Miriam Haskell

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Miriam Haskell (born July 1, 1899 in Tell City, Perry County (Indiana) , † July 14, 1981 in Cincinnati , Ohio) was an American costume jewelry designer and entrepreneur. From 1920 to the 1960s she designed affordable pieces of jewelry together with designer Frank Hess. Your company was one of the leading American fashion jewelry houses.

Life

Haskell was born in Tell City, Indiana, a small town on the Ohio River about 80 miles southwest of Louisville , as one of four siblings. She graduated from high school in 1917 in nearby New Albany , where her parents, Russian-born Jewish immigrants, ran a haberdashery store selling textiles and fabrics. She then studied at the College of Education at the University of Chicago until 1919 , but did not graduate.

After spending a few years in Chicago , she moved to New York in 1924 , opening her LE BIJOU DE L'HEURE jewelry store at the McAlpin Hotel in 1926 and a second on West 57th Street that same year . At that time, costume jewelry was a relatively new genre, initiated by Coco Chanel , who launched her “vrais bijoux en toc” or “real art jewelry ” collection in 1924. Haskell took advantage of the Americans' enthusiasm for French fashion and created her own collection, based on the example of European costume jewelery, which was largely handmade from imported glass beads and crystal, with complex motifs of pearls and rhinestones wired on filigree surfaces. The idea was not to imitate the real, but to create imaginative pieces of jewelery that were inspired by nature and exotic cultures - a new concept at the time. Up until the Second World War, she mainly processed glass beads from Czechoslovakia, France, Italy and Germany. Due to the shortage of metals during the war, she switched to plastics, but also silk thread. Most of Haskell's designs borrowed motifs from nature, such as tendrils, blossoms, leaves, butterflies. The high standard of craftsmanship, their durability and the high-quality materials contributed to the quality and popularity of the pieces.

She probably designed the first pieces herself, but the permanent aesthetic of the collection, which was characterized by filigree metal designs with bundles of pearls and, above all, glass beads, was largely due to Frank Hess, the label's chief designer from 1926 to 1960, while Haskell was considered a visionary businesswoman which ensured the company's expansion. With Hess she traveled in search of materials to Paris, Jablonec, Venice and Wattens on Swarovski - factory until the beginning of the Second World War made it impossible to travel. She first hired an assistant and then other workers who made the pieces by hand based on Hess' designs. Within a very short time, Haskell was selling her designs in most of the country's large, high-priced department stores, mainly on the East Coast, then also in Texas, Nebraska and the Midwest. Even during the Great Depression boomed Miriam Haskell's company. Hollywood greats bought at the private jewelry shows in New York. Prominent buyers included Lucille Ball and Joan Crawford . For less affluent customers, Haskell produced two more, simplified and more plain product lines. From the early 1930s onwards, she sold three seasonal and two special collections per year. The spring and summer collection had many bright colors, the autumn line muted colors, while the holiday collection was dominated by black crystals or colors such as red and green, for example. With the growing appreciation for costume jewelry, Haskell began signing her pieces in the late 1940s.

Throughout her life she made friends with Bernard Gimbal, Nelson Rockefeller and John Daniel Hertz . After World War II, her health and emotional stability began to deteriorate, and she developed symptoms of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder . By 1950 her mental condition had deteriorated so bad that she could no longer work, and her brother Joseph bought the company and took over the business until he sold it to Morris Kinzle in 1955. For the next several decades, Miriam Haskell lived with her widowed mother in an apartment in Central Park South. From 1977 she lived under the care of her nephew Malcolm Dubin in Cincinnati , where she died in 1981.

Morris Kinzler sold the company to Sanford Moss in 1983. In 1990, Frank Fialkoff became the new owner of the Haskell Jewels company, which restarted in autumn 2007 under the name Miriam Haskell. Frank Hess was one of the most important designers at Haskell until 1960, then Robert Clark for about eight years, followed by Peter Raines. Larry Vrba joined in 1970, Millie Petronzio became chief designer in 1980. In the 1970s, the company turned to various materials and construction techniques. One of the most popular new jewelry lines of this time with beads made of plastic or bone was the Egyptian collection, inspired by the Tutankhamun exhibition, which toured the United States. After that, the company returned to its traditional style with fine glass beads. The design today includes woven pearl necklaces and, in addition to the use of filigree metalwork and vintage pearls, picks up on natural motifs made of suede, wood and brass. The jewelry is still entirely handcrafted. The collections, which cost between $ 500 and $ 2,000, are sold by Henri Bendel, Nordstrom , Fred Segal and Harvey Nichols.

Exhibitions

Works by Miriam Haskell are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), and the National Museum of African American History and Culture . In addition, pieces from their collections were shown in various museums:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Jessica Iredale: Sleeping Beauty . In: W Magazine, June 1, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c d FMD - The Fashion Model Directory: Miriam Haskell . Accessed February 1, 2020
  3. ↑ a b The Story ( Memento from August 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ A b c d e Barbara Ellman: The World of Fashion Jewelry . Aunt Louise Imports, Highland Park, Illinois 1986, pp.  5-7
  5. ↑ a b c Maribeth Keane, Jessica Lewis: How Miriam Haskell Costume Jewelry Bucked Trends and Won Over Hollywood . In: Collectors Weekly, September 23, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2020
  6. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art: Miriam Haskell . Accessed February 1, 2020
  7. ↑ Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin: Bijoux Bijoux! Costume jewelry from Chanel to Dior . Accessed February 1, 2020
  8. ^ Vanessa Lawrence: Behind Barbara Berger's Costume Jewelry . In: W Magazine, June 26, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Haskell, Miriam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fashion jewelry designer
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Tell City, Perry County (Indiana)
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1981
Place of death Cincinnati , Ohio