2015 Spring Jewelry Collections Show Hints of Arts and Crafts Past
Fall means that it’s time for the first peak at the Spring 2015 collections. This season the clothes were paired with bold jewelry that made as much of a statement as the clothes did. Some of the highlights of the spring jewelry selections included metal jewelry, saturated, child friendly colors, gold, translucent crystal, gunmetal and numerous global influences in texture, style and color.
Looking at these collections that are already being highlighted in the fashion magazines and shared on social media sites such as Pinterest and Instagram, it’s interesting to see echoes of the Arts and Crafts movement that began in the 1880s as the artisan’s rejection of the industrial movement and its inherent standardization and sameness. The movement focused on handcrafting individual jewels, albeit lower cost semi-precious jewels such as Baroque pearls, moonstone, turquoise, mother-of-pearl, opal, amethyst, freshwater pearls and also enamel.
Many of these same semi-precious stones and enameled metal work could be seen in a number of the jewelry pieces shown on the runway for the 2015 Spring collection in the form of baubled cocktail rings with semi-precious stone accents, intricate gunmetal pieces that employed curving designs and lots of globally inspired pieces. Warm colors and jewel tones were also popular.
The appeal of the jewelry and designs from faraway places continues to have a strong influence on current jewelry designers, just as it did during the Arts and Crafts movement. The main difference is that today’s designers look to the exotic colors and designs of the Moroccan spice markets while the Arts and Craft artisans looked to the Far East for inspiration, particularly with Japanese-inspired designs.
Similar to the mindset of artisans today who participate in the crafting movement on Etsy and share a renewed passion for flea markets and vintage items, jewelry makers and artisans working during the Arts and Crafts movement believed that the process of the craftsmanship used to create the piece was just as important as the end design. The act of creation during the Arts and Crafts period worked to relieve the monotony created by the Industrial Revolution when tasks were done the same way each time. To avoid this from happening, artisans were encouraged to work on one piece from start to finish, rather than only working on a portion before moving the piece on to another artisan. This was supposed to produce affordable jewelry for a middle class audience, not pieces for the upper class made with precious jewels and gold. Unfortunately, this kind of jewelry making took so long to produce that the art became cost-prohibitive and only the very wealthy could afford the unique and painstakingly created pieces. This period of time is also one of the first recorded instances of women being recognized for jewelry design and the inclusion of couples, husbands and wives, working on the design and crafting of jewelry together.
Find your own unique artisan creation in the Estate Sale Jewelry collection at Noe’s Jewelry in Raytown, Missouri. We have a beautiful collection of precious and semi-precious Estate sale jewelry designed to inspire beauty and delight in the wearer.