry, using emeralds, garnets, amethysts and pearls. They also used colored stones, glass and enamel. Next, the Italians stepped up to the plate and worked with gold, in particular. They made large necklaces, bracelets and earrings. To this day, Italians are still renowned for high-quality, stylish, gold jewelry. In 13th Century Europe, it started getting cliquish. Yes, even back then, only the very high-class were al lowed to wear pearls, gemstones, gold or silver. You wouldn’t have wanted to have been a regular per son in those days, that’s for sure.

Not surprisingly, jewels have always been used as love tokens, and though many fine gems and precious metals were all the rage from the 14th to the 17th Centuries, faux fashion jewelry had already come into play. It was, however, meant to deceive only. Much the way fake Rolexes are sold on the black market today, Europeans sold the fake goods and started making a fortune. Good glass imitations were often used, for example, and no one knew the difference. Funny how some things never really change.

To be sure, the importance of 17th Century earrings and dress ornaments, such as brooches, worn by women — dressed or undressed — was paramount. Fashion jewelry has always been regarded as an important element of a particular class of people; jewels in the 17th Century provided one of the best ego-strokes and status symbols of the time. Finally, in the late 18th Century, England got the message and began producing glass and porcelain cameos, for which they are still famous today. Also in England, ornate shoe buckles were part of the fashion-conscious, as well as jeweled buttons.

OK, the haute-couture capital of the world, some argue, is in France, so where were they when all this was going on? Don’t think twice. Famous in France for many centuries were matching suites of precious and semi-precious gems (such as uncut garnets and amethysts) made into brace lets, necklaces, rings and, of course, the ubiquitous earrings. Poor America and Australia. They lagged behind, but soon enough jumped on the bandwagon during the Victorian era. They bought from artist craftsmen only and actually staged a rebellion when they learned some of their fashion jewelry was machine-made.

How times have changed, and how they have stayed the same, as the saying goes. To many of us living in the 21st Century, the creative setting and use of hair is considered an attractive type of fashion jewelry in and of itself. Women enjoy mixing antique jewels with a classic, trend-setting hair style. Yet what was previously known as fake jewelry became the widely accepted and appreciated fashion jewelry, still fashionable today. Fashion jewelry can enliven a fashion wardrobe and bring a dash of panache to any occasion. In these uncertain financial times, if you want job stability, a good bet is to get into the fashion jewelry industry if you have the connections.

 

 

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