Bows have been a fashion favorite for the past couple of seasons and they are continuing to make a strong showing with designers from Chanel and Simon Roche to Prada and Sandy Liang embellishing their clothes with bows on everything from handbags and shoes to blouses, dresses and even pants. This renewed interest in bows has also made hairbows an important accessory. Beautiful vintage bow jewelry is a glamorous adornment that will elevate your look. Whether you’re wearing it on a jacket or in your hair, bows are trending.
Bows and Love
Through the centuries bows have been an important part of fashion, sometimes featuring more prominently than other times, but they are always in style. Bows add adornment to clothes as well as a dimensional aspect that is both fun and fanciful. Besides being fashionable, bows are also a symbol of love, marriage and romance, associated with joy, connection, devotion and protection in relationships. Wear a bow next to your heart and the world will know you’re in love.
Bows Show Status
Ribbons and bows were status symbols during the Middle Ages, when fabric was scarce and very expensive. At that time, knights used ribbons and bows to show their order. During the Medieval years bows also had a utilitarian function and were used as closures on apparel.
It became increasingly fashionable for both men and women to wear bows during the 1600s. Ceremonial medals and jewelry were attached to clothes with ribbons and bows, which were also worn on dresses, shoes and in the hair. Bows were so popular at this time that they began to show up as jewelry created in precious metals and diamonds, with brooches one of the most popular ways of wearing the motif, but they can also be found on necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. Some of the first bow brooches, known as Sévigné, were flat and symmetrical, but transformed into looser bows over the years. The Sévigné brooch style was named after the Marquise de Sévigné, a member of the French Court of King Louis XIV, who was well known for writing humorous letters about royal life.
Queens Love Bows
Bows were the height of fashion by the late 1600s and well into the 1700s. Marie Antoinette, the stylish, trendsetting Queen of France loved bows, allegedly spending what would amount to thousands of dollars on ribbon for bows every month, boosting their popularity even more. Another way of wearing bows during the 1700s was girandole earrings, which have a large stud with a central motif that was often a bow with three pear-shaped gems dropping from the center and sides. Bows remained fashionable in jewelry well into the 1800s in part due to Queen Victoria, who sometimes wore black bow jewelry while she was mourning the death of her husband Prince Albert.
White-On-White Bows
In the late 1800s and early 1900s during the Edwardian era, bow jewelry was very fashionable, but their form changed and they became light and lacy. Technology was finally available to work with platinum, coaxing it into airy creations that celebrated the formality of white on white — platinum, diamond and pearl jewelry — that was key to the elaborate and intricate designs of the Edwardian years. After World War I bow brooches were worn near the heart as a way of remembering and honoring those who had died in the war.
The Modern Bow
During the Art Deco years of the 1920s and 1930s bows continued to be popular. The flat, symmetrical and angular design codes of the years between the wars, resulted in tight bow-tie style brooches. As the 1940s approached bows softened into a looser, more flowing form. When World War II erupted it was hard to access precious metals and gems as both were in short supply. Given these circumstances, it was expected that the bow would change again. During the 1940s bows, which were large and dimensional, were crafted in gold and sometimes decorated with small diamonds or colored gemstones. With the arrival of the 1950s, platinum made a comeback and bows sparkling with diamonds set in the white metal were found in very refined forms. There was bow jewelry in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, but they were quieter and less ubiquitous than in previous years. Once we got through the minimalism of the early 1990s, bows began returning as a fashion favorite and that popularity has grown even stronger in recent years, proving that the timeless luxury of jeweled bows will always be stylish.
Top of Page (top to bottom) Art Deco diamond, sapphire and platinum bow brooch; Edwardian diamond, platinum topped gold bow brooch, signed Tiffany & Co.; Edwardian diamond, platinum and yellow gold bow pin, signed Tiffany & Co.; Edwardian natural pearl, diamond and silver topped gold bow brooch; Art Deco diamond, sapphire and platinum bow brooch; Art Deco Diamond, French cut calibre sapphire and platinum bow pin, circa 1925-1930; Art Deco diamond, cabochon sapphire and platinum bow brooch, circa 1925.
Antique diamond and silver topped gold heart pendant with bow detailing; Marquise de Sévigné, Oil on canvas 1665, Claude Lefebvre; Victorian diamond and silver topped gold double bow brooch, England, circa 1880; Edwardian diamond and platinum filigree necklace with bow detail; Diamond and 18-karat yellow gold bow brooch, signed Sterlé Paris, circa 1940s.
Authored by Amber Michelle