Charlotte Stuart is a beautiful portrait of the Scot artista Hugh Douglas Hamilton. She also is the protagonist of our new section “Ladies of the Antiquity”. The painting is currently in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
She wears a stunning tiara in gold and pearls to hold up her perfectly curly and blonde hair.
The portrait let us see the fineness of the lace around her neckline, part of a heavy dress in dark green velvet.
Charlotte Stuart, was the Duchess of Albany and the illegitimate Prince Charles Edward Stuart daughter. She was abandoned by her father and had to live with her mother until she decided becoming into a nun.
Rumors say she was Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec’s lover, the archbishop of Bordeaux.
Over the years, she made up her relationship with her father and moved to Florence to live with him. It was in that time when her father gave her away the title of Duchess of Albany with the courtesy of Royal Highness. However despite this, she didn’t have access to the Crown.
Because of the mailing that was discovered by mid of the 20th century, we now know Charlotte had three children (two daughters and a son). Charlotte’s mom was who decided to keep them hidden. Apparently, all three children were archbishop’s so she tried to avoid the scandal.
Charlotte’s father introduced her to society and even allowed her to wear the Sobieski jewelry.
We are sure she would’ve chosen this tiara in golden brass and fresh water pearls. A jewelry to highlight her beautiful long hair…
A reliquary is a small box or recipient commonly used in the past to wear hanging from the neck. The very first use was entirely religious as a case to keep relics that once belonged to saints.
Withing Christianity a reliquary is the remains of a sanctified person and by extension a relic is a memory that belonged to them or to those who met the saint and reliquary is then the tiny recipient where it was kept.
There’s evidence of reliquaries already back in the 4th century. It was found in the Treasure of Monza, a gift that Saint Gregorio gave to the queen Teodolina.
Among that treasure there are several tiny bottles very common back in the time that only had cotton wet with blessed oil or that one inside the lamps close to the tomb of a martyr.
However, over the years the use was growing in popularity and the little reliquaries started containing the remains of a close familiar. When this happened people commonly kept hairs belonging to a loved one and the name evolved to “locket”, a piece which definition you can find here.
An outstanding pearl necklace in gold with a simple tiara and matching earrings are the jewelry Maria Lucrecia di Medici wears. She i sour protagonist today in this spectacular portrait by Agnolo Bronzino.
Cosme de Medici got married with one of the wealthiest noble ladies in Naples, Leonor Alvarez di Toledo, the dutch of Alba’s granddaughter.
This marriage meant a lot to Cosme since it started a political Alliance with Naples territory and a valious dowry that he invested in a good number of paintings. They had 11 children, although just one of them was able to survive: Fernando I di Medici.
Maria Lucrecia was one of his deariest daughters. She wasn’t the older though, since a few years earlier Bia di Medici was born from an unknown mother who had lived in the court like a noble lady until her premature death.
So Maria really was the first legal Cosme’s daughter. She was born in the Medici Palace and was given that name to honour her two grandmothers.
Thanks to her contemporaries we know whe was not only a very beautiful young lady but also a very kind, refined, elegant and educated person. She was very good at languages and arts, able to fluently speak Spanish. When she was still a child, her wedding was pre planned with Alfonso II of Este, but the marriage never ever happened since Maria dead very young at 17 due to malaria.
According to the croniques from the time, Cosme I was truly in love with her daughter, she was her most loved one. Maybe because of that and because she was considered one of the most beautiful young ladies in Florence, he decided to inmortalize her face. Thanks to Bronzino, we all know today how beautiful she was. Cosme kept this portrait close to him all the time until his own death.
This is the most majestic portraits among Cosme’s children. I’d highlight the superb dress along with the amazing jewelry she wears.
We’ve brought to our collection from the Rennaissance a copy of the earrings made in golden silver and quartz. A replica of the jewel that we know you’ll love.
The Spanish word for “necklace”, collar, comes from the latin term “collum”, which means “neck” in latin. Therefore, the use of this piece is to beautify your neck with multiple forms and different length.
There are three sort of necklaces:
Short necklace or choker: A piece meant to be worn tight-fitting to the neck. You can find many variation like the ones with small pearls or tiny semi precious stones. It’s also very common for jewelers make them in velvet or lace decorated with high quality jewelry.
Princess Necklace: Those made with pearls and medium length among 45 and 50 cm long.
Opera Necklace: A term used to name those pieces made with pearls with a longer length, among 70 and 85 cm.
The design has changed over the years together with fashion.
I am pretty sure you all who frequently read our vintage blog know that Audrey Hepburn is one of our most beloved muses. Among our most admired jewelry is the reproduction of the pearl necklace she wore while filming Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And it seems it also is you favorite piece, not only ours.
That is why today we’ve decided to write about this beautiful exhibition in London that will be opened until Octobre 18th… Hurry up! Still have time to plan a visit to this impressive city and pay it a visit!
The National Portrait Gallery hosts this time over 70 portraits all about Audrey’s life, starting from the very beginning, when she was part of the choir at the West End Theater in London, up to the last days she dedicated to charity, including her trips to Sudan.
Many front pages of the most glamorous magazines from the 50’s and unpublished cinematographic scenes are some of the nice surprises you can find in this exhibition, besides the never published pictures made by the most acclaimed photographers in the time like Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson o Irving Penn.
It’s especially curious how The Gallery is using social networks to offer its visitors details about this show. In order to do that, they have the specialist Helen Trompeter frequently tweeting about the exhibition, including a very especial tour about Hepburn’s history through images and the explanations of this expert (visit her profile here)
This last August, the show got the award to the Best Exhibition of the Month.
10The National Portrait Gallery was founded back in 1856 in order to pick and show the most famous and international collections of British portraits. This exhibition about Audrey Hepburn is the private show displayed only until October 18th. However, if you decide to pay it a visit, don’t hesitate to also visit the rest of the gallery. The permanent collection has over 200000 portraits from the 16th century up to date.
We launch today a new section in our Vintage blog: Great Women from the past
We’re going to dedicate one of our sections to those women that, thanks to their style, their personality, character or bravery, were a trendy symbol in their times.
Each one of them will have a very special piece, the jewel we are sure they would have chosen to wear in a given moment of their lives.
Our first guest is Norah Lindsay. Norah was a garden designer for a living, her clients were the high English society from inbetween both world wars which helped her become into one of the most important designers in the time in the UK and the rest of Europe.
She was born in India, within a family of high society Irish soldiers. When she was 22 she was married to Sir Harry Lindsay.
As a wedding gift, the couple was given a beautiful residence in Sutton, an idyllic and stunning place plenty of pretty little houses, barns and stables Norah used to develop her skills as a garden designer and landscapist.
After her failed marriage, with a deep finantial bankruptcy and thanks to the influence of another great lady of the gardening in England, Norah started a new and productive career as a garden designer.
She spent her whole life cultivating relashionships with the highest levels in society. Her designs can be seen in some of the most emblematic English houses across the country.
In this image, a simple portrait from the English painter and sculpter George Frederic Watts, Norah wears a sheer dress in chiffon and lace decorated with a georgeous bow in turquoise. The only accessory is a beautiful brooch in the left of her neckline.
We’ve selected this lovely Victorian-inspired brooch made with semiprecious stones that we think would perfectly fit this beautiful style.
Coco Chanel, the great lady of the French haute couture
Within both Wars, Gabrielle Bonheur, better known as Coco Chanel, reved up fashion and haute couture in Paris. She also freed women from the tight suits and dresses so common in the time. The way she understood the feminine body, her haircut, her ideas and of course her designs follow even today a prestigious signature.
She was born in 1883 within a very humble family. From the 20s onwards she turned into the great lady of the French fashion. She defended the silouette of a new woman: a free and modern woman with a higher weight in society. Her short hair, tiny body and comfortable clothes style is imitated still today.
Coco Chanel learnt how to sew when she was 12 in a hospice where her father left her after he was widowed. However, as soon as she became a teenager she decided to try to work and leave the hospice. She combined her work for a haberdashery with some shows in La Rotonde, a place where she earned the nickname “La petite Coco” because of a popular song she used to sang about a young woman who lost her little dog “Coco”.
A few years after she was decided to open a fashion store, although her humble origins didn’t help. In 1914 bought a few dozens of hats from the well-known Lafayette Gallery, then she remodeled them and put them into sell. Her success showed she was born to win and she realized she could make her dream true.
She opened the first store in the Rue Cambon and after not a long time she was brave enough to open a second one in the elegant ville of Deauville, a place known especially by the most glamorous people in France in the time. Success was already a word in her world, although not related to love…
After the IWW, fashion magazines started publishing her designs. She didn’t draw or used to make sketches, so she had to create the designs straigh on her models. That never was an issue for her.
She was a pioneer in using stitches and the shirt-kind dress. She also was one of the first women to tan her skin – a symbol of the lower class – and have a short haircut. I’m sure you don’t forget the tweed dresses, shoes with low heel or the pleated skirts… All of them were also her signature.
She then decided to go to live in the Hotel Ritz, and her success kept on until the Crash of 1929. She was forced to reduce her staff and low the prices. However despite these actions the situation didn’t get better so Coco decided to move to the US, where her talent was already well-known. During that period of her life, she knew many men but her relationships weren’t as successful as her professional life. The fact that she was sterile didn’t help either.
The IIWW forced her again to close her saloons and get back to Paris. Coco Chanel had the time then to leave all work related to fashion for a few years, while she was exiled in Sweden. During the 50s, when she was over 70, she decided to open her stores again. She passed away in 1971 after a life among pins. Her way of conceive women is till today alive, not only in her designs but in the mytic Chanel N5 perfume, loved by the greatest women like Marilyn Monroe.
A bracelet is an jewel used as an accessory to decorate your wrist. It’s commonly made of links in different forms and sizes that give the piece flexibility to adapt to a variety of wrists. However, there’s a kind of rigid bracelet with no flexibility, known as “cuff bracelet”.
There are plenty of sort of bracelets. Here are the most common uses: A 7-bangle bracelet set, with seven equal rings; bracelets, those able to adapt and be flexible and bangles, a ring-shaped band or bracelet usually with an inscription.
Bracelets are accessories in jewelry used both by women and men. Over the years, this beautiful piece have got a huge fame among the society, since it’s a jewel you can use either during the day or night.
We’re back from holidays with very beautiful good news… We’ve just known the September edition of the magazine Vogue brings this amazing article…
Thanks to Belen Antolin and Miguel Reveriego’s camera, Gloria Vanderbilt’s beauty join us in a walk through a peacefull and green countryside.
Gloria Vanderbilt wears an elegant shape tight with flounces, laces and lace edgings. And on top of all that, the Vintage By Lopez-Linares’ accesories that make her look even more brilliant…
Our pearls, cameos, bracelets, rings and necklaces finish the most elegant and sophisticated look that reminds us of those old ladies from the 20th century high society.
You can find all this jewelry in our online store. If you are looking for a different look, this selection of jewelry will help you for sure.
Don’t miss the chance to visit this special selection showed in the article. In order to make it easier for you, here’s an exclusive list of those jewels appearing in the article. Just click over each link to access any of them!
Angelina Russell was married only six weeks after the Queen Victoria of England did. This wedding was a highlight of inspiration for bridal fashion in the time.
I have decided to write a post about the queen’s bridal gown, a jewel that still today is an inspiration for designers and a truly icon in the bridal fashion. However, let me focus today in the Agelina’s design.
Although the piece is quite similar to the Queen’s, Angelina knew how to be special and she gave the gown a personal touch only brides are able to do.
The fabric was a very light silk decorated with a damask floral motive very popular back in the time. Angelina’s dress was completed with a beautiful bodice with an open neckline finished off with a hand-embroidered flounce. The top of the bodice is tight to the chest with wide casings. The front has a simple decoration though, with five beautiful laces made in the same silk. This sort of details are still today in fashion. We still see modern brides with laces decorating a noted part in their designs.
Sleeves in Angelina’s dress are pleated ending around the elbow with another hand-embroidered flounce.
The skirt is linked to the bodice through a tiny 55 cm diameter waist. Please, go ahead and grab a meter so you can imagine what a diameter of 55 cm is. To me it’s so extrange that those women could fit in a waist of a little girl.
Angelina Russel was married with James J. Faran (1808-92) in 1840. They both moved to Cincinnati, James’ home city.
Faran became into a successful lawyer and editor. For 23 years he worked as a manager of editors in a local newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The couple lived in a modern area within the center of Cincinnati where they grew five children and enjoyed their marriage for over 50 years.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wedding Perfection- Two Centuries of wedding Gowns- Cynthia Amnèus
