I wore my first emerald necklace when I was eight years old. It was a circlet of irregular grass-green cabochon globs the size of jawbreakers, designed by my grandfather, Seaman Schepps links of london outlet store. I tried it on during one of my frequent visits to his Madison Avenue shop, a sleek duplex boutique that looked like a lounge on the Mauretania. I loved going there, because not only did I get to help sort lots of colored stones and play designer with lumps of jeweler’s wax, but I was allowed to pick out whatever pieces I liked and put them on in front of the silver mirrors, exactly as if I were a client like the Duchess of Windsor or Dolores Del Rio or Lauren Bacall. And inevitably, then as now links of london sale, I was drawn to jewelry that spoke in the stylistic language of Art Deco.
The phrase “Art Deco” comes, of course, from the seminal Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, held in Paris in 1925, which transformed the 20th century’s aesthetic zeitgeist. Suddenly the curlicues and flowers of the Edwardian and Art Nouveau eras looked gimmicky and old-fashioned; the new style took its vocabulary from industrial design and technology: the straight lines of pistons and girders links of london charms, the spheres of dynamos, the svelte curves of an ocean liner’s hull. This new approach extended beyond furniture and fabric to fashion (think of those severe flapper dresses) and jewelry, where Cubist-inspired geometry (in the cut of the stones as well as the shape of the pieces), streamlined design and dramatic, industrial black-and-white or neon color schemes all resulted in gems that looked as if they belonged at a Radio City Music Hall premiere links of london items.