After many delayed events and courthouse elopements, wedding season is back and expected to flourish.
Any season is a good one for a wedding, but the fall has a particularly good ring to it. There’s a chill in the air, but not so much that attendees need coats, and the autumn leaves provide a gorgeous backdrop for photos that will be treasured forever. There’s a reason why so many people choose to get married in the fall (I did, and even incorporated some Halloween elements into the affair).
So it’s the perfect time to highlight the latest collection from Ceci Leibovitz: Jewel Box.
Inspired by the treasures one might find as a child in a grown-up’s jewelry box, the collection features Leibovitz’s signature incorporation of fabric and vintage materials into keepsake-worthy pieces. The tassel detail is especially welcome for fall.
Leibovitz specializes in pieces that would be ideal for a wedding, whether worn by the bride or given to a mother or bridesmaids. The collection doesn’t require a wedding to be a hit—don’t get me wrong—but it feels especially romantic given such an occasion.
The way Leibovitz herself describes it, the collection is actually just as or even more apt as a self-purchase—a nostalgic revisiting of the childhood days when playing dress-up with your grandmother’s jewelry box was an adventure.
“I often remember fondly a handful of times when, as a child, I was given the opportunity to play with jewelry and other treasures from a relative’s jewelry box,” says Leibovitz. “I vividly remember being about 4 or 5 years old at a party given at an aunt’s house. I told her I was bored and she brought out a box of jewelry that belonged to her parents. She said I could look through it to pass the time. I lay on the floor for hours playing with the contents of that box until I fell asleep. The one piece I remember from that day was a gold lion pin that she said was her father’s. It had gold chains or tassels draped around it, and I found it pretty impressive. The lion became a character in my play, along with any other pieces I could infuse with my imagination. I like to think I was given the lion to bring home, but I can’t remember.”
“Another time, at around the same age, my mother had asked me to throw away a small bag of garbage in the trash room of the Flatbush, Brooklyn, building where we lived (it still amazes me how much freedom we were given to roam around as young children). On a bench in the room, I saw a discarded jewelry box—inside I found all kinds of sparkling jewelry (probably mostly broken) and some bright red lipstick in a gold metal tube. I looked into a small mirror inside the jewelry box and tried my best to put the lipstick on properly, smearing it, I’m sure, in the process. To me, this was like a treasure chest filled with jewels. My mother was not amused when she found out, but it was fun while it lasted.”
“Childhood experiences like these are the inspiration behind my new collection. My aim was to create a sense of fun and adventure in the pieces, with unexpected touches including 25-year-old baroque pearls rescued from a warehouse, very old vintage Swarovski crystals with a finish like none I’ve seen today, and Fortuny hand-printed fabrics in jewel-like tones I’ve set under glass. The beaded gold tassels I’ve created for many of the pieces give them movement and sparkle, the idea being to bring wearers the same type of joy I had as a little kid, finding and trying on jewel box treasures.”
To see the whole collection, visit cecileibovitz.com.
Top: Callista tassel necklace in 24k gold–plated pewter and brass with Fortuny fabric and vintage glass bead, $165; Ceci Leibovitz
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