Vintage costume jewellery part 6, The 1950s and diamante

Vintage costume jewellery history part 6  1950s and diamante

As life returned to normal after the second world war design changed and the 1950s again brought new styles and materials and space age jewellery. Much of the style and fashion of the 1950s was influenced by the Festival of Britain which took place in1951 and was intended to be ” a tonic for the nation” following the second world war. Over 10,000,000 tickets were purchased during the six months of the exhibition which shows how popular it was.  Many of the exhibits showed radical new design and space age influence, this spread into all areas of design including costume jewellery.  War time rationing and restrictions were lifted and once again crystal diamante from Europe ( Austria) became available to Costume Jewellers as did the base metals for setting these into.

Who were the famous Costume Jewellery designers of the 1950s?

Christian Dior, Miriam Haskell, Henry Schriner. Stangley Hagley and of course Coco Chanel.  These designers were producing high quality jewellery which did not necessarily try and imitate the real thing – they were made to follow the clothing fashions of the day. Most of the designer and big names in costume jewellery in the 1950s were from the USA and most of the production was done there too. This is probably why many of the best pieces of 1950s vintage costume jewellery are to be found int hte USA today rather than in the UK.  Costume Jewellery by Trifari was worn by Americas first lady Mamie Eisenhower

What style of costume jewellery was popular in  the 1950s?

Figural novelty brooches set with diamante and enameled. The ballet dancer remained a popular image and animals such as dogs and cats were given large eye and a cute whimsy appearance. The 1950s saw Cats, Poodles and Cowboys, Birds in flight , artists palates and items from teh cocktail bar decorating brooches, earrings , belts, necklaces, bracelets and all other types of jewellery.

dog brooches

Costume Jewellery innovations of the 1950s.

As with every era in the History of costume Jewellery, the 1950s saw the introduction of techniques and materials which were not available in previous times. Perhaps the most notable 1950s introduction was the Aurora Borelis stone which was produced by Swarovski with design aid from Christian Dior. The Aurora Borealis stone (  often shortened to AB)  has an iridescent finish which changes colour tone due to a metallic coating on the glass. These come in all colours, blue/ green, red/orange and clear/pear perhaps being the most common.

1950s costume Jewellery to buy now for the future:

1950s diamante necklace

I believe that 1950s prom style necklaces, earrings, brooches and bracelets  are very undervalued at the moment. These aer made of silver toned metal and normally set with clear diamante. If you are lucky enough to discover a 1950s diamante piece with coloured stones these are probably even better. These pieces of jewellery can currently be purchased from just a few pounds and are becoming very popular as bridal and party wear nowadays.. Look for the following features:

- are all the stones prong set rather than glued in?

- are all the stones present and bright and clear?

- look at the design of the pieces, the more intricate the design the better and single strand of diamante may be quite pretty but is not as desirable as a more complex piece.

Do you have any pictures of real 1950s costume jewellery, do send them to me and I will add them here.