Every once in a while, I think about an interview the fashion critic Cathy Horyn gave where she talks about what delightful phonies fashion personalities used to be. Particularly, the larger-than-life characters of old-school New York designers like Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass. “They came and they charmed and they swaggered” she said of these personalities.
When I last thought about this phoniness, it drew my mind straight to the world of costume jewellery. After writing numerous fashion captions where ‘pearls’ are really resin, and ‘gemstones’ are really glass, I was beginning to wonder what the point of it all was.
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But I’ve to come to appreciate the phoney qualities of costume jewellery. There’s a really endearing undercurrent of fashion as a striving, aspirational force. What you wear becomes a performance for the world to see – and costume jewellery is maybe the most transparently and delectably artificial. A bit like a short person wearing high heels or an older person with pink hair.
And where fine and high jewellery are charged with loftier ideas like rarity and prestige, costume jewellery is lighter, frothier and concerned with surface adornment. I love that! In my opinion, glamour and artifice are pursuits worth taking seriously. It’s also, though a little overlooked in the grand scheme of fashion, a category ripe with fresh ideas. Here are a few I’ve found that have tickled my fancy.
This one’s plucked from the Kim Jones side of Dior, but it’s really quite fabulous. The lion motif at its heart is taken from the house’s collaboration with artist Peter Doig. It’s set on a glass pearl in a lovely deep shade of midnight blue, surrounded by twinkly crystals.
The design language at Prada seems to be all about reduction these days. That may be because of Raf Simons’ input as co-creative director, and it’s certainly ushered in a new spirit of minimalism for the Milanese house. On the jewellery front, that’s come through in the Symbole line that builds on the iconography of the brand’s famous triangle logo. This pair of palladium-finished earrings with crystals all over are quite lovely and novel, with dropped loop pendants that can actually hold AirPods Pro earbuds.
I love subtler bits of branding, as is the case with the clasp on this bracelet that’s lifted, as its name might suggest, from the clasps of Baguette bags. A fun twist: this bracelet also doubles as a brooch.
This Christmas, I’ve come to discover the unique joy of giving and receiving the gift of an orange box. This pendant is a great encapsulation of what makes Hermes so enchanting. The famed Chaine d’Ancre motif is distilled into this single, gold-plated link, and backed by a shadow made from Swift calfskin.
Miu Miu, perhaps because of its feminine, girly nature, is a leading brand in the twinkling, sparkling arena of crystal costume jewellery. Crystal-decorated pieces range across almost all its product categories, and span dinky and genteel to large and blingy. Lately, I’m into the idea of this crystal choker – subdued, dazzling, and comfortably glamorous thanks to an adjustable design.
There’s a lot of iconography in Chanel, which is a heavy-hitter in the costume jewellery department. I like these earrings because they bring up the iconic cross-C motifs with subtlety. Look closer, and the loops are actually modelled like curved stalks with roses and crystals sprouting on it.
Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Fornasetti in the Fall Winter 2021 season was genius in lots of ways. Artistic director Nicolas Ghesquiere’s recent collections have delved deep into the look of decadence and opulence of centuries and decades past – and these aged-finish, positively antique-looking earrings fit the bill of a convincingly fictitious heirloom.
When abstracted into this constructivist form, Valentino’s signature studs take on a new sculptural quality. They’re elegant, quirky enough to be interesting, and certainly edgy – 24 edges on each side, in fact, if you count the fastening piece that allows you to wear this earring two ways.
The fact that tassels are a part of Saint Laurent’s design language can be chalked down to the influence of Loulou de la Falaise, one of Yves Saint Laurent’s dearest collaborators and muses. Loulou was a wildly stylish woman: “charm, poetry, excess, extravagance and elegance all in one blow” according to Saint Laurent. These flirty earrings capture some of that character – a fantastic talisman for when you need to project pizzazz.
Designer hair adornments are easily the accessories du jour. This hair clip from Gucci ticks the boxes of being: 1. loud and proud, and 2. playfully vibrant and dramatic. I like this gold-finished one with multi-coloured crystals, but for more subtlety Gucci makes the same one in a palladium finish with clear crystals.
The arching vibe of modern Bottega Veneta jewellery is industrial-meets-readymade. This ring, which is part of a wider Bolt line, is hardware based on hardware. It also happens to be a great modern signet ring.
In almost anything I’ve ever written about Matthew Williams’ Givenchy, I’ve mentioned the designer’s chops at turning hardware into fashionable, desirable statements. Right now, I’m digging this punk take on what looks ostensibly like a classic pearl necklace. Except instead of pearls, they are balls in alternating polished and guilloche finishes on a chain.
Spanish luxury house Loewe is at its most charming when it’s a little artsy and off-beat. There’s an ongoing series of bronze fruit, nut and vegetable pendants made in collaboration with the artist Alice Andrea Ewing of Pomarius that are like whimsical, wearable pieces of art. Take your pick from legume and fungi alike – my vote is on this kooky little mushroom.