IF YOU DON’T KNOW who Emma Chamberlain is, then you haven’t been watching YouTube nor have you read the TIME100 Next List and the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Media list. She is also the founder of Chamberlain Coffee, has a successful podcast called “Anything Goes,” and has won two People’s Choice Awards for Favorite Pop Podcast in 2020 and 2021. She has also been a red carpet interviewer for Vogue. But if you are a jewelry enthusiast, you may have noticed that Chamberlain was wearing one of the biggest trends on the red carpet, a trend that started slowly with awards season and exploded into a full-blown direction at the Met Gala: tiaras, diadems and other hair ornaments. Hers was of course a Cartier tiara, which was created in 1911 by the renowned house in Paris.
The theme at the Met Gala was “The Gilded Age,” and Chamberlain looked right at home in high society amid echoes of a time when new money was taking over New York City. Her tiara was accompanied by Cartier modern High Jewelry and vintage pieces that she wore with just the right amount of youthful grace.
Her fans that are approximately her age are sure to follow her lead in what she wears, and knowing how to draw new customers in has always been one of Cartier’s many strong suits.
But let’s talk about the fact that young brides are asking for tiaras and diadems instead of veils (or wearing their veils under them) and that such jewels are showing up in the legendary collections once again as well as more contemporary designer lines, and yes, on the red carpet. Blake Lively wore Lorraine Schwartz’s tiara to the same event, which gave a nod to the Statue of Liberty. Danai Gurira wore a Chaumet necklace cleverly as a diadem at the Met Gala. At the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Deepika Padukone did the same with Sabyasachi Jewelry’s over-the-top necklace.
This comes at the perfect time, right before Sotheby’s London tiara exhibition entitled Power & Image: Royal and Aristocratic Tiaras, which is being held in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee from May 28 through June 15, 2022. The exhibition will feature approximately 50 tiaras of royal provenance, and some of them will be exhibited publicly for the first time.
Tiaras, diadems and bandeaus have been in the jewelry news in recent years due to series such as Downton Abbey (the series and the film), The Crown, Bridgerton, and other period small- and silver-screen productions.
With all the crowning glory of tiaras on celebrities such as Chamberlain, will they have a place at more than just weddings and socialite black tie events? I believe we will see a more toned-down version in jewelry for the hair, such as gemstone encrusted barrettes, bandeaus, headbands and antique brooches secured with bobby pins.
