Hat pins
Creation details
- Creation year 1925
- Stone Diamond
- Stone Rock Crystal
- Material Platinum
- Usage Other
- Dimensions 175 × 15 mm
Two examples of this hat pin exist in the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection, illustrating an object of female finery no longer in use. A rock-crystal component engraved with striations and adorned with a wheatsheaf motif in openwork platinum set with rose-cut diamonds is fixed to the end of a steel rod.
Like parchment, straw, and exotic wood in furniture design, the presence of rock crystal here illustrates the re-evaluation of little-used materials by Art Deco designers during the 1920s. Although it is less rare than other gems, rock crystal is nonetheless popular for its transparency. It is found alongside diamonds, platinum, and pearls in white diamond jewelry from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, adorning monochrome compositions, as mentioned in the women’s press of the period: “Maisons such as […] Van Cleef & Arpels have made crystal jewelry an object of great value.”1Anonymous, “Les joyaux éphémères”, Vogue Paris (août 1926): 43.
A useful and decorative accessory
At the start of the twentieth century, the hat pin was an indispensable ornament of a woman’s outfit. Not only was it a useful object that held a hat in place, but it was also decorative. Since its democratization in the nineteenth century, the hat was the finishing touch to a woman’s outfit as well as to a man’s and it gradually became a social marker.
The contribution of jewelers to the world of fashion
Hat pins personalized people’s appearance and were often worn in pairs,2Anonymous, “Les joyaux éphémères”, Vogue Paris (août 1926): 43. as testified by the pair in the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection. Like clasps on bags, hat pins are part of the repertoire that jewelers contributed to the world of fashion. They illustrate the close collaboration that existed between various members of the fashion world and the jewelry arts at the start of the twentieth century.
Bird of Paradise brooch
Bird of Paradise brooch
To go deeper
