Oh, the Golden Age of Hollywood! Not just celebrated with gold of course, but with diamonds and platinum and precious stones! With Vogue World: Hollywood, the extravaganza in LA on October 26 fast approaching, what better time to take a look at legends of the silver screen and the jewels they have inspired?
In the very earliest days of the industry, actresses wore their own jewelry. When the hatcheck girl in Night After Night (a really fun forgotten movie, Google it!) says to Mae West, “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!” and West replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it,” she is flaunting her own dazzling bracelets.
Even when the jewelry was supplied by the studio, its gleam had to match the personality of the characters portrayed. Which leads us to our current flight of fancy—which jewels currently on the market would be perfect for Hollywood legends?
Wouldn’t Bette Davis in Now Voyager have looked divine pinning a Jennifer Behr crystal flower to her 1940s dress? And Bette’s nemesis, Joan Crawford might have stuck an antique diamond deco bar brooch under her butch-shouldered fur coat in Mildred Pierce. Can’t you just picture Marilyn’s Lorelei Lee in Daniella fringe earrings? And no doubt Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate would relish the boho flavor of Ten Thousand Things’s turquoise Totem earrings.
Or perhaps you would prefer to channel Kim Novack’s good witch in Bell Book and Candle, with a mystical Judy Geib pendant. If bourgeois princess is more to your liking, evoke Grace Kelly by donning a vintage crystal necklace, as glamorous as the baubles she flaunted in High Society. (Fun fact: Kelly actually wore her own 10-karat engagement ring in that movie.) Then again, you might want to emulate a wise-cracking working girl, like the ink-stained wretches in His Gal Friday, by donning a simple but elegant Spinelli Kilcollin silver and diamond ring. And let’s not forget that a million flicks end with a wedding—who would not want to walk down the aisle like Liz in Father of the Bride, with a Mandrel Studio art deco-style marquise solitaire winking from your third finger left hand?
Still, there are those bad girls who are just not the marrying kind. A Carlo Zini crystal bracelet could have dangled from of the wrist of the deliciously naughty Jean Harlow, gleefully seducing Clark Gable in Red Dust; two decades later Ava Gardner played the exact same role in Mogambo. (The male lead was still Gable—in Hollywood men can grow old, but not starlets.)
Lastly we close with a cheerful bracelet stack from Ben-Amun, with one band sporting pop art flowers, that might have suited our beloved Diane Keaton, renowned not just for her acting talent but her amazing style. We like to think that she is still shining in her quirky ensembles somewhere up beyond the clouds.
Earrings
Rings
Necklaces
Bracelets
Brooches
#Lynn #Loves #Jewelry #Dazzling #Creations #Hollywood #Legends
