| What is Art Deco
jewelry?
The term Art Deco came from the name of the 1925 World's Fair
in Paris but the term was not used widely until the mid-1960s.
In the 1920s, the modernistic designs were influenced by cubist
artists, geometric design, and new technology. An obsession with
sleek and geometric objects was reflected in fashion. Thin women
with boyish figures became the fad.
Women began bobbing their hair, sporting short skirts, tanning,
wearing cosmetics, and smoking cigarettes. Boxy dresses with hemlines
above the knees were worn with long, flowing ropes of pearls,
chains, or crystal beads. The bobbed hair called for long, dangling,
swinging earrings that often grazed the shoulders.
Evening dresses left the shoulders and arms bared and armloads
of bracelets were worn around the wrists, up the forearms, above
the elbow, and around the upper arm. Often, these bracelets were
in the form of coiled serpents in imitation of Egyptian jewelry
in response to the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.
Chromium, Bakelite, and Catalin were being used in many household
items as well as jewelry. The Deco influence was felt until 1941
when the threat of war overshadowed the optimism of the previous
decade.
Exerpted from Collectible Costume Jewelry by Cherri
Simonds
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