History of costume jewelry

Origin

Its origin is linked to the existence of man, when, for magical and protective purposes, the first inhabitants of the earth adorned themselves with shells, stones or flowers. The Egyptians also used iron beads, as evidenced by the remains found.

1920s: Coco Chanel 

But it was Coco Chanel who had to come along and popularise costume jewellery as the little sister of jewellery in the 1920s. She achieved this by using crystals in necklaces. She was a revolutionary in the world of fashion, a mind free from bourgeois prejudices, creator and defender of accessories. She wanted it to be obvious that they were not authentic.

Coco Chanel was the first to come up with the idea of ​​introducing imitation pearls and rare colored gems, believing that jewelry should be worn as fashion accessories and not as displays of wealth or noble ancestry. "It is the accessory that makes or breaks the woman," she said.

In 1924, Chanel opened her jewelry workshops and began using strass ( decorative glass made from sand, borax, arsenic and other elements ) and imitation pearls, trying to combine them with precious stones. It was in 1932 when she launched her first collection and said that her primary goal was to cover women in beautiful constellations.

In the 1980s, designer Kenneth Jay Lane became famous for selling costume jewelry to both the New York elite and Hollywood divas. These fake jewelry pieces were worn by Jackie Onassis and Liz Taylor.

While Coco Chanel was setting the fashion and displaying her great pieces of costume jewellery, in the 1930s, Elsa Schiaparelli created large collections of jewellery, always using the wit and humour that have characterised her. Her designs ranged from brooches in the shape of skates, bracelets with pendants and even needles with can-can legs.

40s

In the 1940s and 1950s, New York became an artistic center thanks to the movies that were shown in theaters and on television. American women were fascinated and desired exact copies of the dresses and jewelry worn by their favorite stars. The easiest way to get them was through women's magazines and popular fashion catalogs.

Just as it happened with clothing, the same thing happened with the purchase of precious metals. Women, as upper and middle class, chose to buy costume jewelry to try to spend less money and be able to embellish the sobriety they wore to work.

After the war, costume jewelry continued to grow in popularity and sales were estimated to have reached $200 million in 1946.