From 1930-1934 Fulco Santo Stefano della Cerda, Duke of Verdura designed costume jewelry for Chanel. He was greatly influenced by art history as was Coco Chanel. These influences brought them together to create jewelry that looked very medieval or barbaric. Born in the Mediterranean of Sicily, Verdura would have been inundated with the image of the Maltese cross growing up. This holds true for Coco as well, being raised by nuns in a convent. Coco took many ideas from the convents of her childhood, so it is likely that is where she became fond of this image. Over the years Coco would reinterpret the Maltese cross in different costume jewelry designs, from necklaces, pins and more bracelets as well as reinvent her enamel cuff bracelets with various stone orientations.

In 2005, Chanel is once again influenced by designs of yesteryear. The Paris-Tokyo collection has a gothic Maltese cross cuff bracelet. This collection also has monogramed cuff bracelets to offer. It is amazing how small changes to bracelets designed seventy five years ago can modernize something that fits perfectly for today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Costume Jewelry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.