The little black dress with its curving cut-away back and sparrow-small silhouette looked familiar. Only the diamond necklace seemed slightly out of sync. Could it really be Cartier, not Tiffany, for Audrey Hepburn's most emblematic screen outfit?
Hubert de Givenchy celebrated his role as president of Christie's
The display staged by Christie's in
''Bijoux Signes'' is the title of the sale that will be held in
''There is a lot of signed jewelry that is very undervalued,'' said David Warren, discount links of london jewelry director at Christie's. ''Everything with a signature is important, but it is definitely the workmanship that is irreplaceable. These are little works of art.''
The idea that jewelry gains in importance and resale value because it comes from a venerable house is nothing new. The labeling of it as bijoux signes, signed jewelry, can be seen as just another form of niche selling and marketing by the auction house, alongside personalized or celebrity sales.
Yet there have been genuinely close links of london bracelets between designer jewels and clothes ever since the rise of both couture and high jewelry houses in the 19th century. As Meredith Etherington-Smith puts it in the sale catalogue: ''As the century went forward, jewelry became the province not just of the royal courts of
An imaginatively staged jewelry exhibition, which is drawing crowds to the Musee Carnavalet in
''Chaumet: Deux Siecles de Creation'' (''200 Years of Creation''), until June 28, projects the work of the Place Vendome jeweler vividly into the changing fashion world.
The loudest gasps are reserved for the ''tiara arch,'' in which dozens of diadem designs are pinned to a metal mesh structure to show their drama and diversity. In showcases, you get tiaras in close-up, from Joseph Chaumet's delicate diamond foliage and soaring pair of wings, through feathery Indian aigrettes.
And there, in grainy black-and-white photographs or striking, life-size full-color portraits, are the proud owners of the jewels and objects - Mrs. Edgar Stern, with her voluptuous vermilion lips and matching velvet dress, a diamond crescent in her hair and more sparklers at bosom and fingers; or the Maharaja of Indore, with a salmon-pink turban, a toothbrush mustache and a pair of vast diamond teardrops suspended on his chest.
Sometimes the jewels and portraits come together in what must have been a detective hunt by the exhibition curators. Two Chaumet lizards with wriggling tails can be admired not just behind glass, but also in the painted corsage of the German princess who owned them. And to celebrate the jeweler's early years in the Napoleonic era, a historic emerald necklace that belonged to Empress Josephine's niece (now in
Other intriguing pairings include the table silver of the Patino family and a painting of a formal Edwardian dinner; and Art Deco jewelry with scenes from the elegant interiors of the Normandie ocean liner.
There is a lesson here for the famous jewelry houses whose current creations often seem to be designed in a vacuum rather than to reflect modern style - and for fashion designers who think that being modern means leaving off the jewels. High fashion and high jewelry are made to go diamond-ringed- hand-in-glove - and each enhances and reinforces the other.
