Research project: Victorian jewelry

Since all of San Francisco has gone nuts for 1906 right now, one might guess that Victorian themes might be making a comeback soon.* In fact, Victorian themes already hit the runways.

Turns out that Victorian fashion was more than just bizarre jewelry made out of hair and tiger claws. The Victorians loved symbolism, so you often see pieces featuring snakes (fertility), horseshoes (luck), griffins (courage) and moons (masculinity). A lot of the pieces are surprisingly modern, for example this gold bangle or this garnet bangle.

Sometimes odd, usually detailed and often over the top, Victorian jewelry can work as a great “statement piece” when combined with modern fashions. You can drool over more Victorian styles here and here.

*Disclaimer: I know that 1906 isn’t technically Victorian since that ended in 1901. We are not exactly fashion forward out here on the west coast, so it is safe to say that Victorian styles still ruled.