Earrings Through the Ages From the Renaissance To Modern Times

Earrings Through the Ages From the Renaissance To Modern Times<br /><br />Elegance in the 18th Century: Two styles of earrings reigned supreme in the LATE 1700s: the girandole and the pendeloque. The former featured a circular or oval surmount the top part that attaches to the ear with a central element formed of a ribbon or bow shape from which dangled 3 pendants containing precious stones, 2 smaller ones on either side of a larger one in the center. Each precious stone was surrounded with additional decorative motifs and smaller stones. Most of these earrings seem to be about 1 1.5 inches wide in the center, and perhaps 2 or more inches high.<br /><br />The pendeloque had a surmount with a ribbon or bow shaped element attached to it, from which hung another often pear shaped dangle. The stones and beads used in these were large and chunky and were usually surrounded with rows of diamonds. Seed pearls were often used in less costly earrings. There were no costume styles per se, although people had costly earrings duplicated in paste glass.<br /><br />Earrings were extremely popular in the 1800s. The Elegant lady would suspend almost anything from her ears providing it was decorative. Really wild styles from this period include: dangles made to resemble bushel baskets full of apples, hens sitting on eggs in a basket wish I had these!, jeweled arrows seeming to pierce the earlobe, acorns, flowers in a basket, a bell with a clapper dangling from a chain, carved faces of Greek gods. There were also hundreds of different dressy or formal designs in precious stones and gold. A fabulous pair of earrings set with kite shaped aquamarines in repousse gold is 12 cm long almost 5! but extremely light weight.<br /><br />In the latter half of the 20th Century, many jewelry designers such as Verdura, Hattie Carnegie, Kenneth Jay Lane, Miriam Haskell, produced wonderful costume and precious earrings. Coco Chanel designed the earliest<br /><br />fashion or costume jewelry, to match her goal of designing fashions accessible to all women. Many of her designs were made to be seen with her outfits at shows. A category of fashion jewelry that is created just for display at the fashion show is often referred to as runway jewelry.<br /><br />THE HOOP<br /><br />Perhaps the most enduring and classical style of earring is the hoop. Women wear it in sizes from tiny to gigantic, plain or totally ornate, shaped like a circle, a heart, a square, a spiral, a shrimp. Men wear hoop earrings as well. The hoop earring seems to be our most obvious tie to the distant past.