Contemporary Era Jewelry

The 1980's Jewelry

Early 1980's- The beginning of the decade of the 1980's was an amazing time in the jewelry business. Big rocks were still on trending from Harry Winston and names like Elizabeth Tailor and likely coming towards their peak. In 1981 MTV was launched and had such a profound and major influence on style and jewelry. This meant influences in jewelry could co-exist and create styles that could exist at the same time. Influences on MTV like Hall and oats, Queen, Michael Jackson brought their own styles. Conflicting yet complimentary styles everything pointed toward BIG. Large, and bold were in. Large bracelets, oversized hoops, cocktail rings, bangles, name necklaces to name a few. Thick heavy gold rope chains (think Mr T). It was during this time that Jewelry became a statement, not just an accessory. At the same time we have another trend developing, a push back to classic. This trend started, largely, with the engagement of Princess Diana. A simple, elegant, classic oval sapphire center stones with diamond halo. This simultaneous trend meant colored stone centers and round stones with tapered baguettes were trending. This was also the first time really in history where a trend of matching wedding bands became important to the masses.
Mid 1980's- Influencers like Madonna, and Run dmc brought the rise of costume jewelry once again. As the mainstream could not quite afford such bold jewelry costume became important. This meant not just fine jewelry look-a-likes but plastics with bold colors as well. Pearls, both real and costume-clip earrings became immensely popular. From mabe earrings, to drop necklaces pearl jewelry was amazingly popular. This era of the 1980's meant bold yellow gold was in, even with brooches! Coin jewelry sufaced as well as a new trend in the mid 1980's and that was chennel set baguettes.
Late 1980's Artists like Grandmaster flash and others were on the horizon along with Whitney Houston, yet George Michael and White Snake were already influencing the fashion world. Yellow gold reigned supreme still and when the stock market crashed in 1987 we saw a slow trend towards conservatism. Which lead us in the 1990s

As you can see the overall theme of the 1980's was big, bold, gold. Because of this trend we saw many iconic brands "made" in the 1980's

Carrera y Carrera - The Panther
Niessing in Germany - The invention of the tension setting
The rise of “smaller” designer names:
- Yurman
- Verdura
- Elizabeth Locke
- Henry Dunay
- Keissstein Cord

Two other highly notable things happened in the 1980's with jewelry; not styles but actions:

Collectors and dealers began to start the trend of Colored diamonds. I call this The rise of fancy color diamonds though they are not mainstream quite yet
The rise of self bought jewelry. This meant, unlike most situations in previous eras of jewelry, if you saw it, you liked it, you wanted it, you bought it.

The 1990's Jewelry

Early 1990's- In order to understand what was happening to jewelry in the 1990's we must first jump back to 1985 when the first .com was registered. This meant we will see a more rapid change in jewelry as .com companies can now spread information faster. Trends starting around 1980 began to change every 5 years as opposed to 7 or 10 year spreads. The early 1990's meant capitalism was king. This meant:
- Individualism- self purchases which started in the 1980s lead to own individualistic styles
- Counter cultural-ism- which meant the rise of grunge, rave scene, hiphop- which brought styles of their own in jewelry.

Individualism meant the rise of body piercing, the comeback of the 1970's mood rings, and even SLAP bracelets each with their influence from TV and MTV. California influenced much of the '90s. Artists like Green Day, Biggie Smalls, Dr Dre, and the Spice girls brought trends in jewelry. We see this with things like choker necklaces which spanned all styles from the Spice Girls to Reese Witherspoon, Katie Holmes and so many more. The start of country music began and other influences like Seinfeld, and the tv show “friends”. This helped keep the trend of chokers- and started the rise of iconic pieces of jewelry like the Tiffany toggle necklace. These shows and music also brought The Rolex Datejust into the spotlight. The datejust, iconic in its ways was by far the most popular and desired watch of the 1990's.

The Mid 1990s- The mid 1990's continued the influence of the Tiffany toggle heart bracelet with a minor trend back towards traditional charm bracelets as well as yellow gold. The most important trend to take hold of jewelry in the mid 1990's was the welcoming of the marquise cut diamond engagement ring. The single shape was sold in every size, color, and clarity. Most notably this trend began around 1993 and was so popular it finished out the decade.
The Late 1990s- lead us to the Dot Com Bubble. During this time "Huggie" style earrings and drop earrings were popular. These drops helped intensify the look of statement chokers, often times with no stones all gold, a trend that actually started in the 80s. This trend took off with herringbone necklaces and other statement necklaces that began to be made by the big houses like Cartier. As the 1990's came to a close just before 2000 it seemed the population began to think differently with y2k approaching. Trends tended more towards simplicity now, bow necklaces, and the reemergence of white gold and platinum. Partly because the white metal was “different” and partly because of the popularity of the two tone Rolex datejust.
We close out the decade with the Princess cuts began to take rise

Jewelry from the 2000's

2000-2010: The early part of the new century began with one shape dominating. The princess cut. The square shape in white gold or platinum was the most popular design sold for many years as a push away from the previous decade were the marquise cut reigned supreme. Chokers seem to continue their trend forward yet now they were being layered with other necklaces. Hoops were also back in. A new trend of adding a leather cord necklace with a single statement piece of jewelry came to trend as well. Around 2005 a new trend and demand began to show. This was the dramatic rise of wrist watches. During this time period the demand and popularity of many major wrist watch brands skyrocketed. Partly because in the early 2000's there was an increase in demand for other brands like Breitling. Handling it well Breitling set trends and styles well into the 2000's. As people began to look toward something different other brands also increased their sales. It was during this time that wrist watches became a fashion statement.