1929 Louise Brooks, The Canary Murder Case
Jewelry in the 1920s took a turn to simplicity and art deco “modernism” in all styles from rings to necklaces, and bracelets. Out were the fussy Art Nouveau styles. Out were the pressures of society to wear your wealth. Out was expensive precious stones. In were cheaper semi precious stones and fake plastics. To wear any jewelry at all was to dress up. It was perfectly acceptable to wear none for your day to day life. This was a drastic change from the wealth driven society before WW1 and one that forever changed the jewelry industry.
Jewelry was not based on function. No longer design
was determined by the cost of the materials. “In addition, by focusing attention on the design rather than the intrinsic value or materials, the Art Nouveau movement of the late 19th and early 20th century had already suggested that jewelry need not act as a three dimensional bank statement, but instead could be worn purely for its decorative qualities. – A collectors guide to Costume Jewelry. Tracey Tolkin
As fascinating as the history of jewelry in the 1920s is, I want to focus on the most common or at least most iconic jewelry styles of the 1920s. This will be more helpful to you when creating a 1920s costume or inspired style.
My Collection of Vintage 1920s Jewelry
Necklaces
Swinging Flapper Pearls
Long pearl necklaces. These are the most iconic of all 20’s jewelry pieces. Not all pearl necklaces were long or worn in a single strand. It was popular to wear layers of them in various lengths from 60 inches on up. Longer pearls were fashionable in the early twenties and were getting shorter as the decade progressed. Chanel was a big promoter of pearl necklaces, including wearing fake ones. The quality and affordability of cultured “fake” peals during the decade made them an item every woman could afford. She wore a necklace or two around her wrist as well giving the look of several bracelets messily thrown on. Fake pearls now came in light pastel colors instead of plain white. Pastel pink green, blue and gray were especially popular with teens.
Faceted Bead Long Necklace @Sheryls
Long beaded necklaces were equally as popular as pearls. They had round faceted stones in the popular art deco color pallet- black, red, white, green. Stones were saturated with color. It did not matter if they matched your outfit- clashing colors were in vogue! Beads made of bakelite or Lucite (plastic) made jewelry affordable to the masses. From first glance it was nearly impossible to tell what was real or fake.
Tassel Bead Necklace @Sheryls
One popular long necklace was the Sautoir. It usually had a tassel hanging at the bottom or a large single gemstone pendant. It was not always worn down the front of a dress. It could loop to one shoulder or drop all the way down the back. The back drop drew attention to an open back dress- sexy sexy indeed! The twenties were not just about new styles of jewelry but new ways to wear them!
Large Gemstone Necklace @ MyOldJewelry on Ebay.com
Dog collar necklaces were the other main style of 1920s neckwear. Large square, triangle, trapezoid or pointed oval stones set in heavy casings wrapped snugly around the base of the neck. Some call these chokers but they were a bit too low on the neck to be true choker necklaces. A more modern term is the bib necklace. Bold Art Deco colors and especially black onyx were popular. Inspired by cubism, the designs did not have to look like anything realistic. Simple shapes by themselves or abstract representations in a cubist like suggestion of a flower or dragon or automobile were all the rage. The need for anything fast- fast cars, fast dogs, fast boats, and fast gazelles were the only non abstract designs found in Art Deco jewelry. They were stylized, yes, but not abstract.
Zenith Art Deco Necklace @Sheryls
Earrings
Drop Earrings @Sheryls
Because of short hair and cloche’s around the ears women’s necks now fully exposed. What better way to draw attention to the naked neck than with dangling drop earrings. They were long columns, about 2-3 inches with small diamonds or rhinestones set in a filigree design. Diamonds were for formal evenings only. Wearing them during the day was seen as vulgar. They were still a sign of good wealth although a diamond field discovery in South Africa made diamonds more affordable and plentiful. Gems for the day were semi precious stones like jade, coral, turquoise, marcasite, onyx, agate and carnelian set in pure white, clear, or silver casings. If silver was unaffordable sterling silver, silver plate, nickel and zinc could be used to look like white gold. Yellow gold was out of fashion except in Egyptian revival jewelry. For formal occasions, earrings usually matched the hair clip or headband a woman was wearing. If an evening hair was long enough to cover the ears it was trendy to pull one side back and wear only one earring. During the day a brooch pined to the cloche hat could coordinate with earrings.
Bracelets
1920s Bandel Painted Bracelets @Sheryls
As for bracelets in the 1920’s the more bangles that were climbing up her arm the better. Thick or thin wood, bone, shell, metal or plastic bracelets with inset gems in the center came in colors and patterns mimicking African tribal art. F Scott Fitzgerald writes in the great Gatsby “When she moved about there was an incessant clicking as innumerable pottery bracelets jingled up and down upon her arms.” There is some confusion over what Fitzgerald meant by “Pottery” bracelets. One thought is that brown Bakelite bangles resemble ceramic pottery. Another possibility is symbols of Egyptian artifacts such as pottery were carved or painted onto the bangles thus making “pottery bracelets.” In either case bangles were certainly seen and more importantly heard by surrounding company. Some slave bangles in the shape of snakes snake circled the bicep giving a nod to the Egyptian style goddess – Cleopatra!
New 1920s Style Snake Bangel
Other Egyptian designs found their way onto bracelets, rings and necklaces too. Images of a scarab, mummy, pharaoh, pyramids, obelisk, sphinx, vulture, asp, cobra, lotus, and various hieroglyphics. The most popular symbols were scarabs and falcons. They had a revival in the late 50s and 60s too. Classic color combinations were black/red, cream/black, and red/green.
Rings
Vintage Deco Stone and Filigree Ring @Sheryls
1920′s Style Square Setting Ring
Although many rings took on Art Deco shapes, the popular Art nouveau style of filigree casings around precious stones- diamonds- still ruled most of the 1920′s. Stone were however, cut is less traditional cuts and more likely to be square, rectangle, or oval shapes. Some stood taller on a finger especially when worn ungloved. A naked hand tickling neck or tapping and earring was a not so subtle way of flirting. Birthstones instead of diamonds were very popular every day rings.
1920s Style Costume Jewelry
1920′s Style Bib Deco Necklace
I was happy to see a resurgence of 1920s style art deco jewelry and colors this year. Some of the revival styles also lean towards the late 60s and 70s when the boho look captured the tribal and art deco styling once again. Avoiding any “hippie” looks there are plenty of 20′s style jewelry to choose from.
Locally and online I find great (affordable) costume jewelry at Forever 21, Icing, and 1928. For higher quality art deco jewelry look no further then the UK site Sheryls Art Deco Emporium. Her jewelry provided most of the pictures in this post. Art Deco era jewelry is highly collectible today. I haven’t found any with a price tag that makes me want to fork over my cash. To be honest I don’t know enough about identifying jewelry designers and materials to make an educated purchase. With the exception of borrowing my grandmothers jewelry I usually wear cheap costume jewelry- that way I can always afford to wear something new with each outfit. True to the 1920s- that’s what most women did too. Why have one bead necklace when you can have two or three for each outfit you own?
I have two shop pages with 1920s style jewelry and 1920s style necklaces all at reasonable costume jewelry prices to get you started. A few of my favorites right now are:
Simple Faceted Bead Necklace at Forever 21
1920′s Style Drop Earrings
1920s Style Layered Bead Necklace
The post Ladies 1920s Jewelry Styles appeared first on Vintage Dancer.
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