The Jewelry Detective: Red Carpet Jewelry Ambition, She Wrote
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I saw the future of red carpet jewelry in a Belperron pearl torque.
The necklace was worn by actress Michelle Williams, styled by Kate Young, with a Schiaparelli dress to the Gotham Awards this past November. The torque design is defined by a stiff metal ring of a necklace and originated by most accounts on the battlefield where it was worn by ancient Teutons and Gauls and Celts for good luck.
Belperron is Suzanne Belperron, a legend in the jewelry world, a hero to many. She was one of the few women in charge of a jewelry workshop in early 20th century Paris, and perhaps the only one so supremely sure of the singularity of her talent that she refused to sign her pieces.
“My style,” she famously said, “is my signature.”
She dared to mix precious stones with wood and rock crystal, and she challenged stubborn Paris workshops to sculpt curves into temperamental, smoky quartz. Belperron herself, though married, never had children. After working with René Boivin and creating one-of-a-kind pieces for such clients as Elsa Schiaparelli and Diana Vreeland, she left in 1932—taking her clients with her—to partner with stone dealer Bernard Herz. They soon became romantically involved. In 1941, when Herz was arrested by the Nazis, Belperron bought the company to save it. Herz never came home. When his son Jean returned to Paris after a long internment in a POW camp, she gave him the keys to the company, and the two worked together as Herz-Belperron for the next 30 years.
To see her work worn and photographed gives us all the opportunity to share her incredible story again, which is certainly one reason I’d love to see more of it on the red carpet. (Also red-carpet commentators, ask about the jewelry please. Joan Rivers always did.)
But the crystal ball element of Michelle William’s necklace was in the choosing of it in the first place. It suggested the possibility of daring returning to the red carpet, a future where jewelry at awards show might make us gasp or learn or even dream again. That necklace displayed true jewelry ambition, the desire to make jewelry on the red carpet mean something.
Stop: You haven't heard this one before.
Note: this is not another story lamenting the practice of actors being paid to wear certain brands, or of contracts that dictate their choices. This, as a wise man once said “is the business we have chosen” and this is, right now, the way that business works. This is an investigation into what can happen when you are presented with the most beautiful jewelry in the world and take full advantage of it, when you choose the gold and pearl torque rather than just a simple stud.
For reference see also: Eva Mendes in vintage Van Cleef turquoise at the Golden Globes 2009. Nicole Kidman in the Martin Katz Mughal jewelry, Oscars 1997. Ruth Negga in the Irene Neuwirth crown, 2017. Lady Gaga in the Tiffany diamond yes, but also in the Tiffany morganites at the Grammys. (Morganite? Whats a morganite? A stone discovered in the early 20th century and named after JP Morgan actually!) See what can happen when ambition is present? Lauren Graham in Tony Duquette. Helen Mirren in the David Webb bib. Cameron Diaz in the Fred Leighton turquoise and the Fred Leighton necklace as belt and in the Fred Leighton barrette. Yara Shahidi in the gold Cartier Cactus necklace and the green Dior at the Emmys. Gwyneth Paltrow in the layered Bulgari diamonds. Rachel Weisz in the Cartier hair jewels. Cate Blanchett in Cynthia Bach, 2000. And Chopard white opals, 2014, and aqua and turquoise Tiffany, 2015, and gold and garnet Vuitton High Jewelry, 2023.
These moments were full of jewelry ambition, a boldness that makes them ones to remember. The ambition was expressed in unusual stones—turquoise, citrine, morganite, rubies—in seizing opportunities to delve into historic archives—that Tiffany diamond, the vintage Indian earrings, the 19th century turquoise—and in imaginative placement—in the hair, on the dress, down the back, as a belt! Whether contractual or not, there was nothing that felt remotely obligatory about any of them.
Jewelry Ambition: A User's Guide
Jewelry ambition, for the record, need not only be expressed via one-of-a-kind major stones or serious vintage provenance, but it can also become apparent, as it was at the Museum of the Moving image event honoring Todd Haynes, in a pair of rather simple, though iconic, dangling jade earrings worn by Julianne Moore.
The earrings are the work of a 30-year-old New York team called Ten Thousand Things, led by Ron Anderson and David Rees, true bench jewelers who make all their pieces in New York. (A retrospective of their work was held at Pratt Institute last fall.) The Totem style is one beloved in the jewelry world, as are its designers, the increasingly rare example of longtime independent jewelers dedicated to a singular point of view. They are a four figure investment which is unusual for a red carpet jewel, but worn with Dior Haute Couture they felt personal and surprising, and yes, daring and ambitious.
Moore, like Michelle Williams and her Belperron torque, are clients of the stylist Kate Young. After seeing both instances of true jewelry ambition, I called her to find out more. Young explains that when it came to the Belperron it was a piece she had in mind for a while. “I’m a massive Belperron fan and when Michelle tried on the Schiaparelli dress I knew immediately it was a necklace dress. And I associate Schiaparelli and Belperron [Elsa Schiaparelli was indeed one of Belperron’s most important clients] and the dress felt conceptual in the same way the necklace did. That jewelry is so unbelievably cool right now, so architectural and feminine and modern.”
As ambitious as the pearl and torque choice might be, and as celebrated as it was by jewelry lovers, “the dress,” Young cautions, “comes first. It’s too hard to work around jewelry. Necklaces are especially tricky. Sometimes with the right dress they can look subversive, or they can look old.”
Outside of the dictates of fashion jewelry ambition also crashes up against the practical limitations of jewelry supply and demand Young explains. “I would love to use more High Jewelry,” Young says of the one of kind collections created by the major houses, “but by January half of it is sold and I lose many of the pieces I’m excited about. Maybe my ambition should be that more clients loan the jewels they bought back to me?” And there are also more material matters. “I love the work of Tina Chow and I love rock crystal cuffs, but people don’t really loan them because they are so fragile. And designers like Taffin, or JAR, they’d never loan for the red carpet.” (Sidenote: Rock crystal makes me think of Gloria Swanson’s Cartier rock crystal and diamond cuffs—her own by the way—but my own jewelry ambition is to now get those for Kate Young to put on a client. Anyone listening?)
For awards season, especially for the Oscars and Cannes, Young searches for “really impactful jewelry.” Her client Julianne Moore is a nominee for her film May December, so where might jewelry ambition appear this season?
Young is in an Art Deco inspired headspace right now, an aesthetic penchant she credits Instagram for. “I’m hungry visually always and I’ve been looking at Art Deco designs and glassware, and pieces with and Art Deco flavor about them. I do think it impacts my work though I’m not sure you would think Art Deco furniture when you see it.” What we won’t see on her clients? “Matched sets. It looks too prescribed.”
When asked about her own favorite red carpet looks, Young quickly emails a list: “Obviously Michelle Williams in the yellow gown and Fred Leighton necklace. Julianne in the gold Sidney Garber and white dress at the Gotham Awards in 2022. Bulgari on Selena with black velvet ODLR in 2022. Dakota Johnson in Cartier on Fallon / Zoom during Covid 2021. Michelle in white Chanel couture and Tiffany at the Oscars 2023. Rachel Weisz in Cartier and Celine at the 2019 Golden Globes. Selena in Tiffany and Coach at the 2017 Met Gala.”
That we all can imagine many of these moments without even having to Google an image is the mission of jewelry ambition, accomplished. More, please.
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