the vintage lady: carat

authentic vintage jewellery could generally be considered to be so if it is older than 20 years, although styles of the 1930's to 1960's are most popular and largely recognized as vintage. much hype surrounds vintage jewellery in the fashion world, so there are a lot of modern pieces widely available attempting to imitate vintage style jewellery. 

Renee Zellweger: vintage Cartier

vintage style jewellery typically features oval shapes, filigree patterning, diamond and princess cut crystals, pearls, cameos and gemstones.

vintage style jewellery has become so popular largely due to certain trend setting celebrities who habitually wear it. among those top trend setting celebrities are keira knightly, kate middleton and dita von teese.

Kate Middleton

kate middleton has quickly become a popular trend setter for vintage jewellery as her style is quite unique, standing out, compared to the likes of most other celebs around her age. kate middleton's style is always lady like, elegant, dignified, timeless and graceful, as most women would like to be perceived, which is why she has become a fashion icon.

Keira Knightly: vintage Bulgari

keira knightly tends to draw on fashions from the 1920's to 1960's, finding much inspiration from her earlier era movies. her style is typically lady like and elegant also but a bit more relaxed than kate middleton, often opting for loose fitting, glowing garments.

Dita von Teese

dita von teese's style is very much defined by classic vintage retro styles and burleque glamour. while dita von teese may be a lesser known celeb, she is originally famous for burlesque dancing and currently more so for her fashion sense which is built on top of that.

fash'on... BAM!

loulou de la falaise

loulou de la falaise was a fashion muse and designer of fashion, accessories, and jewellery associated with yves saint-laurent. author judith thurman, writing in the new yorker magazine, called la falaise 'the quintessential rive gauche haute bohémienne'.

Loulou de la Falaise

Loulou de la Falaise (right) with Yves Saint Laurent

daughter of an anglo-irish fashion model and a french marquis, la falaise was a close friend and creative partner of yves saint laurent. she apparently helped inspire his 1966 women's tuxedo le smoking and his see-through blouses. after more than three decades designing jewelry and accessories for saint laurent, la falaise launched her own fashion business, designing ready-to-wear, costume-jewellery and accessories.

responding to a description of her as a saint laurent muse in 2010, la falaise responded, 'for me, a muse is someone who looks glamorous but is quite passive, whereas i was very hard-working. i worked from 9am to sometimes 9pm, or even 2am. i certainly wasn't passive.' 

'freehand' necklace

'her official task was to bring her eccentric style to accessories and jewellery, and she duly came up with often-chunky designs incorporating large colourful stones, enamel work or rock crystal'. la falaise also inspired saint laurent with her inventive wardrobe: 'one week she was desdemona in purple velvet flares and a crown of flowers, the next marlene [dietrich] with plucked crescent-shaped eyebrows'. 

Jewellery for Oscar de la Renta

in 2002, when saint laurent retired, la falaise began producing her own clothing and jewellery designs. she also designed cloisonné boxes and porcelain vases for asiatides, as well as jewellery for the boutique of the majorelle gardens in marrakech, morocco. she sold simplified versions of her jewellery designs in a line created for the home shopping network and created costume jewellery for oscar de la renta.

fash'on... BAM!

chaumet

House of Chaumet

the house of chaumet founded in 1780, is a high end jeweler based in paris.

Joseph Chaumet

historic diadems

managed by the chaumet brothers jacques and pierre, chaumet filed for bankruptcy in 1987 with an outstanding debt of 1.4 billion francs (us$200 million at the time), representing 8 years of revenue. most of the debts resulted from their speculation on the price of diamonds, after the sudden drop of market spot prices. 

the two brothers are convicted of illegal banking activities because they opened banking accounts for clients at their company, while promising high return on capital. one of their prominent clients was the french justice minister at the time, albin chalandon. they were found guilty in french penal law of 'bankruptcy, fraud, breach of trust and illegal exercise of banking activities' and were respectively condemned to five and four years of prison in a december 1991 verdict. their sentence was later commuted to six months in prison each, raising concerns in french newspapers about the impartiality of judges in an affair in which high-ranked politicians were involved.

Josephine rings

image from white elephant

after their fraudulous bankruptcy, chaumet was bought in 1987 by investcorp, a leading bahrain based investment bank. the company lost 10 million francs in 1995–1997, but became profitable again in 1998, with a revenue of 280 millions de francs, and was bought by lvmh in October 1999. after an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the american market in the end of the 1990s, the company opens stores in asia to fuel growth.

fash'on... BAM!

boucheron

Frederic Boucheron

boucheron is a french jewellery house located in paris, 26 place vendôme. the house of boucheron is a french family dynasty founded by frederic boucheron in 1858, with the opening of his first store in the galerie de valois, at palais-royal, during the heyday of the second french empire. he created his atelier in 1866 and a year later won the gold medal during the exposition universelle (1867).

Boucheron in Paris

in 1893, frédéric boucheron became the first jeweller to move to place vendôme. legend has it that he chose 26 place vendôme, where boucheron remains to this day, because it was the sunniest corner of the square. he believed that the diamonds in the windows would sparkle all the more brilliantly.

Tamara Nyman

in 1989, boucheron opened a store in moscow, later transferred to saint petersburg in 1911. more store openings followed in japan in 1973, shanghai, dubai in 2005, and finally hong kong and kuala lumpur in 2006.

courtesy of aaronm

boucheron was a family business: after the death of its founder frédéric boucheron in 1902, his descendants took over the business. in 1994, the family business shifted to a more global approach with its selling out to schweizerhall. the house of boucheron was then acquired by former gucci group in 2000, which was bought by ppr in 2004. pierre bouissou was appointed ceo in april 2011.

Dita von Teese

one of the first line created was the symbolic snake line in the 1970s.

Marc Nelson

in 2011, the 'cabinet of curiosities' line was launched.

fash'on... BAM!

van cleef & arpels

there has been much focus over the last three days on the clothing aspects of haute couture but couture today extends beyond fabric. in the upcoming features, we will be looking at jewellery and accessories. so as to not overwhelm you with sparkles, this is going to be a short post.

Van Cleef & Arpels

van cleef & arpels is a french jewellery, watch, and perfume company that was founded in 1896 by alfred van cleef and his uncle salomon arpels. 

they opened their first boutique in 1906 at 22 place vendôme, paris. van cleef & arpels are renowned for their expertise in precious stones and have won particular acclaim for a groundbreaking gem-setting procedure known as the mystery setting. 

Jewels for a Princess

the mystery setting is a a proprietary mounting technique for gems. there are no visible prongs, instead the individual stones are hand grooved to fit into a mesh of gold or platinum wire. 

Orchid brooch, 1928

in 2010, there was a launch of a new high jewellery collection during the biennale des antiquaires called les voyages extraodinaires de jules verne. 

fash'on... BAM!

the ancients: egypt

how can anyone not love egypt? it has given us some of the world's greatest wonders and most mysterious legends. i even wrote a play about the egyptian tombs as well. that was in the past. for today, we shall look closely at the fashion of ancient egypt (you can of course find all the details here.)

in ancient egypt, linen was by far the most common textile because it helped people to be more comfortable in the subtropical heat. wool was known, but considered impure. only the wealthy wore animal fibers that were the object of taboos. they were used on occasion for overcoats but were forbidden in temples and sanctuaries. peasants, workers and other people of modest condition often wore nothing but the shenti (made of flax) was worn by all people. 

picture from Wikipedia

slaves often worked naked (nope not putting up pictures of egyptian slaves on this blog). on the other end of the scale, royal clothing is particularly well documented, as well as the clothing and crowns of the pharaohs. the pharaohs would wear leopard skins over their shoulders and add a lion's tail to hang from their belt.

Egyptian men

ancient Egyptian woman

from about 2130 bc during the old kingdom, garments were simple. the men wore skirts known as shendyt, which were belted at the waist, sometimes pleated or gathered in the front. as for the women, during the old, middle and new kingdom, they often wore simple sheath dresses. these dresses were held up by one or two straps and were worn down to the ankle and sometimes above or below the breast. the length of the dress denoted the social class of the wearer. beading or feathers were also used as an embellishment on the dress.

The Brooklyn Museum

jewelry was very popular in ancient egypt, no matter what your social class. it was heavy and rather voluminous. the egyptians became very skilled when making jewelry from turquoise, metals like gold and silver, and small beads. 

Jean Shrimpton

one creation that was specific to ancient egypt was the gorgerine, an assembly of metal discs worn on the chest, either over bare skin or over a shirt and attached in the back.

Tutankhamun's footwear

footwear was the same for both genders. it consisted of sandals of leatherwork, or for the priestly class, papyrus. since egyptians were usually barefoot, sandals were worn on special occasions or at times when their feet might get hurt.

fash'on... BAM!

all that glitters is not gold

at some point, i should pay tribute to shakespeare considering that i am a graduate in english literature... so dear old will, i hope you are happy wherever you are... now back to fashion (that was a quick change, haha!) and this blog...

so we made it to the five hundred page views mark (claps claps, celebrate, join hands, rain dance!)... thank you everyone for popping by (regardless how you came here...) but really, nothing gets me writing continually if not for the encouraging leap in numbers... 

anyway, since we are talking about glitter and black and nothing gold and this is a special post (did i mention the 500 page views?) i'm going to share one of my latest loves...

the cross... reminds me that God is in charge

i took a huge liking to Swarovski crystals towards the middle of 2011... that's a cross pendant that i bought myself for my birthday in 2011... my current keyring is also from Swarovski... lately, i've been eyeing a ring from myself... 

now, here's why i am drawn to Swarovski...

1) not many local men wear / own Swarovski!

2) the limited numbers in singapore (you don't want everyone having the same item as you... brotherhood can be nurtured in other ways)

3) it gives a sense of resilience, unspoken charm...

4) and of course, all the crystal and energy field talk... how can i be left out?

and if you are wondering why i choose to feature black crystals instead of the colourful range that Swarovski has... please click HERE and read the final note at the end of post. there is a theme that i am trying to stick to... haha! BAM!

the keyring