Wearing Pearls - 8 Inspirational Women

I love pearls.

I tend to wear them every day, either as stud earrings, a brooch or a necklace - real and fake.  They can give a vintage touch to any outfit, and any era.

There is something special about pearls - their lustre, they way they catch the light, and the way they feel.  The fact that they are made by nature, with a little help from man now and then, is also amazing. 

Nothing evokes timeless elegance more than pearls - when I think pearls I think Coco Chanel,  Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and other glamorous women. Putting on a strand of pearls gives us a link to that glamour, to that past.

Grace Kelly in Rear Window, 1954

Here is British actress Alma Taylor, who appeared in over 150 movies the 1910s and early 1920s. In 1915 she was voted the most popular British performer by readers of Pictures and the Picturegoers, comfortably beating Charlie Chaplin into second place, and she was on the cover of Life Magazine.

Alma Taylor on the cover of Life, 1915 source

I even like fake pearls and cultured pearls - much easier to look after, cheaper and great to wear en masse.  Cultured pearls began to appear on the market in the 1900s when real pears were in short supply.  Neither cultured and or artificial glass pearls were accepted immediately.  Coco Chanel was one of the first designers who started to work with imitative or imitation jewellery, including pearls and gemstones, in the 1920s.  Rather than being for those who could simply not afford buying the real luxury, Chanel brought imitation to the state of art.   She often made her costume jewellery pearls bigger than natural, and her simple dresses were ideal for wearing jewellery.  Chanel herself  wore her own creations, often wearing strands of pearls at a time.

Coco Chanel c. 1936, with red lipstick and strands of pearls source

Jacqueline Bouvier , before she was a Kennedy, apparently purchased her famous  pearls in the late 1950s - at Bergdorf Goodman for about $35. She wore her fake pearls with grace, elegance and dignity, whether she was greeting dignitaries or looking after the children, when she was young and when she was older – if she could do it so can we! 

More glamorous ladies - actresses Sophia Loren and Gene Tierney -

Gene Tierney c. 1945 source

I love this photo of Shirley McLaine with her daughter Sachi taken in about 1958 - not really glamorous, but fun!  It' s great to instill a love of pearls into your daughters!

source

Doris Day, always so happy, and beautiful in pearls - 

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Are you a pearl wearer?

♥ Deb

Fashion in Art - Jersey

I've decided that since not much is happening with my wardrobe at present (although I did wear 30s style lounging pyjama pants yesterday) I would start looking a bit at fashion in art - maybe a different vintage painting each week.  

To begin, is this portrait of Peg Oldfield from 1931, painted by Australian artist Douglas Dundas (1900-81).  This painting hangs at the Brisbane Art Gallery. Peg Oldfield was an illustrator, and probably moved in the same circles as Dundas in Sydney.

Peg Oldfiled by Douglas Dundas, 1931

 She has a very modern look for 1931, with her Coco Chanel inspired outfit of patterned jersey blouse and pulled down beret or turban. I say jersey as the fabric looks to thin to be knitted of wool and the drape at the elbow looks more like jersey than silk or cotton. And the pattern looks very similar to this one.

Coco Chanel wearing one of her designs, 1929

Coco Chanel was the first designer to use jersey for outerwear. During the fabric rations of WWI jersey, which has only really been used for underwear, was the only readily available fabric, and Chanel experimented with it, creating women's suits and blouses and skirts. It was easy to wear and comfortable, as well as being easy to launder.  Not everyone accepted jersey for outer wear, but many did, and the jersey suit became Coco’s first real success in fashion.

Madame Gres and model, 1938

Madame Gres (who I have looked at in an earlier post) worked from the 1930s through to the 80s, and made many of her fabulous gowns in jersey.  She also often wore her trademark beret or turban. The perfect hat for a bad hair day!

Deb xx

Dress of the week - Chanel, 1932 & Diamonds

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel 1932

In 1931 Coco Chanel travelled to California for Samuel Goldwyn and a one million dollar contract, where she designed  some of the most beautiful outfits and gowns in Hollywood - for Gloria Swanson, in “Tonight or Never,” (1931) and for Ina Claire in “The Greeks Had A Word for Them,” (1932). She had come late into the production of Eddie Cantor’s Palmy Days (1931), and created only a few garments for the film. The the public loved her dresses and several celebrities become private clients, but she did not like Hollywood, "the capitol of bad taste" as she called it.  Some say her dresses weren't sensational enough, and that is why Goldwyn let her go.  I imagine this design from 1932 was inspired by her time in Hollywood. Pretty sensational wouldn't you say!

Chanel, evening dress, 1932

Bow detail, Chanel, 1932

This body hugging sheath of blue silk and sequins was designed to wrap the wearer, with the gored skirt flaring from the knees in front and from the waist at the back. Sleeveless with a  wide V-neck in the front, which dips to the waist at the back it was designed to show off the slim figure of the wear to it's best advantage.  A large bow of matching material is applied to the front bust, and another below the waist at the back, which is reminiscent of her famous 'Bow Sweater' of 1927.  

 

A Photoplay magazine article about Chanel’s gowns for Tonight or Never, January 1932

Chanel also designed a collection of diamond jewellery in 1932.  She had already built a business based on costume jewellery, and the men of International Diamond Guild hoped that her flair could revitalising the diamond industry, which had been slow since the crash of 1929. The star of her collection, pardon the pun, was no doubt this:

Comète necklace, 1932

The necklace, inspired by a comet, has a five-point star and round-cut diamonds that wrapped around the throat, finishing in a splashy tail.  Chanel told to one journalist how she glanced up at the sky one night while strolling the Champs-Élysées, contemplating how she would imbue fine jewellery with her singular aesthetic, and she found her answer among the stars: “I wanted to cover women in constellations,” she said.

Bijoux de Diamants was the first high-jewellery collection for Chanel — and the only for Coco — and in celebration of its 80th anniversary, last year the couture house is reinvented the series with “1932,” a new variation on the classic jewels originally designed by Mademoiselle Chanel. with 80 specially designed pieces. You can see the collection here. Doesn't hurt to look!

Deb xx