Bijoux Bijoux - About Fashion, Jewelry, Chanel and Christian Dior

Kunstgewerbemuseum Kulturforum Berlin hosts until the 27th of January an exhibition dedicated to fashio, jewerly, mostly created by Christian Dior and Chanel. Bijoux Bjoux! is an interesting journey through the world of high-end fashion starting with the late 1920s onwards. Besides Chanel and Christian Dior, there are featured both fashion and jewelry works by Moschino, YSL or Swarovski. It covers two floors and displays a lot of interesting works that might interest not only the fashionistas, but also the recent times historians as well as people interested in design and fine arts in general.

Most of the objects exposed were offered to the public thanks to the generosity of Gisela Wigert, one of the most important German collectors of costume jewelry. Besides jewelry, beautiful outfits, made of fine fabrics looking out of a beautiful fairy tale are the perfect combination to admire and, if lucky enough, to reproduce in real life for a special occasion. For me, the pink dress looks just perfect for any season or special opportunity to shine out in the party world.

The jewelry has mostly influences from the 1960s, which is not my favorite fashion inspiration. Big pieces, colourful, overcharged, using different materials and with big - way too big design - are not the kind of things that I love to adorn myself. The conception and the ways in which all those pieces were brought together was, for sure, challenging.

Applying fine lines of jewelry on dresses and fashion outfits in general is always a great idea and the good taste rules are telling that this is just enough for going out, without additional jewelry added.

Oriental influences in jewelry represent a special chapter and I prefer them often to the relatively simple plain lines of the Western fashion. However, a complex piece of jewerly, usually the case of those inspired by non-European works of art, require a minimal, monocromous dress. 

The surprise of this exhibition was that this combination of wool and metal is not something new, but a trend that is coming back from - probably - end of the 1970s, beginning of the 1980s. Not my favorite kind of jewelry and earrings in general, but just to be a trend follower, I purchased one (blue) pair recently for myself too.

Some of the jewerly exposed are more fine and require a fine and complex expertise to create them.This bracelet, for instance, is one of my favorites, not only for the milky shades of the stones, but also for the delicate touch yet the heaviness of the materials.

The massive gablonz from the 1940s, reapearred in the 1970s and are once in a while used also nowadays. I personally prefer the very fine broches, with small - one type of - very precious stones. They are also not something to wear all day long, unless you have a certain age and/or a very high-end social/professional position. 

All my aunts used to wear broches, but not all of them were my taste. This precious flower caught my eye both for the combination of colour, design and stones.

Unique pieces of jewelry match different fashion outfits but a simple black dress matches everything. All round the day. All those 4 black dresses are so gorgeous...

And so are those colourful variants, made by Christian Dior, the last from right being back on the fashion catwalks as soon as the last year. I personally love more the yellow and the pink version, and all the glamorous glittering shoes too. 

The last section of the exhibition has more interesting pieces of jewerly, suited for my taste and made with attention to small details, using gorgeous precious stones.

And there are also some beautiful samples of pearl jewelry, at least some of them the perfect adornment for a special occasion or for Shabbat. 

Bijoux Bijoux! is a really must-see exhibition in Berlin this month, especially if you are into fashio and design and you are curious to understand current and past fashion trends.

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About Copy (and Paste) in the Fashion Industry

I am not a staunch observer of the latest fashion trends, although I wish I am. Terribly split between 1000+ projects in a quite diverse range of industries, and a more than hectic family and personal life, I cannot dedicate sometimes more than a couple of minutes per week for observing fashion trends and influences. However, when you have good sources and references, even less than one hour per month is enough to understand where the fashion goes for the season and what are the main tendances and favorite colours and patterns.

Also, my time for shopping is very limited, especially for visiting a store without a clear intention to buy anything even more. Even as a young girl, without too much responsibilities on my sleeve, I always wanted to go straight forward to a store, buy what I wanted and keep myself busy with other things for the rest of the day. Still, at least once the month, I like to have a look in a couple of stores, to check the fashion tendencies in my home city, even though in most cases I am not interested at all to buy anything.

Approximately aware of the latest high-fashion tendencies, and with an eye on what is offered on the middle range market, I couldn't but notice a very worrisome tendency: patterns and models of big fashion brands - such as Chanel, Gucci or Versace - are copied - without the logo - and adapted for the low range market. I've seen, for instance, more than a chained bag on sale on H&M that only missed the C from Chanel, or whote shoes with flowers reminding of the Gucci sport shoes. A tendency so common also to ZARA or the peculiar Primark. Such a merchandise gives you the feeling that maybe you can convince yourself and some other non-fashionable people too, that you wear a precious item which is similar with the ones in trends. Did I say that I even spotted a ring that was strickingly similar with the classical Cartier rings in a big drugstore chain?

I personally don't have nothing against shopping from affordable brands. For my sport outfit, or when I am getting dressed for going in the park or other children-related activities, or for some weeekend trips, I prefer to wear comfy, funny looking clothes and shoes. I want to be original, unique and to wear quality clothes, but I completely reject the idea of wearing fake brands or looking-like-brands. If I really want a Chanel bag, I save fiercely and I eventually have it one day. If I want to wear branded clothes and my budget is limited, I go to a TK Maxx, where I can buy discounted quality original brands. 

This worrisome tendecies of the big brands are a bit depreciative for the usual customers of those companies. What, if you are not so rich, it means that you cannot be original? You have to resign yourself to the reality that you will never be able to be more than a sad buyer of second quality look clothes? Why those companies not use their resources and imagination to create interesting and original products which will make you feel comfortable, dignified and proud of your style. I bet people wearing Chanel-like bags are proud in their own way, but what about offering a nice creative alternative to the big fashion trends. After all, people purchasing from those companies have their own lives, struggles and challenges and creating fashion products inspired by their realities makes more sense than offering them make-believe brands.

To be honest, I have no problem to buy something that looks nice and original from a no-brand, but I will stubbornly refuse to invest my money and something that looks like it is Chanel - to name my favorite brand - but it costs less than 30 EUR worth. 

Therefore, one of my next blogging projects in the next weeks and months will be to focus on original local and international creative brand, offering original, mid-priced fashion products. They are worth to be known as an alternative to an industry that seems to go through a creative block.

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