The earliest costume jewellery was simply an imitation of precious jewellery and had little intrinsic value or original style of its own.
Coco Chanel, Jean Patou, Drécoll, and Premet were also among the first famous couturiers to create costume jewellery along with clothing, which propelled its acceptance. By 1925, the Marshall Field's department store catalog described costume jewellery in positive terms, announcing, "The imitation is no longer a disgrace."
1920s Replicas
The most ubiquitous jewellery imitation in the 1920s was a pearl necklace. Strands of pearls or coloured beads neatly circled the neck or swung to waist, hip, even knee length, made to move with fast-paced dances like the Charleston. At the end of the period when the little black dress became a daytime standard, shorter strands of light-coloured beads and pearls continued as the accessories of choice. Rhinestone jewellery also blazed into prominence, as it was the perfect foil for two fashion innovations: suntans and white evening gowns.
Influences on Costume Jewellery
Beginning in the 1920s and continuing throughout the 1930s, fashion and jewellery shared a multitude of influences including Art Deco, the Far East, North Africa, and India. Egyptian motifs were inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. The Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931 and the New York World's Fair in 1939 expanded the vocabulary of foreign influences, and rough, raw, "barbaric" materials (real and imitation), including ivory (and faux versions), bone, amber, wood, and even cork, were used for over-scale jewellery. Chanel's signature necklace in 1939 was a massive East Indian- inspired bib of faux pearls, uncut emeralds, ruby beads, and dangling metal pieces with a cord tie.
In the mid-1930s, fashion's palette turned Technicolor, as plastic was produced in bright colours for the first time and metal jewellery was hand-enameled to add colour. Toy-like novelty accessories (both costume and precious jewellery) were wildly popular, inspired by the Surrealists, couturier Elsa Schiaparelli, and Walt Disney's cartoons. The queen of whimsy, Schiaparelli put metal insects and caterpillars on necklaces, and her brooches ranged from miniature musical instruments, roller skates, harlequins, blackamoors, and ostriches. Influenced by the lively antics of cartoons, jewellery also had movable parts: Brooches and necklaces were adorned with "trembler" flowers, hanging plastic fruit, or charms. Clips could be deconstructed into separate pieces. This silly jewellery lightened up the lapels of the fashionable severe and sober, fitted suits.
At the same time, the romantic rococo and Victorian styles flourished, lingering into the 1940s. Rococo jewellery, associated with the Empress Eugenie, was typically frivolous bow-knots, swags and ribbon curves, sparingly ornamented with large, faux-semiprecious cut stones. It was usually plated with real gold (pink, white, yellow) or sterling silver. Victorian styles were copied directly from the originals: lockets, cameos, chokers, even hat pins. Black plastic was the substitute for nineteenth-century jet.
Hippy Chic Jewellery
In the 1960s, bold, pop-art graphic "flower power" motifs were fashion favourites. The ubiquitous daisy was produced in every material from plastic to enameled metal, and in a palette of neon bright colours. Daisies were linked into belts, pinned on hats and dresses, and suspended from chains around the neck. Even Chanel and Dior produced flower jewellery, although their brooches, necklaces, and earrings were petaled with fragile poured glass.
Hippies and the counterculture rejected this sophistication in favour of handmade and ethnic jewellery in humble materials: clay and glass beads, yarn, temple bells, papier-mâché, macramé, and feathers. Both men and women pierced their ears, crafted their own head-bands, ornamented their clothing with beads and embroidery, strung love beads, or hung a peace sign, ankh, or zodiac symbol on a strip of rawhide around their necks. Singer Janis Joplin typically performed while weighed down with a massive assortment of new and vintage necklaces and bracelets.
Article by https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-accessories/costume-jewelry
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