Art Deco Jewelry Design

The end of World War I, marked a start of a new period of extreme creativity in which the life motto became “Live and forget the past”. This creativity was expressed in all sorts of disciplines of art, as well as jewelry. In the years during the World War, women were needed to take over men’s Jobs. This created a great emancipation, and once the War ended, women stayed in their jobs.

The way women dressed evolved; trousers for the liberated woman during the day and dramatic, provocative dresses and shorter skirts at night to enjoy the popular dances like the Tango, Charleston and Fox Trot, without restriction. Also jewelry design evolved dramatically to follow the latest innovations in fashion. Jewelry became an ornament strictly dependent on the dress on which they were worn. Fashionable women designed clothes to suit a particular important piece of jewelry.

Several bracelets were worn together for the first time, necklaces and sautiers were worn at the back rather than the front on low backs dresses. Bandeaux became the “In thing to wear”. Small diamond encrusted watches with miniature movements were paired up with machine made, diamond line bracelets used as watchstraps. This was the birth of the cocktail watch. Art Deco dress clip brooches were designed in pairs and could be worn on necklines, belts, jacket lapels, purses, shoes and hats. Bracelets like the one on the picture are one of the iconic designs of the Art Deco period jewelry. The new features in the design of jewelry became: geometry, chromatic contrast, linearity and stylization.

The art deco style which stemmed from a rejection of the excesses of art nouveau naturalism, found its sources of inspiration in the exotic forms of Oriental, African, and South American art. The contemporary Cubist and Fauve movements in art also influenced the art deco style. Looking at some of the geometric designed pieces like the bracelet on the picture we can find the essence of the geometrical design patterns of the oriental carpets. The new style, which name was born with the Paris Arts Decorative Exhibition in 1925, was chaired in all its manifestations by a premise that is particularly suited to jewelry; it was to make a piece of art of everyday objects.

A very interesting exposition regarding Art Deco, will take place from 26th March – 28th June 2015,in Madrid (Spain), at the March foundation. El gusto moderno. Art déco en París, 1910-1935 (transl. The Modern Taste. Art Deco in Paris, 1910 – 1935).

Article by DENIZSE, Fine and Estate Jewelry. Denizse, located in Madrid, Spain, is a long established company specialized in fine jewelry. We both manufacture jewelry and have collected over the last years the most beautiful estate jewelry pieces to offer them to our most demanding clientele.