When Bigger was Better?

RAPAPORT… The mantra of the eighties was definitely “more is more,” especially when it came to jewelry. Power dressing and conspicuous consumption inspired big, bold looks. More women were in the workplace, commanding higher salaries, observes Jeff Russak, owner, Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers, Litchfield, Connecticut, “and they bought and wore a lot of jewelry, for both at work and at leisure.”

“This was the rise of the Wall Street guys,” points out Nancy Revy, chief executive officer (CEO) of Beladora.com, an estate jewelry website. “There was a huge amount of new money and few at that time saw the need to be subtle. It was just a big, over-the-top, not-hiding-what-you-have kind of look.”
 
“I think there’s a certain desire now to go back to that look,” continues Revy, “you see it in fashion in the collections. For example, the eighties influence is everywhere with bright colors and an emphasis on the shoulders — the little spikiness or little puffy sleeves.” Summing up the characteristics of the era’s jewelry as “bold, large styles; hammered or textured surfaces and large semiprecious gemstones or pavé diamonds,” Elizabeth Doyle, co-owner of Doyle & Doyle, a boutique in New York City, says the look is a “natural fit” for today’s fashion that is “tending toward the bold and edgy again.”

“We’re just starting to see the eighties somewhat recognized as a period,” says Russak. “A lot of the best merchandise of the decade has yet to come into the estate jewelry market.”

Fashionable Looks
“There are some wonderfully distinct designers out there, classic French houses that never stopped producing wonderful pieces,” Kimberley Thompson, estate buyer, J.B. Hudson Jewelers, Minneapolis, Minnesota, points out, “but most of the estate jewelry we see from that period is much more commercial and much more designed to look larger than life.”

“I think much of the jewelry is almost overly sleek,” Russak says. “It’s very highly finished and the look is somewhat over-refined.” Summing up the strong eighties’ looks, he cites “the mabe pearl, intarsia and all of the refinements in shrimp designs.” In the early eighties, he adds, “Tiffany was producing some great stuff. Paloma Picasso came along in 1981 and she was exactly the right designer at the right moment. Her ‘Xs and Os’ and the zigzags are exactly the kind of jewelry that was big in the eighties, very commercial, very slick.”

“I definitely associate Bulgari with the eighties,” says Revy. “David Webb jewelry was also important — with a lot of gold and color, especially in the enamel work he was famous for. We have a David Webb lion bracelet that has the enamel work with diamonds that’s so characteristic of the eighties.” Also emblematic of the era, she says, “were doorknocker-style earrings in yellow gold and diamonds, such as the Van Cleef lion earrings.”

Gold Glittered
The eighties, says Revy, showcased polished yellow gold rather than textured, a look, she says, that still finds resonance today. “There’s the appeal of going back to that classic Bulgari look,” she adds, “the big, heavy gold chain with bezel-set ancient coins. And coin earrings with cabochon rubies and sapphires are very desirable.”

“Cuff bracelets were definitely an eighties look,” says Russak,  “I specialize in oversize chunky bracelets, but the problem today is the price of gold. I’ve seen the nicer ones in the past three years go from $4,500 to $5,500 for really big, heavy, great designs to as much as $12,000 to $14,000. We still sell the big and the bold, but price has become a serious factor.”

 “You were seeing those big intarsia rings and big all-gold rings,” adds Russak. “I don’t think things were as gem-y and I don’t think big rings were as diamond-y. Gold was ‘in’ and platinum and white gold were having a little rest.”

Earrings expressed the eighties’ bigger-is-better philosophy. Russak references “a lot of big, buttony mabe pearl and other big cabochon gemstone earrings, with lots of accent diamonds.”

And Revy says, “Something iconic about eighties jewelry was the use of multiple colored gemstones. You’d see emeralds, rubies, and sapphires as the focal point of the design rather than having the diamonds being the centerpiece.”

What’s in Stock
“Our collection of 1980s jewelry is mostly focused on rings,” says Doyle. “You can really make a statement with the bold, figural style of an 1980s-era ring.”

In terms of signed jewelry, Revy mentions “David Webb and Van Cleef & Arpels. Plus we have great gold chain necklaces and bracelets that aren’t signed but are what you would have seen Joan Collins wearing on ‘Dynasty.’ That kind of power look.”

“I would stock any of the bigger bracelets, rings or earrings,” says Russak, “Brooches, as long as they’re inexpensive and from good names, sell, although I think that the right earrings, rings and bracelets are the most interesting.” But, he cautions, “it’s not just about being big, it has to be more than that. It also has to be beautiful.”
 
“I buy wonderful gold German pieces,” says Thompson, “chains and women’s classic earrings  — the big 18-karat hoops and shrimps — and the fabulous flat curb-link bracelets.”

One problem with eighties jewelry, Russak points out, is that these looks were very popular in their day and that day wasn’t that long ago. But, Revy says, there is a global appeal that her website is capitalizing on. “There are fashion-forward people who were too young for the eighties and for them the look is new and fresh and they’re enjoying the big, flashy styling.” For others, she says, “there’s a kind of nostalgia; they want to relive the era, it has an appeal because it was their youth.”