The 80s are back !
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The jewellery and jewellery-making of the 1980s has attracted growing interest from both experts and the general public, but it remains little studied. The aim of this triptych of articles, co-authored by Emilie Bérard and Marion Mouchard, is to explore the history of jewellery design in this decade, its stylistic characteristics and its codes.
The breadth of the subject and the availability of sources make it necessary to make a choice, both in terms of the designers taken as examples and the geographical centres to which they belong. Most of the references will be to so-called “traditional” jewellers and a few names of artist-jewellers, but costume jewellery and designer jewellery, for example, will not be covered. Similarly, it would be impossible to bring together here the jewellery codes of the myriad counter-cultures that animated the period, although the ornamental conventions of certain social groups were developed. It is important to emphasise the diversity of countries and cultural expressions that have yet to be brought to light in order to write a global history of the jewellery of this decade.
This series of articles will focus on the semantic importance of jewellery in social interaction in the West. The multiple meanings that condition the wearing of jewellery can be conceptualised as opposing but often porous forces.
In the 1980s, the tension between conformity and individuality was more than ever an issue, both in conservative circles and within countercultures.
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Article I : Jewellery and the Hip-Hop culture
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Émilie Bérard has a Master’s degree in History and Art History from the University of Grenoble-II and the University of Salamanca, and a diploma in Gemology from the Gemological Institute of America. For ten years she was Head of Heritage at the jeweller Mellerio International and has contributed to a number of publications, including the collective work Mellerio, le joaillier du Second Empire (2016).
She joined Van Cleef & Arpels in 2017 as Head of Archives and is currently Head of the Patrimony Collection.
Marion Mouchard holds a Master’s degree in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. She wrote two memoirs on the jeweller Pierre Sterlé (1905-1978) and the watch and jewellery designer and manufacturer Verger (1896-1945).
A doctoral candidate in art history at the Centre André-Chastel, she is working on a thesis on archaeological jewellery in the second half of the 20th century.
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Andy Warhol’s portrait of HRH Princess Caroline of Monaco wearing Van Cleef & Arpels earrings for the cover of Vogue, December 1983-January 1984.
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