FEATURE
THE TRENDSETTERS
The trendsetters
How celebrities, royalty and prominent trendsetters
throughout history continue to influence jewellery tastes today
J
ewellery has always been the leading
star to express wealth, prosperity and
success. Whether it was 500 BC or
today in 2019, the more bling, the more
you are looked upon in awe. Thinking of
this lead me to examine how jewellers today
are leading trends by using this “star quality
status” to big up their brands and set the
trends. As with much of fashion, jewellery
styles go in and out and come back around.
There are some huge names that prove
how this happens. The major style icon of
the 1800s was our own queen Victoria.
Steering the way for over 60 years, queen
Victoria’s people not only followed her
for leadership, but for her exquisite tastes
in fashion and jewellery. Her people had
replica upon replica of jewellery pieces she
wore made, in paste and silver, rolled gold
or gilt just to be like her. Her turquoise
eagle brooch, worn by herself and her 12
bearers, were copied and stylised and her
tiny four inch crown, while mimicking
all the traditional values of the crown,
allowed for new fashions to be brought to
the monarchy.
Looking forward to the 1950s
everybody knew the name Elizabeth
Taylor. As famous as she was for her
acting roles, she was perhaps even more
famous for her love of life, and jewellery.
In 2011 Christie’s held an auction to sell
off her collection and people came from
far and wide to just look at it, to drink in
the aura of her greatness. One bidder, who
won a pair of relatively modest earrings
(bear in mind that 26 of the 270 lots sold
for over $1m, these sold for $374,000),
turned out to have a miraculous story to
tell. The tale of these earrings was already
beautiful enough.
Elizabeth wanted a pair of earrings she
saw in a shop window and as it turned
16 JEWELLERY FOCUS
March 2019 | jewelleryfocus.co.uk