What Contemporary Jewellery Might Have to Say about Fashion

Abstract

This chapter will take as its starting point Barthes� essay �From Gemstones to Jewellery,� in which he argues that jewellery, previously a marker of status and wealth, has been democratised by fashion through its appropriation of jewellery as an accessory, a detail of an outfit. Barthes argues that through this process, the value of jewellery is no longer arbitrated by economic value, but by taste. By addressing the ways in which photography has been used by contemporary jewellers to document and extend the meaning of their work, the chapter explores the limitations of the application of Barthes� ideas to the preoccupations of contemporary jewellery. Show more