Influences on design

• Rise of the cocktail party

• More women earning and buying for themselves

• A new appreciation of machines and mechanical elements

• Streamlined fashions-padded shoulders, wide lapels, straight skirts

Materials

• A new emphasis on polished gold, the result of restrictions on platinum

• Fewer precious stones, more semiprecious, synthetics, and paste

• Palladium-used occasionally in place of platinum but harder to work, tarnished easily, and fell out of favor after the war

Styles

• Double clip brooches

• Flexible bracelets, cuffs with buckle clasps, bracelet watches

• Cocktail rings

• Short, tight necklaces

Motifs

• Stars, fans, knots, ribbons, bows, scrolls, volutes

• Patriotic-flags, jeeps, Uncle Sam, stars, military insignia

• Nature-animals, flowers, insects

• Architectural-brickwork, clean geometry

• Ballerinas, popularized by John Rubel & Co.

Wartime Innovations

• Hexagon and scale patterns in gold from Van Cleef & Arpels

• Expanded use of invisible settings, started by Van Cleef & Arpels in the thirties

• Convertible and flexible jewelry

• Slide and zipper necklaces

• Innovative clasps, hinges, buckles and other hardware

Late-1940s trends

• Return of platinum

• More flower motifs, inspired by Christian Dior