Marilyn Monroe to Joan Crawford: Hollywood’s most stunning costume jewellery

Featuring inexpensive materials and faux gems, these remarkable pieces of jewellery have been worn by the world’s most glamorous stars in the golden age of Hollywood – from Joan Crawford to Liberace. A new book explores the story of statement jewels.

We all know that a statement necklace, bangle or earrings can provide the finishing touch to an outfit, but it’s easy to forget that until costume jewellery appeared on the scene this was an option only available to those with healthy bank balances. Prior to this, “women were wearing fine jewellery or no jewellery,” says jewellery historian Carol Woolton, who has written the text for Costume Jewelry, a new illustrated Taschen book on the subject.

Costume jewellery – in other words, jewellery made with inexpensive materials or imitation gems – emerged because of multiple factors, notably World War Two’s impact on the availability of materials, and the changing position of women in society. And although instigated by European designers, it came into its own in the US.

“I think it was embraced much more in the States because you didn’t have that idea of heritage jewellery that was entrenched in Europe,” says Woolton. “European women were so used to wearing family jewellery or being gifted it on significant milestones in their life, but in America there was a freedom.”

Hollywood’s influence was immense. When film stars like Marilyn Monroe started wearing costume jewellery both onscreen and off, they transformed it into a highly desirable and affordable commodity that was worn by everyone from socialites to secretaries.

Here are nine of the most influential costume jewellery pieces and the designers who created them.

Chanel Maltese Cross cuff

Coco Chanel was one of the first designers to bring real artistry to costume jewellery. Chanel’s wholly unique and chic approach is evidenced in the iconic Maltese Cross cuffs she can be seen wearing in this image, in which precious stones were set in base metal covered in white enamel. “It’s hard to overestimate how radical it was at the time for Chanel to do what she did, using glass and gilt and mixing it with precious gemstones. Now the high-low fashion mix is commonplace, but back then it really wasn’t,” Woolton tells the BBC.

Although Chanel liked to mix fine and faux jewels in her own outfits, the pieces she sold were pure costume jewellery, which gave her the freedom to experiment with colours and materials. She was “making jewellery that wasn’t a pastiche of fine jewellery but something really beautiful in its own right”, says Woolton. Strands of fake pearls and bold, brightly coloured pieces made from gilded metal, glass paste and beads were the perfect accompaniment to her elegantly refined clothes, including her signature little black dress.

“Her idea was that fine jewellery shouldn’t be about value or wealth or, as she famously said, ‘wearing a cheque around your neck.’ It was about completing the costume and making a woman feel beautiful,” says Woolton.