For those old enough to remember wandering through the aisles at Woolworth’s or accompanying their mothers to visit jewelry cases in department stores of old, costume jewelry was an affordable luxury that offered entrée into the dimly grasped world of glamour and beauty. Humans simply love to adorn themselves, and the desire for glittering ornaments, whether of precious or non-precious materials, is as ancient as Egypt and as ubiquitous today as it ever was.
The new Dress Up exhibition opening this spring at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston celebrates the grownup version of these childish delights, featuring sophisticated costume jewelry—much of it drawn from the museum’s own collection of vintage jewelry made in the United States and abroad, and given by longtime collector and dealer Carole Tanenbaum—along with clothing, accessories, and fashion photography. The process of “dressing up,” as captured in Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photograph N.Y.C. (Woman Trying on Hat), illustrates the steadfast search by one young woman for the perfect accessory, an experience no doubt shared by many readers.
Dress Up may be the first exhibition to consider costume jewelry through the lens of fashion, giving jewelry and garments equal attention and demonstrating that the process of self-fashioning has no boundaries and can draw on a wide range of influences and materials to create a mood, an aesthetic stance, or personal identity. The exhibition includes shoes and dresses worn by Donna Summer, and fashions designed by Alexander McQueen, Bob Mackie, and Patrick Kelly. An ensemble owned by fashion leader Iris Apfel, known for daringly combining fashion and jewelry, includes a Lanvin jacket along with six Native American turquoise necklaces.
The allure of costume jewelry lies in its sparkle, color, and affordable price. While the methods for assembling paste and crystal components have changed with the times, their eternally glittering appeal is due to faceted glass that is sometimes backed with foil to enhance its reflective properties. (Leaded glass increases refraction, but is less frequently used today.) Another popular component, rhinestone, may have originated with quartz stones found on the Rhine River and polished. Metal can be made of a base—that is, non-precious—material or silver, and plated with gold, silver, or rhodium to add brilliance.
The materials used in costume jewelry may be of lesser monetary value, but the beauty of the bijoux is as indisputable as their superb designs and execution. It has often been observed that plated silver designs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were far more adventurous than those made of sterling, and the same is true of costume jewelry. An enticing brooch by Hattie Carnegie’s firm featuring yellow silk studded with stones and enamel, would have seemed brash to the staid firms making conservative circle pins of silver or gold. As for quality of work, a brilliant sunburst brooch of rhodium-plated metal and glass by the Schreiner Jewelry Company, one of North America’s foremost designers of high-end costume jewelry in the mid-twentieth century, exemplifies the superlative design, materials, and construction characteristic of these underappreciated pieces.
The exhibition’s focus on self-fashioning, with costumes and accessories arranged in themes such as child’s play, maximalism, identity politics, and the theater of everyday life, is a concept that is both old and new. As Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel observed, “costume jewelry is not made to give women an aura of wealth but to make them beautiful.”
Dress Up is organized by Emily Stoehrer, Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry, and theo tyson, Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is on view from April 13 to September 2.
