The September 26, 2011 issue of US Weekly features Stella & Dot's Panther Pendant Necklace in their Fall Finds for Under $100 article! When I first saw this bestseller in our new Fall 2011 Collection, I wondered what the inspiration was behind it. So, I did a bit of research! Not suprising for any of you who know me well, I'm sure.
Would you believe that Panther jewelry has been around since 1919? The house of Cartier is reportedly where the inception began. Artistic Director Jeanne Toussaint is known as being a fierce design pioneer who had a flair for the exotic. She is reported to have worn turbans with long strands of pearls and silk pajamas to dinner parties. The panther became her signature. Why the feline? "The animal symbolizes freedom, a combination of elegant femininity and the wild and dangerous," comments Cartier's current director of image, style, and heritage, Pierre Rainero. This in part, helps to explain the possible allure to Toussaint, who at the time was a bold setting trendsetter amidst a society in which French women did not yet have the right to vote and fine jewelry consisted of polite pearls and diamonds.
In 1948 the Duke of Windsor commissioned Toussaint (by then the first women to hold position as Artistic Director in a fine jewelry house) to make a panther brooch for the Duchess of Windsor. The panther designs produced by Toussaint at Cartier created a popular sensation throughout Paris and the US, spreading to New York where Barbara Hutton, heiress to Woolworth, commissioned Cartier to make her a panther design of her own.
Although the designs have evolved over the decades, panther inspired jewelry has still maintained a steady appeal and still remains one of Cartier's most significant motifs, in their Panthere de Cartier collection. The legendary craftmanship has stayed the time. The diamond and green beryl bracelet shown below, took six months and over 900 man hours to create. One professional jeweler alone spends over 500 hous hand placing the 784 diamonds and 91 onyx spots that form the panther's body. It is designed to look, in its finished form, as if the panther is crouching toward the stone, about to pounce on it's prey. So what is the allure today? Elise B. Misiorowski, answers this best in her writing of the Professional Jeweler Magazine in March of 1998:
"The panther is now a metaphor for the contemporary woman; sensual and self-assured with an underlying element of danger, hinting that care should be used in handling this exotic creature."
Celebrities who have been bitten with a love for feline inspired jewelry:
Shown above left to right:
Hillary Duff showing off a stacked bracelet look including a bold black and white tiger bracelet.
Kristen Stewart wearing a gold Cartier panther cocktail ring in a Vanity Fair photo shoot with Robert Pattinson.
Renee Zellweger wearing a Cartier panther onyx and diamond ring.
Get yours today and show off your fierce feline side! Shop our best selling Panther Pendant Necklace at: www.stelladot.com/jenniferdunn
www.stelladot.com/jenniferdunn