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Costume Jewelry

Costume jewelry is often in expensive, yet still flashy. Instead of fine and rare materials, such as gold, silver and gemstones, other more widely available and much cheaper materials are used. Brass and other base metals are often fashioned into jewelry that mimics the more expensive pieces. Sometimes gold and silver plating is applied to nickel and pewter to make it seem like the real thing, which is why fashion jewelry is so popular.

Costume jewelry became popular in the 1700’s when cheap glass beads began being used in jewelry. The use of semi-precious materials allowed jewelry to get into the hands of the common people, where it was previously a rarity. It steadily increased in popularity until the 1930’s when rhinestones became popular and immediately had some of the most sought after traditional jewelry designers creating high end jewelry with low end materials. Coco Chanel was one of those designers, and in many instances high end fashion jewelry has become collectible and actually increases in value over time.

The term costume jewelry originated in the early 20th century, and most likely comes from the use of the word costume in a similar way to how we use the word outfit now. That would mean that this kind of jewelry is everyday jewelry and worn for fashion as opposed to owning jewelry as an investment, keepsake of collectible. The word could also come from the use of this jewelry in theatrical productions where the jewelry could never be examined up close. It is possible that the development of costume jewelry happened because of the increase in popularity of plays and the theater in the late 1600’s.

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