Customer Reviews

Costume Jewelry for Haute Couture

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Expertly co-authored by fashion historian and consultant Florence Muller and haute couture costume jewelry collector Patrick Sigal, "Costume Jewelry For Haute Couture" is a profusely illustrated compendium showcasing dazzling, one-of-a-kind jewelry designed by skilled artisans to complement and adorn individual couture pieces for fashion shows and photo shoots. Representing outstanding examples from Coco Chanle in the 1920s to Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s, to the creation of Lanvin today, "Costume Jewelry For Haute Couture" highlights some of the greatest jewelry creations by some of the greatest artists the fashion industry has every known, including examples by Balenciaga, Diro, Schiaparelli, Givench, Vionnet, and so many others. Beautiful and informative, "Costume Jewelry For Haute Couture" is enthusiastically recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library Art History, Fashion History, and Jewelry reference collections.

The extraordinary workmanship involved in producing haute couture jewellery has never been fully recognized. Historians, as well as art and fashion cognoscenti, have ignored this aspect of faux bijoux. The jewel was merely the dot on the "i" of the catwalk creation, forgotten as soon as the model was out of sight. It was whisked away into the archives of the respective fashion houses or, if it was lucky, purchased together with the garment it adorned, reappearing as a discarded heirloom at some later stage. Many of these jewels have been unearthed over the years by collectors, including a famous couple in Belgium, Patrick and Godelieve Sigal, who were responsible for initiating this book and the exhibition. The archived jewels were never seen again - until now........
.....What made this exhibition all the more riveting, however, was its focus on the paruriers, the actual artisans who made the jewels for the famous houses. Their names were in the cabinets with "their" jewels and the book itself is dedicated almost solely to these artisans. It "...provides a glimpse behind the scenes....The history of paruriers throws a new light on relations between the different couture houses and their official suppliers: the jewellery workshops....contrary to a widespread belief, the couturier always "suggested" but never "created" the jewel."
......this book is a detailed history of the rise of costume jewellery, or more specifically, haute-couture jewellery, in France. The author, Florence Müller, defines the latter as "the luxurious version of "commercial" jewellery, where calculations of cost and price limit inventiveness".
It is a tidal wave of facts and figures, anecdotes and press quotes, a who's who and what's when of famous names and historical references, a giddy list of materials, suppliers, styles and fashions, an encyclopaedia of showplaces and legendary events. In short, it is a substantial volume. A REAL book on jewellery, informative and analytical, as opposed to the usual line-up of pretty photos with price guides that are obsolete as soon as they are written. But photos it has! 400 sumptuous images selected from the exhibition. This is a serious reference work, a must-have in every jewellery collector's library......
Maureen Winterhager
..excerpt from an article published in "VINTAGE" Magazine, No 1, 2007

I've been keeping an eye on 'high fashion' for 25+ years as my own one-of-a-kind bead & jewelry business evolved. I could never figure out why some of the very unusual and creative jewelry I saw in couture and pret-a-porte' runway shows was rarely covered in detail in the fashion books or magazines. Finally this book was created to begin answering my prayers! Bravo - I love it, get lost in it!
While I love all kinds of jewelry, I'd gotten my fill of the books featuring more traditional gold/diamond-type jewelry! If you like the more unusual side of the universe, then you will treasure this book.... and I say all of this before I've even studied the text!
I hope publishers will pay attention and give us more, more, more! This is the tip of the iceberg and I'm delighted.

I haven't finished reading this book but the images of jewelry are beautiful and inspiring.