Kenneth Jay Lane, mid—late 1980’s
1 ½” point-to-point
After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1954, Kenneth Jay Lane (born 1930) moved to New York where he began his career as an art director at Vogue. It was there that he realized he wanted to be creating the beautiful objects with which he was surrounded, not just working with someone else’s designs. He began this new phase of his career by collaborating on shoe collections for Christian Dior and Delman; this eventually lead to his creating the baubles, bangles and beads which have been worn by fashionistas past and present, from Jackie Onassis, Diana Vreeland, Elizabeth Taylor, and Audrey Hepburn; to Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, and me!!! And legend has it that the Duchess of Windsor is buried in the jeweled belt which was created especially for her.
These earrings came from the Kenneth Jay Lane boutique in the Trump Tower in the latter half of the eighties. Mr. Lane’s jewelry was (still is) affordable—somewhat more expensive than department store costume jewelry, but also more interesting and less mass market. However, much as I like these stars, I can honestly say they aren’t in the league of Robert Lee Morris’ nature-inspired, hand-crafted designs of the same era.
I find most costume jewelry to be too shiny (i.e., cheap-looking), but if it looked identical to highly polished 24K, why would we still be paying for the real thing? The mellow glow of the brushed finish of these earrings is very appealing—fun, fabulous fakes!
Wearing these Kenneth Jay Lane gold stars gives me the confidence of an accolade for a job well done!
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