Victorian hair jewelry by Swarovski

swarovski, bracelet, hair jewelry, victorian

When visiting Italy I spotted a new bracelet collection by Swarovski in one of the shop displays. It was a cca 1 cm wide bracelet made of a fishnet and filled with little sparkly stones. The design immediatelly ringed the bell. They look totally like the Victorian jewelry made of hair I encountered some years ago. When I saw them for the first time I could not believe it was really made of human hair. At the top of this creepy thing, it was often made of dead people´s hair.
This type of jewelry is also called the mourning jewelry. The hair that was used to make these had to remind the person to the mourning wearer. It was something like a relic but not of the Saint, "only" of a normal person that was dear to the wearer. This jewelry could also be found and bought in these days, although they are pretty expencive.
Making the hair jewelry was a popular leisure activity during the Victorian era. They were creating bracelets, brooches, hair jewelry, earrings, necklaces, pins and even bags out of hair. There were more techniques of creating these but one of them is similar to Japanese Kumi Himo braiding technique. Other techniques did not required braiding the hair, but aranging in pictures on brooches etc.
So keep your eyes open, history is full of inspiration and the next trend might bring you back in time rather than in the future.
 
Když jsem teď byla v Itálii, všimla jsem si nové kolekce náramků od Swarovski v jejich výloze. Jde o přibližně centimetr široké náramky ze síťoviny vyplněné třpytivými kameny. Jejich design mi byl ihned povědomý. Jsou totiž velmi podobné viktoriánským šperkům, se kterými jsem se setkala prvně před pár lety a které se vyráběly z vlasů. Když jsem je viděla poprvé, nemohla jsem uvěřit, že jde skutečně o lidské vlasy. Už tak je to celkem podivné a to se navíc často vyráběly z vlasů mrtvých lidí.
Tento druh šperků je totiž taktéž nazývám smuteční šperky. Vlasy, ze kterých byly šperky upleteny měly smutnícímu pozůstalému připomínat zesnulého. Šlo tedy o jakýsi relikviář, akorát, že tento nebyl s pozůstatkem svatého, ale s pozůstatkem obyčejné osoby, která byla nositeli šperku drahá. Tyto šperky je možné i dnes najít a zakoupit, ale bývají velmi drahé.
Výroba šperků z vlasů byla populárním koníčkem ve viktoriánské éře. Z vlasů se vyráběly náramky, brože, vlasové doplňky, náušnice, náhrdelníky, jehlice, dokonce i kabelky. Na výrobu šperků samozřejmě existovalo více technik, jednou z nich je technika podobná japonskému Kumi Himo. Další technikou, která však nevyžadovala zaplétání, bylo aranžování vlasů do obrázku na brož apod.
Tady vidíte, jak je důležité být stále ve střehu, historie je plná inspirace a příští trend vás možná spíše než do budoucnosti zavede do minulosti.

Comments

  1. So is that actual hair wrapped in the bracelet?

    xo
    Maggie A
    LOVEMAVIN.COM

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    Replies
    1. No, it is the other way, the net was made of hair in the original Victorian jewelry, that´s why I mentioned the Kumi Himo method, there were of course more ways of weaving it. They also had some special ways of preparing the hair before weaving it.

      The Swarovski jewelry is of course made of less unusual stuff ;)

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  2. This is so interesting, I never knew about the hair jewellery.

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    Replies
    1. When I first heard about it I thought it was some joke, but it´s real. Thank you for reading my post :)

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  3. I would have never imagined this was jewellery for the hair.
    thanks for sharing!

    Cheers,
    Everest
    www.everestsays.com

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  4. Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment - your post was really informative and I enjoyed reading about it! I had no idea they made jewelry out of hair, how interesting!!

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    Replies
    1. To be honest, I was quite shocked when I heard it for the first time. Then I heard that some diseases could have been transmitted this way from a deceased person´s hair to the wearer of such jewellery (it was apparently a custom to create these from dead person´s hair to remember the passed loved one).
      But there is quite a lot of customs with hair - in one documentary about Chanel the embroiderers of wedding dresses sewed their hair in it to be lucky or get married or whatewer, quite yuck for haute couture :D

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  5. Thanks for sharing nice information . i like your post and all you share with us is uptodate and quite informative, i would like to bookmark the page so i can come here again to read you, as you have done a wonderful job.
    jewelry stores

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  6. Nádherné šperky :-) . Já si ale tak drahé nekupuju. Stačí mi klasické stříbrné šperky, které jsou pěkné a přitom jednoduché na údržbu a cenově také nejsou tak hrozné :-) . Na šperky jsem si taky koupila dřevěné krabičky . Dokud jsem je neměla, tak jsem měla šperky rozházené po šuplíku, a to bylo dost nepřehledné.

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