Costume Jewelry Designers

 Costume jewelry has an incredible design history, and today’s market blends iconic vintage designers with bold contemporary creators. 

References: Co Pilot

Tiffany & Co.

• Known for timeless elegance, diamonds, and the iconic “Tiffany Setting.”
• Ranked as a top designer brand in 2025 lists.
  
  

Cartier

• Renowned for the Love Bracelet, Panthère motifs, and high jewelry artistry.
• Frequently appears in “best luxury jewelry” rankings.

I hope you enjoy tonight's podcast!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello everyone. Welcome to Take a Fashion Seat. So tonight's topic is very interesting. It is about costume jewelry designers. So I'm excited to talk about this because I've been doing some research, and costume jewelry, believe it or not, is iconic. Those jewelers they spend from the history, the dates back when um jewelry designers made costume jewelry innovative. It started like back during the era of Coco Chanel. That was a long time ago. So it went back to Miriam Haskell, known for pioneering stylish non-precious materials. So it went like really far back to modern luxury brands such as Jennifer Bear and um the vintage designers, you know, key vintage designers. Then you have like Kenneth J, you have um Shriner of New York, you have uh Trafari, and you also have Elisa Shaparly. I think that's how you pronounce her name. So these are like they're iconic, and they make costume jewelry look like real jewelry, like diamonds, gold, and silver. Their jewelry is so stylish, and sometimes they do pair it with gold, they pair the precious metals with silver and other beautiful materials. So, I mean, they're very, very innovative, and I just I love costume jewelry because costume jewelry is just as beautiful as some of the diamonds and the 14k, the serling silver, and the other precious gems that people wear. Now, they put a lot of work in them and they make them so beautiful, and you can pair them with the most amazing outfits. Now, Coco Chanel, she revolutionized fashion um by pairing the costume jewelry alongside fine pieces. So she started like the the pearls and glass. This was a while back. Now, Miriam Haskell is known for um beads, brass, and other floral motifs. Her beautiful and intricate handcrafted designs are so so adorable, so pretty and so sought after. Then you got Shafari, who collectibles are high quality as well, and they're like durable plated pieces. So hers is durable. You got Hobie, known for fine costume jewelry, high standards, um, where you can get like they're constructed, like handmade. You have Koro, a mid-century productive, known, like a producer of jewelry that's known for brooches. Yes, brooches are known as jewelry. Then you have Shriner of New York, so they're known for exceptional quality uh costume jewelry as well. Now, Kenneth J. Lane is famous for like pearls and rhinestones. You would love Ken of J. Lane's jewelry, and the list goes on and on. Now, the more contemporary jewelry designers are Lizzie Fontaine. I think it's Fortunato, known for her statement pieces. You know, like you can find her on Instagram. So if you go on Instagram, look for Lizzie Fortunato, and you'll see her beautiful statement pieces. Jennifer Bear, known for luxury headpieces and her nice jewelry. Now you can find her on Instagram as well. Now, Mignon, I think it's Mignani Gavin Gavanon, famous for dramatic pieces, and you can find on Instagram as well. Now, Ericsson Bauman, known for dramatic Swarovski pieces. Oh my gosh, you would love the designs. I mean, Ericsson Bromart, oh my goodness, the pieces are dazzling, they are a shining light, they're glitzy, glamorous. I mean, you want to when you dress up, dress up, you want to be seen in an Ericsson Bowman. I think it's Ericsson Bowman. That's the name of the designer. So you can also find um costume jewelers. Um Sarah Jewelry House is a good one, and Jazz B Designs is another one. So the question is, people want to know is who makes the best costume jewelry. And I named a bunch of them, and there's much, much more. So you can get also you can get costume jewelry from Bluestone, that's another one, and Velvet Case, there's Voyolaya, and Sully Pite, and Peppa Bella. So there's so many top costume jewelry brands. So I'm gonna go into a list that around the block wrote about. They wrote the 15 influential costume jewelry designers. So this is their 15. Coco Chanel. And Coco Chanel is always at the top because there's no list that you can make unless you include Coco Chanel. Because her jewelry started in the 1920s and her staple was high fashion. So you know that Chanel believed that jewelry should be an essential to a woman's wardrobe. So that's number one. Elsa Schaparelli. Um, Elsa Schaparelli is a true avant grande garde artist, blended fashion and art to create surreal jewelry. Her jewelry looks so dramatic, you would love it. It's unexpected, it's beautiful motifs, it's a coveted collection, and it's just very impactful. It's the top costume jewelry. Kenneth J. Lane, I named him earlier, is known for pearls and gold-plated medals. Miriam Haskell. Her jewelry is handmade, and it it represents the 1940s and 50s. The collectibles are admired as craftsmanship, and then there's Trafari. Safari brand is known for like crown tefari brooches, beautiful rhinestones and sterling silver. So you will love it. Erickson Beaman is known for theatrical jewelry. I mean, runways, red carpet, I mean, you name it. That's the jewelry. Tom Bennons is often known for beautiful, like modern costume jewelry, fashionable garde. So then you got Swarovski, who everyone loves. And Twigovsk, Swarovski jewelry for me, is I mean, worn by the most grandest and beautiful ladies. Because it looks like per art, like you're just looking at a museum piece. I've I I just see Swarovski Jewelry as just pushing the boundaries of luxury in every way. Then you got Alexis Bitter, who I love. I love Alexis Bitter because of um he appeals to the younger audience of costume jewelry. I mean, the stuff is essential and it's modern, it's beautiful. Then you got Osalani. Aiselani um used like chains and metal to create contemporary fashion, creating pieces that are timeless and trend setting. You have Hattie Carnegie. Hattie Carnegie Jewelry is women from the like 50s, you know, down to like back to the 30s. And the pieces are collectibles, they're they're charming and elegant. And you will love the blend of glamour and sophistication. Then you have Napier. Napier is a costume, an American costume jeweler who does like staples for women across America, like you know, everyday classic gold tone and modern pieces. And the next one is my favorite. Now, I this is my favorite costume jeweler on earth, and I go to Macy's to get it. Monet. So Monet became famous. Thomas Everyday Costume Jewelry founded in 1929. Monet designs gold and silver tone metals, rhymes, and enamel. I love it. I get a lot of my earrings from Monet. Now, um, the pieces um they now the bold costume jewelry was based in Toronto. Um, I'm gonna be talking about Alan Anderson next, but Monet is the best, and I'm gonna talk about Monet a little bit at the end because that's my favorite. I'm going now to Alan Anderson, who is based in Canada and known for crystals, so that's who I'm talking about now. He does like celebrity pieces, and Alan Anderson does like vintage styles, and he does like red carpet jewelry as well. Next, let's go to Les Bernard, founded in 1960. Uh, Les Bernard is a game changer, his jewelry is seen on runways, high in fashion and and magazines. Um, he's a top costume jewelry designer, and his key pieces are basically gemstones. He does a lot of costume jewelry and a lot of accessories. His stuff is elevated, and it's well known, and known and for known to be worn by top celebrities. So that was the list of costume jewelry. So I'm gonna go dive a little deeper into Monet jewelry because it's my favorite. So I want to dive um a little deeper with Monet because it's like my favorite, guys, and I just want to talk about it. So vintage Monet, 1930s to the 1990s, highly collectible costume jewelry known for gold-plated designs, often heavy chains, textured metals, and modern shapes. Now you can get it's known, but it was popular, like real popular in the 1940s and the 50s. It's marked Monet Sterling. The materials are basically sterling silver, rhinestones, gold tone, gold plated. Now they are known for earrings, which I talked about was just my favorite, like the clip ones. That's why my ears aren't pierced. Y'all know now and y'all know why. Because of Monet. I got my ears pierced like maybe 20 years ago, and I never I wanted to put diamonds on my ears, and because of the time when I got them pierced, I wasn't able to buy like the diamonds I wanted. I didn't even bother with it. So I started buying Monet. So I started doing the clip-on earrings, and that's how the whole, and I never went and got my ears pierced again. So I stuck with Monet and I bought all of my clip-ons from Monet Jewelry. I wanted to talk about that. That's why I love them so much because they were the ones who had the clip-ons that I loved, and they were heavy, beautiful, beautiful, large, iconic clip-on earrings. They were known for their bracelet, high polished bracelets, charms. They did necklaces, they were tassel necklaces, chain link styles, etc. And they were known for their sculpted brochures, like the brooches. The brooches were everything. Monet is good, is a very good quality costume jewelry brand, and they're known to be like vintage-oriented because it dates so far back. Monet is the kind that can allow you to achieve a good look without breaking the bank, and that's why I was there, guys. I was there because of that. Monet is the best, so you should shop, just type it in and go for go for Monet. When you type it in, you will see what I'm talking about. You will love the Monet jewelry. So let's get back to costume jewelry. Okay, let's get into some more brands. So the more modern pieces you can get now is Lana jewelry. You can do Gyps Pia brand. There is Prada. You could get Prada jewelry, you can do Czar, Zara has it as well, Jenny Wu, Jenny Woo lace, you can do Swarovski, which we talked about, Burdoff Goodman. You can get jewelry from there. You can also do Neiman Marcus, they have nice, beautiful costume jewelry. Now, I'm gonna get I'm gonna continue to have the conversation about the most popular now. So when it comes to the top jewelry brands, you can do costume and you can get diamonds. The top ones that you can kind of mix the costume with the diamonds and the gold and the silvers is Tiffany and Company. They're like at the top guy's Harry Winston. These are you can get costume jewelry, but you can get the top diamonds, gold, and silver. Tiffany and Company, Harry Winston, Cartier, Chopert, Van Cleef, and our pal. You can do David Yeerman, Buka Laki, and Groff. You could do those. Um, now let's talk about vintage costume jewelry. Vintage costume jewelry has like a collection. Now, the collection you can get from the vintage costume jewelry is Chanel, Miriam Haskell, Kenneth J-Lane, E Saint Laurent, and more. And they're showing like a collection of Chanel appearance necklaces. You can get like vintage Julia uh bracelets, you could do brooches, guides, earrings. I'm looking at charm bracelets, etc. It's like a collection of them. Beautiful, beautiful pieces. Now the famous jewelry, costume jewelry designs are Ginny Bird, you can do Roxanne Osalom, Lizzie Fontenato Fonado, um, Lauren Hope. You could do uh Bogoth and Holly Craft, Vindamy, Chanel, of course. These are like quality costume jewelry. Okay, then they're the most popular. All right, so let's do an expert guide to costume jewelry. So this is like um an excerpt guide. Now, the most important attribute of high-end costume jewelry are the design of the craftsmanship. Um, basically, you're looking for how they're made, how it was designed. Um, picking up with your hands and feel it. You can tell when it's worth something, it's basically heavy. Um you could get prior to 1920s, costume jewelry was most often created to basically aid with diamonds, emeralds, and etc. So that's when they made them. They kind of made them to pair with the the gemstones. Then in the 1920s, Paul Porrett began to accessorize the dresses with jewelry made of crystals and precious metals. That's how far it went back. Now, H and HM, Coco Chanel is the first name that comes to mind when you talk about costume jewelry, like I said, and then I went into the other ones. Now, East St. Laurent Bowl costume jewelry is remarkable for the use of materials such as wood, leather, um, glass, feathers, and more. So East St. Laurent has beautiful costume jewelry as well. Now, they did an interview and they're asking what impact did Chanel have on the fashion jewelry. And HM says, in the same way, the Coco Chanel changed the feel of fashion through the use of women's trousers. The same thing applied to costume jewelry, so you can look at that as well. She kind of and then she did the pearls as well. So that's how far it goes back to vintage. Okay, let's dive a little deeper. So, this is the best costume jewelry designers, antique trader. So they went into Coco Chanel and Elsa Schaparelli. There, they were the two they named, where you could get like vintage, and you can get you know the Miriam Haskell. While there is some debate about how much of the jewelry bearing Miriam Haskell's name was actually designed by the woman, the American costume jewelry business, she founded tremendous success. Her lead designers from the 1920s, she went like from the 20s to the 60s. Frank Hess was responsible for developing the more manipulated jewelry that spawned after that. So while Haskell pieces are usually superior in terms of materials and craftsmanship, originals by Robert Murgio, Eugene, Joseph F. Morton, and Amara Lilly are among the brands offering similar styles during the same period. So Morton Hess, the maker of the Morton jewelry, was co-founded in the 1960s by Miriam Haskell's nephew, Joseph F. Morton Gilleser, with Hess after he left Haskell. So see, you got to dive deeper. And when you dive deeper, you find out the family members helped out and friends did as well to bring these pieces to life. So it's just Ruth Cammy, a Fallon, and Capel, um, they're jewelry manufacturers and people who you pay attention to because with them you got the more modern pieces today. So you, if you look back at those, you would see those were the jewelry that started the whole thing. So I'm gonna end on that note. You know, I'm gonna end on that note because costume jewelry is here to stay, guys, and we should all you know take good notes on. I hope you took good notes on where you can get some of the top amazing beautiful pieces. Um, I hope you enjoyed the podcast about costume designers and enjoy your evening, guys. I hope you learned something, and then you will go costume jewelry shopping.