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CHAPTER VIII
DESIGN FOR BEAUTY
Design and
manufacture of diamond jewelry in the past usually was dictated by the
fads and moods of the moment. In the age of magnificence, diamond
jewelry, as well as every other luxury, was elaborate. There came a
period of stark simplicity as sharp as the change from Victorian to
Swedish modem interiors. Although today the trend is back toward
modified ornamentation, a certain amount of simplicity is apparent
with respect to diamonds, and this has been dictated not by fashion but
by necessity.
The
shortage of melee, or small stones, has forced designers to abandon
those elaborate settings previously identified with rings, bracelets,
brooches, and the like. If you bought a diamond ring or a wedding ring
before the second World War—and you were able to afford it—your wife
probably is wearing a band which has not only a solitaire but a number
of small decorative diamonds on either side of it. But they are not
selling many of those rings any more. The new idea is to feature a
single stone and instead of using small diamonds, ornamentation is
achieved by carving and three-dimensional effects on the settings
themselves. This applies also to brooches, clips, bracelets,
earrings, wrist watches. The new pieces being manufactured rarely
feature clusters of small diamonds because they are difficult to
obtain. Remember that in 1941 the price of
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