Written by Molly Felth

     The history of Valentine's Day is perplexing, full of both religious lore and pagan ritual, but it was the Victorian English who transformed the day of February 14th into one of romance, festivity and gift giving. The romantic element of the holiday comes from various works of literature, but it was in the mid-to-late 1800's that the familiar customs began. The Victorians were proper romantics, though their society valued restraint and a stiff upper lip. They came to use Valentine's Day as a time to express their secret love and admiration, many times anonymously, by sending handmade cards, personalized with a written poem or message, and elaborately decorated. The cards came to be known as Valentines, and the symbols of hearts, lace, and Cupids became incorporated into these expressive creations. Ribbon and lace were used to make the cards really special; these materials were expensive at the time and they added an air of luxury and elegance. This is also true of Victorian Revival jewelry, which use ribbon and lace as the basis for choker necklaces, just as the Victorians did, adding whatever charms they had to the material they would wear as a necklace. A lace cameo choker necklace or lace heart choker makes a significant gift for your Valentine for this reason.
     Gifts of jewelry became popular Valentine's Day fare, such as heart jewelry, cameo jewelry, or Cupid jewelry. Among the most charming of our Valentine's Day themed jewelry is a Victorian Revival Cupid lace choker necklace, which features the well-known cherub with his enchanted bow and arrow on a heart pendant. Cupid gained his status as the mascot of Valentine's Day during the Victorian Era as well. The story of Cupid dates back to Roman times, and the Victorians embraced the legend; the son of Venus (the Roman goddess of love) Cupid is the god of desire. His image, with its hidden symbolism, was perfect for the stoic Victorians to use when purchasing gifts for their Valentine. This explains Cupid's popularity as an image on cameos and gifts at the time, and the appealing legend endures to this day. Stay in Cupid's sights this year with our many varieties of Victorian style chokers. These 1970's-80's pieces from old store stock, and they have never been worn. Consider the gift of heart jewelry, Cupid jewelry, or lace jewelry as a meaningful gift for your Valentine this year: let the old school romance shine!

Written by Molly Felth

     Costume jewelry fans have long considered Mexico the source for hand-worked silver jewelry. Mexico's silver mineral deposits (especially in its southern city of Taxco) attracted young American opportunist William Spratling in the 1920s. Fascinated by Mexican culture, Spratling established personal and professional connections with Mexican artists of his day like Diego Rivera. He employed Mexican artisans in silversmith workshops, training these employees in silversmithing while integrating their existing techniques handed down through their culture. The silver enterprise was established within just a few years, turning Taxco into something of an artist's city. Spratling's design and funding started the 20th century Mexican silver jewelry craze.
     Mexican silver jewelry incorporates native regional motifs in its design. Spratling's silversmiths sought to capture the shapes, forms, and patterns of the centuries-old silver artifacts of their ancestors. Many of these designs come from shapes found in nature, with snakelike borders, floral patterns and figures, suns, and leaves. Geometric patterns were used as well, borrowing from early societal symbols found on Ancient clay stamps and currencies. Sometimes stones from the region are used to add color to the pieces, such as turquoise and agate.
     Spratling's Mexican silver jewelry movement eventually declined. Peak production occurred in the 1940s; the United States faced wartime metal shortages, and there was a huge demand for silver jewelry among bored housewives. This left Mexican production houses working around the clock. The appreciation for Mexican design flourished in the U.S. and worldwide at this time.
     One notable jewelry craftsmen was visionary silversmith and artist Hector Aguilar. After years of designing and training with Spratling, Aguilar rose above his position at Taxco to start his own jewelry studio, called Taller Borda Silversmiths. New York designer Coro contracted Aguilar's operation for merchandise to sell in the U.S., in addition to Aguilar's personal line Aguilar's natural, dreamy themes are still popular in jewelry today. He utilized the themes found in ancient Mexican artifacts, Mexican floral scenery, and architectural motifs to crafts his lauded works.
     Countless other designers had their take on traditional Mexican silver design, eventually experimenting with other materials besides sterling silver. One popular material used in Mexican costume jewelry is called Alpaca. Less costly, this material became prevalent in the 1970s. Alpaca does not refer to a city in Mexico (as has been previously rumored,) nor to a llama; it is actually a non-silver metal alloy that looks remarkably like genuine silver. Alpaca jewelry is compiledusing a nickel, tin, copper, or brass base metal, with a low percentage of genuine silver. This chemical process makes it shine like sterling.
     Characteristics of these traditional Mexican designs remain prevalent in fashion today, though the industry in which it's produced has changed with the times. These geometric patterns can be seen in these 1980's Mexican-made big jewel earrings. Traditional Mexican design motifs, harking back to the advent of Spratling, is evident even in these non-sterling pieces. Costume jewelry is an affordable option for those who admire the look of Mexican silver jewelry. It is uncertain exactly how many pieces of costume jewelry were made in Mexico, or how many famous jewelry designs may have sent out designs to be jobbed in Mexico.

Written by Molly Felth

     If there's one thing designers seem to agree upon for Fall/Winter, it's fur. Designers have gone crazy using both faux and real fur, producing everything from fur trimmed boots, coats and cloaks, even fur collared cardigans. The look has been heavily featured on the pages of Vogue and Elle magazines (to name just a few), and the runways of New York's Fashion Week featured some seriously fuzzy ensembles.
     One way to incorporate the fur trend into your wardrobe without going totally Cruella DeVille is with smaller accessories that use small amounts of fur. There are variety of mink accessories you can sport. One example is a mink brooch. These mink pins were made in the 1950's, at the height of the mink coat craze, with scraps of the fur that would otherwise have been thrown away. Useless the mink coat and cloak manufacturers, the small scraps were salvaged by jewelry designers, who saw a way to utilize them.
     There are many creative pins that were made with mink. Many are in the shapes of animals such as a mink fox brooch, cat brooch, and mink poodle brooch.
     Other mink pieces include vintage mink sweater guards. These have a real classic, old-Hollywood look to them, but paired with modern outfits, you can create a fresh look all your own.
     Small mink earrings and mink bow pin pendants were also made in the '50s with the leftover trimmings from the coat factories.
     These vintage mink accessories are a great way to ease into the fur fashion look, especially with the knowledge that they were made from scraps of fur that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Written by Molly Felth

     In the 1960's, New York jewelry company Kim Craftsmen designed large, oversized fashion jewelry rings that remain impressive today. Now popular collectors' items, these rings are available in a range of colors and styles. The rings utilize the metalwork designs of filigree, openwork, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau, and often include large, brightly colored glass stones. The rings, most of which are stamped with a script "Kim" stamp inside the ring shank, combine form and texture to create a wide range of unique looks, though side by side they are clearly part of a cohesive line. The Kim rings have been produced in numerous designs including copper, and the most prized are typically metalwork stampings soldered to open shanks. Carl Schimel, co-founder of Kim Craftsmen, designed a unique and innovative shank for these attention-grabbing rings. It is a wide band with a concave center (with the Kim stamp), allowing a large ring to balance well on the finger while adjusting comfortably to any finger size. Many of his larger rings sport this shank and it is unlikely any other designer used the shank. These rings reflect Kim's essence: bold, technically impressive, unquestionably feminine and wearable fashion jewelry.

     The 1980's saw the advent of culturally-inspired jewelry taking center stage in the fashion world.  In the U.S., costume jewelry on the runways and on women everywhere, accessories from India were a major trend. Raga was one jewelry designer who utilized the unique aspects of a different culture in his designs.  Drawing on the traditional adornments worn by women in India, Raga made costume jewelry for American women starting in 1982.  Raga imported a significant amount of jewelry, beads, and design ideas from India during this time, and the runways of the early 80’s reflect this exchange of cultural ideas. 
     Raga’s founder became interested in fashion and after a short stint in the  garment field, he turned his interest to designing accessories based on the traditional intricate, ornate jewelry worn by women in India.  Raga used traditional Indian handcrafting techniques and materials to create jewelry for the American market. 
     Jewelry that was already popular on the American runway at the time, like big beads, long multiple strands, bangles, and chandelier earrings, were already slightly reminiscent of the traditional jewelry worn in India.  However, traditional Indian craftsmanship was far more intricate and time consuming to produce, using hand-beaded methods and complicated beadwork.  But Raga wanted to mass produce.  Therefore, designs were made that integrated the essence of Indian design, but would take less time to make.  Raga knew that crystals, translucent boldly colored beads, and natural materials like wood and shell  were a contrast to the bright plastics being used by American jewelry designers at the time, so Raga got creative in order to appeal to the masses. He tweaked Indian tradition, using chunkier beads and geometric shapes yet retaining the color schemes, dark metals, and overall shape of traditional Indian jewelry: a hybrid was born.  For example, bangles (which actually originated in India several thousand years ago) were treated to a funky spin by Raga, who widened the size and molded  the shape into geometric "80's" shapes. This would appeal to the American consumer, but be different enough to warrant attention. Raga used lots of  darkly metallic shades like brass instead of garish bright metals, and wood and bone-like material instead of obvious plastics.  They substituted opaque neon beads so popular for the American mall girl with bold transluscent beads of India, but fattened them up to keep to the chunky beading trends.
     Currently, Raga, Inc. makes and provides jewelry to designers and private clients on a smaller scale. The prices of Raga pieces have remained surprisingly stagnant over the years since their1980’s debut;costs have stayed at $15-16 to around $32 for store-bought items, and the high end pieces (used for runway designers or certain higher end department stores) range from $60-70.  Raga, Inc. retains showrooms in New York City and in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
     Given the current surge of Bollywood movie appreciation in the U.S. and the chunky jewelry trend revival of the past year, Raga and similar Indian vintage costume jewelry is a hip throwback as well as a contemporary fashion “do.”

In the 1970s, jewelry manufacturer Kim Craftsmen pioneered a look in body jewelry that remains popular today. Bracelets to be worn around the upper arm-- metallic wraps, that look almost serpent-like, were designed in multiple styles, shapes, and finishes.
     One can see why the upper arm bracelets were so popular back in the 70s-- although Kim did not intentionally emulate any specific movies or actresses, looking back, we can see that they were right on target with the trends. Some compare the metallic look of the bracelets to Wonder Woman (who saw her commercial heydey in the 70s), and also to the Cleopatra look that, thanks to the Liz Taylor movie, made body jewelry a desirable look. These bracelets were hand bended from copper by Kim Craftsmen, and then plated in silver and gold plating, which were the most popular, and also occasionally in other finishes like bronze.
     Kim's experimentation with body jewelry was creative and bold, and they even made things like metal belts and bras. They would then tone down this look for the eveyday woman, making "cleaner" versions of the body jewelry, which resulted in the upper arm bracelets, as well as similarly Egyptian-look brass collars.
     Carl Schimel, co-founder of Kim, said that these bracelets were popular, fun, and "looked great on a sunburn." Summery and attractive on any skin tone, these pieces draw attention to the woman, and make a statement-- even start a conversation. Unusual and innovative back in the 70s, these upper arm bracelets remain a unique accessory today. Vintage pieces tell a story, and wearing one of these Kim bracelets adds a fresh flair to your summer look.