Michelle Williams Makes Her Red Carpet Debut with Her Fiancé in Schlumberger Jewels
What does Michelle Williams have in common with Liz Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, Bunny Mellon, and Lady Gaga? Jean Schlumberger, the master French jeweler who died in Paris in 1987.
Nominated for her role in Fosse/Verdon, Williams wore a striking custom orange Louis Vuitton gown and posed with her fiancé Thomas Kail, who directed her as Gwen Verdon in the miniseries. (The couple is expecting a baby later this year.) Her jewelry was simple, but features a striking set of rings by Schlumberger himself.
Williams, who was styled by Kate Young (a T&C Jewelry Award winner), has made bold jewelry decisions in the past—remember that Fred Leighton antique diamond necklace with the yellow Vera Wang?—and Schlumberger continues that, and a great American tradition.
He may not be a household name, but the designs he created for Tiffany & Co. are legendary. He was born in France to a successful family of textile designers and began his own career working for Elsa Schiaparelli. In 1956, he caught the eye of Tiffany & Co.'s revolutionary president Walter Hoving (who would later sign Elsa Peretti to create pieces for the company) and soon began sketching wildly imaginative jewels often inspired by nature—the Hedges and Rows necklace, the acorn pins, the Five Leaves brooch, the fish shaped Dauphin brooch Liz Taylor liked to wear in her hair.
Schlumberger was always fueled by what Diana Vreeland described as his belief in “the miracle of jewels.” President Kennedy turned to Schlumberger when faced with the dilemma of what to buy his world-famously tasteful wife, and settled on the ruby Two Fruit clip the First Lady wore often, which is now on exhibit at the Kennedy Library in Boston. She wore her colorfully enameled Schlumberger bangles so often that they began to be called “the Jackie bracelets.”
Stand by the Schlumberger vitrine at the Fifth Avenue Tiffany on any given Saturday and you will still hear people come in and ask for them by name. Schlumberger also famously set the historic Tiffany yellow diamond—worn by Lady Gaga to the Oscars last year—in a brooch called Bird on a Rock and as the center stone in his Ribbon Rosette necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn to promote Breakfast at Tiiffany’s. (The current design was created around the stone in 2012.).
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