This book highlights 50 women jewelry designers who made their own way to the forefront of the industry.

The great irony of the jewelry industry, says Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, is that although most of its creations are intended for women, it has traditionally been dominated by men. Weir-de La Rochefoucauld is the author of Women Jewellery Designers, which offers profiles of 50 talented women of the 20th century, from pre-World War I through post-World War II. Their creativity and perseverance forged a brand DNA that has lived on through the decades.

For the most part, in late-19th-century jewelry workshops, women worked through the good graces of their male relatives or husbands, under whose names the jewelry designs were credited. But the sea change that both the Arts and Crafts and the suffragette movements brought about led to a shift in opportunities for women, further broadened by the societal changes following the two world wars. Using “inspiration and influence, experimentation and being at the right time and the right place,” the author says, women designers found their niche.

One example was Alma Pihl, who gained employment as an apprentice draftsman in Fabergé’s St. Petersburg workshop in 1909 through her uncle, the head designer. But two years later, she earned her place in the company history, creating a series of rock crystal and diamond pendants inspired by the crystals of morning frost on the windowpane. Pihl went on to design two of the Tsar’s famed Easter eggs.

The right connections

While talent was important, circumstances mattered as well. “Coco Chanel and Jeanne Toussaint were both making their way through the demi-monde before World War I. Chanel started out making hats, as we all know. But it was her relationships with her various amours that helped a lot,” points out Weir-de La Rochefoucauld. It was thanks to the Duke of Westminster that Chanel got a commission in 1932 from the International Diamond Corporation to create a 47-piece collection using diamonds they provided. The jewelry was intended for the famous “Bijoux de Diamants” exhibition that year. The hope was that it would kick-start sales of diamond jewelry. The other Parisian jewelry houses were “scandalized that a dressmaker was given the opportunity. But the Duke knew the Marchioness of Londonderry, who knew Ernest Oppenheimer of De Beers. It all connected.”

Equally fortuitous, according to Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, was that Toussaint met Louis Cartier early on. This helped her secure her place at Cartier, where she eventually helped successfully steer the firm’s design voice “from the Art Deco years to a period of figurative and floral designs.”

These early women also had “very strong characters,” which was necessary to navigate their paths, explains the author. And they knew enough to make the most of opportunities. Chanel paired with other talented designers, including Fulco di Verdura and Paul Iribe. She and Iribe created pieces for the “Bijoux de Diamants” show, including the iconic Comet Necklace, which “dipped a trail of diamonds onto the shoulder” of the wearer without the necessity of a clasp, something Chanel eschewed in her jewelry. Toussaint often closely collaborated with clients on commissioned work. The well-photographed flamingo brooch she made for the Duchess of Windsor owes its colorful tail feathers to the ruby, sapphire and emerald line bracelets the Duke of Windsor supplied as a source of gems.

Nurturing creativity

Jeanne Boivin, meanwhile, “was absolutely extraordinary,” according to Weir-de La Rochefoucauld. “She took over the House of Boivin when her husband died. She took on Suzanne Belperron when she was 21, and she helped give her the opportunity and confidence to find her design voice.”

After leaving Boivin in 1933, Belperron partnered with Bernard Herz, who had gemstones and money and took care of the business end. “It allowed Belperron to concentrate on creativity. If she had an idea, she went for it, like setting the gemstones of a demi-parure of ear clips and bracelet outside the normal boundaries. When Herz was sent to a concentration camp, Belperron ran the business under her name. After the war, she returned the business to his son.”

Following in Belperron’s footsteps at Boivin, Juliette Moutard ultimately unveiled her own more “ebullient and detailed” style, says Weir-de La Rochefoucauld. “She used nature and flowers. She used passementerie. She was young when she started at the firm, but she stayed with them for a lot of the 20th century — 1933 to 1970 — happy to work underneath the Boivin umbrella.” Her Quatre Corps ring design was actually inspired by a “fish scale” bracelet that a customer brought in to be shortened. The bit of excess lay on her desk for years until she used it as inspiration for the ring.

The secret of success

What makes these designers’ jewelry stand the test of time? “I think there is a spark,” says Weir-de La Rochefoucauld. “It comes down to proportion, and how that piece looks on the body and works with fashions. Along with precise workmanship, there is the desire to go the extra mile to get the design right.”

Much of what these women designers did was ahead of their time and often misunderstood. But they had courage and conviction and the confidence to experiment. They created a thread “that helps take you to the next chapter the designer creates,” says the author. “That’s very, very important.”


Design detective

It is no surprise that Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld has had a career associated with gems and jewelry. The granddaughter of jeweler Thomas Weir, who founded the family firm Weir & Sons in Dublin in 1869, she is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem-A) and began her career at Sotheby’s & Co., London. Based in France, she is also the author of Twenty-First Century Jewellery Designers: An Inspired Design (2013) and Lydia Courteille — Extraordinary Jewellery of Imagination and Dreams (2016), as well as the co-author of Wallace Chan: Dream Light Water (2015).

Weir-de La Rochefoucauld worked on Women Jewellery Designers for four years. Much of the process, she recalls, was “playing detective.” That was the fun part, she says, adding, “I have to emphasize that the archivists at the major jewelry houses, including Cartier, Chanel, Dior and Boucheron, all helped me.”

Another nice factor was that many designers featured in the latter part of the book, from post-World War II through the 1980s, were still available to speak with her, including Wendy Ramshaw, Marina B. and Elsa Peretti.
Although the author says she can’t play favorites among the designers she profiled, when pressed, she admits that the work of Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe spoke especially loudly to her.

“I just love the idea of her skating as a child and bringing the idea of edges and blades to her metalsmithing,” she says. “Her designs are done with one strip of metal and are always complicated, handmade pieces. I just think that type of dexterity and detail is extraordinary. There is also a jazz influence — one of her husbands was Afro-American. Billie Holiday wore her jewelry. And I also liked the idea that she had so many different lives, with different husbands. She did what she wanted to do and she survived. She had grit. I admire that.”

Main image: Jeanne Toussaint’s hands. Toussaint wearing her signature ring and bracelet. Note the lack of beads at the clasp for comfort. (Provenance: ‘Les mains – Personnalités des métiers de la mode’ (Personalities in the fashion industry) by Kollar François (1904-1979.) © RMN – PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANÇOIS KOLLAR. IMAGE COURTESY OF RMN-GRAND PALAIS © MINISTÈRE DE LA CULTURE

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