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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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others
who did much to promote diamond and other jewelry as a means of
ornamentation. Out of a later fashion period, the Empire, came the
rebirth of the cameo, the turban with jeweled pin, the jeweled girdles
and, eventually, the coronation jewels of the fabulous Josephine, first
wife of Napoleon.
With
the beginning of the Empress Josephine period another great creator of
fashions rose to fame. She was Mme Jeanne Francoise Julie Adelaide
Recamier, banker's wife and society leader (born 1777, died 1849).
Because of her ideas the royal group and others related socially
adopted what they deemed to be classical costumes and appeared on
public promenades boldly displaying them. Mme Recamier and her
contempoYary, Mme Tallien, went further: They appeared on the streets
and in other public places with un-stockinged feet, in sandals which
allowed them to exhibit jewels on their toes. They wore cameos with
diamonds, triple chains, and strings of pearls; earrings, necklaces,
brooches, bracelets, rings, and jeweled girdles. The rest of Paris
fashion followed. These two made famous also the Empire comb and,
another outstanding fashion of their creation, a band around the head
with a jewel in the middle of the forehead, this usually consisting of
a fine gold chain or a velvet ribbon, a silken cord or strings of
beads, with always in the center a large diamond.
The
traditions established by Mme R6camier, Mme Tallien, and Josephine
herself carried on to the Battle of Waterloo: the end of the first
Napoleon's empire. During the next hundred years there was more change
in fashion silhouette than in jewelry. From the "straight and narrow of
Josephine's day the silhouette broadened at various points: Sleeves
grew enormous and skirts belled out from
(178)
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