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What Are The Different Costume Jewelry Periods?

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The Art Deco period was from 1920 to the 1930s and was an attempt to combine the harshness of mass production with the sensitivity of art and design. The Roaring Twenties was an age of prohibition, cocktail parties, flappers, and the Charleston. It was during this period that Coco Chanel introduced fake or paste jewelry to complete the costume. The Art Deco movement died with the onset of the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II. Free-flowing curves were replaced with a harshly geometric and symmetrical theme. Color played an important role, black and white were preferred, but bold colors were prominent.

In the Retro period, from 1935 to 1950, designers struggled with the art versus mass production dilemma. Natural materials merged with plastics. With the war in Europe, many European jewelry firms were shut down and several designers immigrated to the United States. Glamour, elegance and sophistication were some of the characteristics of the Retro period. The Hollywood flair was added with flowers, bows and sunburst designs.

In the Art Modern period following World War II, jewelry designs became more traditional and understated. The big, bold styles of the Retro period went out of style and were replaced by the more tailored styles of the 1950s and 60s. In the 1950s, jewelers began selling their wares to wholesalers. The characteristics of the Art Modern period were bold, lavish, and large, chunky bracelets, charm bracelets, Jades and Opals.

New York City and Providence, Rhode Island became the hub of the successful costume jewelry industry. These cities had a history of manufacturing silver items. In the 1940s, Providence became the home to more than 900 costume jewelry manufacturers. Providence proved to be a major producer of non-precious jewelry and was responsible for an estimated 85 to 90 percent of the total jewelry output at one time. The whole concept of costume jewelry was to offer good-looking jewelry at a price that was geared for the average woman. Many of the businessmen who were willing to take a chance on jewelry that was made and sold cheap eventually became millionaires. Those who did not keep pace with the increased sophistication of their customers and marketed poorly made jewelry became a drag on the market and some of those factories began to close. By the time rhinestones settled into their comfortable fashion slot and the intensity of the love affair with sparkle faded, the companies that survived produced what the contemporary market called for and continued to give the public what it craved.

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