Shopping for antique and vintage fashion rings?
Costume jewelry, which is also called fashion jewelry, is designed to accessorize with current fashions and is typically made with inexpensive materials. Fashion jewelry has long been a favorite for many jewelry lovers — although she positively oozed with red-carpet glamour, Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, for example, loved rhinestones and had a penchant for costume jewelry.
Iconic designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s sole fine jewelry collection included some of the most exciting and original works ever made, and even though she simply couldn’t resist designing with diamonds, she loved costume jewelry and later focused on costume and the demi-fine pieces she made in collaboration with Fulco di Verdura, when he worked at Chanel during the 1930s. Whether you’re seeking a dazzling designer fashion ring or a similar accessory from the fine jewelry collection on 1stDibs that exudes elegance and grace, the offerings here present something for everyone.
No matter their origin or specific characteristics, rings are timeless, versatile accessories. They’ve carried deep meaning since at least the Middle Ages, when diamond rings symbolized strength and other kinds of rings were worn to signify romantic feelings or to denote an affiliation with a religious order. Rings have also forever been emblematic of eternity. In the collection of fashion jewelry on 1stDibs, however, you're more likely to find rings set with coral, turquoise or other similarly inexpensive materials.
Fashion cocktail rings, for example, which earned their name for their frequent appearances during glitzy cocktail parties at the height of the Prohibition era, are typically going to feature a large colored faux gem or alternative type of embellishment at the center — which is usually mounted in a high setting — and the more elaborate the design, the stronger the likelihood of being noticed.
Cocktail rings remained a popular piece of jewelry for women until the 1930s, when the Great Depression and the onset of war marked a change in behaviors nationwide. While the 1960s and ’70s saw a return in visibility for the accessory, it wasn’t until the 1980s that cocktail rings once again assumed their position as a beacon of luxury and glitz.
Vintage cocktail rings in the costume jewelry collection on 1stDibs include accessories set with moonstones and synthetic pearls, and popular iterations of these pieces have been created by the likes of Trifari, Kenneth Jay Lane and Miriam Haskell over the years.
Shop antique and vintage fashion rings from top jewelers around the world on 1stDibs.
