Perhaps it’s the return of Versace to the fashion news cycle. Or perhaps it’s the imminent return of Rivals, the TV romp based on Jilly Cooper’s best-selling bonkbusters, this month. Whatever the reason, in jewellery, a revival of 1980s shapes, colours and material blends is well underway.
Power cuffs suddenly feel right. A new My Dior cuff is assembled from clashing yellow and white gold and sits large on the wrist. Ali Khalil, of Antwerp based brand Levuma, shapes his L’Armure cuffs from midnight blue titanium or yellow gold that is then brushed to achieve a tactile finish. Both are hand-set with white diamonds. A third option comes from Place Vendôme maison Chaumet, where a Bee de Chaumet cuff in rose gold is dotted with brilliant-cut diamonds.
Large statement earrings also make a return. From Graff: a pair of high jewellery earrings with two seven carat Colombian emeralds, round emeralds and many white diamonds. The bold, geometric design is one part Memphis Group – the Milanese design collective founded by Ettore Sottsass in 1980 – and one part Dynasty. At Repossi, it’s all about bejewelled bracelets. This year, the brand is marking its 40th anniversary at 6, Place Vendôme by revisiting the Monogram Birth Bracelet that Alberto Repossi first conceived of in 1986.
“The ’80s influence my work through the use of gemstones and statement designs,” says Ananya Malhotra. “I am particularly inspired by the era’s bold silhouettes, architectural forms and glamorous elements.” Malhotra, who trained at London’s Central Saint Martins and established her business in 2017, creates pieces such as her Chakra Twin beaded choker. The design’s rainbow moonstone and crystal quartz beads are a new take on princessy rows of pearls. Isabel Delgado and Anita Ko are two more independent designers nodding to an ’80s design vocabulary.
Heritage brands are also nodding directly to their archives. At Tiffany & Co., designs by Paloma Picasso, who first joined the New York brand as a serial collaborator in 1980, continue to be popular. New among the offering are naturalistic Olive Leaf earrings handcrafted from yellow gold and set with diamonds and amethysts.
At Bulgari, mini hoop earrings are a new addition to the Roman brand’s signature Tubogas collection. Based on a jewellery-making technique of coiling bands of gold, Tubogas pieces can be traced to 1948, but it was four decades later that the silhouette came into its own. “The 1980s stand as a vivid expression of boldness, audacity and experimentation, values that deeply resonate with the spirit of Bulgari,” says jewellery creation executive director Lucia Silvestri. “Its fluid, sculptural coils embody a seamless fusion of functionality and aesthetics, remaining strikingly modern to this day. Design is always a dialogue between past and future.”
Inside the ateliers of Milanese jeweller Pomellato, creative director Vincenzo Castaldo perfects unique high jewellery necklaces, rings and other pieces that draw from the brand’s design-led past. Select pieces pay tribute to the 1980s, a period that saw Pomellato champion architectural shapes and surprising volumes. “It was a fundamental decade, defined by an unbounded creative freedom that permeated every field, from fashion to design, from art to culture. It was a time of great courage, marked by a strong desire to experiment and explore,” Castaldo explains. “For this reason, the decade remains a reference point: it reminds us that creativity always needs this kind of impulse. For me, staying connected to that energy is a great source of inspiration.”
The ’80s also proved stylistically important at Cartier. It was then that avant-garde clashes of materials and striking motifs – like a line of panthers, shaped relief-like along a necklace – set the tone. “Jewellery in the 1980s pushed the exploration of possibilities even further, particularly in terms of designs, inspirations and materials,” says Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage, Pierre Rainero. “Let’s remember that Cartier – renowned as “jeweller of kings” for its precious parures – dared to combine gold and steel to reach new aesthetic and volume effects.” Part of the sensational 1988 Animalière collection, Double Tiger Head bracelets in yellow gold patterned in black lacquer and with two pear-shaped emeralds for eyes and an onyx for the big cat’s nose stand among important Cartier creations of the time.
While some designers and houses create new pieces infused with the decade’s style, others make historic pieces available to buy. At Van Cleef & Arpels, this includes a romantic yellow gold necklace with ruby and white diamond daisies that was first unveiled in 1983. The collier is now offered via the maison’s Heritage collection. Formed in 2007, the team behind the Van Cleef & Arpels Heritage collection sources, examines, analyses and then cleans pieces from the company’s past. Once a background has been researched, these are then made available on the open market and exhibited at specialist fairs such as TEFAF Maastricht.
In London, seek out expert dealer Charlie Barron. “Heavy, big and bold yellow gold jewellery was the vibe of the 1980s,” he notes. Currently available at Barron’s showroom on Bruton street is a Cameron Cook-worthy yellow gold Tubas necklace, set with one round diamond of 18.34 carats.
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