Saturday Sparkle: A Pair of Diamond and Enamel Earrings by Chaumet, 1920

Earrings
Diamonds, Platinum, Gold, Enamel
Chaumet, c. 1920
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Platinum, gold, enamel, and baguette-and brilliant-cut diamonds hang in sheer elegance with these impressive earrings by Chaumet. They date to the early 1920s.

Long earrings were the height of fashion during the 1920s. The September 1925 edition of “The Illustrated London News” attributed this fashion trend to changing hairstyles, stating, “As the fashion for ‘Eton’ cropped heads grows daily, long, decorative ear-rings are becoming increasingly fashionable.'

Some jewelers, however, decided that the new short hair was not good for business. After all, gone were the days of jewelled hair ornaments. “Queen Magazine” noted that same year, “now no ornament is worn in the hair for dances.”

Though long earrings were selling well, for many jewelers, the this fashion did not compensate for the decline in demand for the more expensive larger jewelled combs, hair ornaments and hair slides.