The Golden Plumes of 1932

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Gabrielle Chanel believed jewelry had the power to transform oneself and to escape. When looking at these delicate 18K gold feathered pieces by CHANEL remade from her 1932 collection, I thought about those two words: Transform & Escape.

I thought about transforming oneself with our masks into good or evil, into the lightness or darkness, or escaping who we are in our day to day lives with jewelry being the stage we write our script to. Dancers have to be one of the most accomplished groups of people in the art of transforming and taking on roles. While in Paris I met one such dancer, Claire Camille, and wanted to bring this delicate collection of golden plumes, as imagined by Coco, to life and transform into characters so delicate you could imagine they’d simply float away together

Float away together I thought… I love the idea of escaping through jewelry. I have this beautiful gold globe designed by Monica Rich Kosann which I adore. When I wear this piece I escape on a million adventures around the world, discovering beauty beyond imagination and expanding on what limited time my eyes have left to see.

You can easily see how we define ourselves, where jewelry can take our imagination, something LoveGold showcases better than anyone. What does the jewelry you wear transform about you? When you truly want to escape, what pieces do you put on? Do you, too, play characters in the theater of life? On this early autumn day in Paris, here is where we drifted off to like a feather endlessly floating in golden light….

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CHANEL 1932 PLUME~

Earrings // Necklace // Bracelets // Ring

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Tia Cibani’s Designs Dance

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Movement. When I was interviewing designer Tia Cibani at her studio, one of the references of inspiration for her fall collection was just that, movement. The full dancer skirts, gathered backs, swinging dresses, and loose silhouettes all flow in graceful motions. Even in the fabric design, the blurred lines of the rose print look as if the fabric has flown by you, leaving behind only the scent of roses. The clothes hanging there in the showroom were screaming at me to be whirled around, caught in the wind, and flicked off a finger.

I asked Amy, a recent New Orleans transplant and a trained dancer (in ballet, jazz, AND tap) to come in and be our movement, our graceful, elegant motions. We started talking about dance, about her motivation to dance, and she said, “I love when you find that vulnerability of not caring and letting your body completely take over. It’s very invigorating.” And it was indeed, an exhilarating live performance piece in the middle of our studio; garments singing in ripples of red satin, billows of draped tweed, twirls of shining pleats!

After the shoot I asked Amy what it felt like to dance in these clothes, and she replied, “I felt like a goddess, like a queen. It was so beautiful, it moved with me like an extension of my body.” Now that sounds like an outfit I could dance my way through Manhattan in, too…

 

 

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The School of American Ballet

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A starry night, a winter ball, a celebration of The School of American Ballet‘s 80 years of dedication to the field of ballet...under the golden roof of Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, former ballet dancers, patrons, alumni, board members, corporate and social communities gathered to raise money to provide student scholarships as well as to maintain the school’s state of the art facilities and faculty. The School of American Ballet was established in 1934 by legendary choreographer George Balanchine and philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein with a dream of creating the American classical ballet company, which is today the premier ballet academy in the United States, training the highest of elite dancers at the New York City Ballet and other leading U.S. and international ballet companies.

In a room full of gowns, we sipped on cocktails, dined on classic American fare with tables aglow with starbursts and watched a beautiful performance by the advanced students of the school, choreographed by Silas Farley. It was a dazzling night, but when is it not when it’s made of ballet dreams and Lincoln Center sparkle?…

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