How the Red Carpet Sparkles

As we fully plunge into awards season, some of the most coveted names in Hollywood, well, the world, begin their “journey to the Red Carpet” affairs. I don’t mean Meryl Streep, Glen Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, or Michelle Williams. I am referring to Harry Winston, Cartier, Chopard, Tiffany & Co., Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, Fred Leighton, and Pomellato. The moments caught on camera gracing these leading ladies’ necks, lobes, and wrists are worth more than any billboard in Tinseltown.

“That image of a celebrity wearing drop earrings, or a dramatic necklace, and all the many ways it is shown and commented on in the weeks after the awards shows … there is no way to quantify the value,” says Victoria Gomelsky, editor of JCK magazine, a trade publication for retail jewelers. The Tiffany tassel earrings worn by Natalie Portman at last year’s Academy Awards “had an enormous repercussion on the market.” 
The Red Carpet was not the spectacle it is today until the 1990s. Giorgio Armani saw an opportunity and began dressing Hollywood for award shows. In 1992, Sharon stone called Jeweler Martin Katz and asked to borrow a pearl necklace and earring to wear to the premier of “Basic Instinct.” Katz agreed on one condition: that she wear his jewelry while doing magazine publicity for the film, and that his name be in the fashion credits. 

This parade is all for you and I at home, sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting for Ryan Seacrest to ask, “Who are you wearing?” not because he really cares, but because this is the big sell. This is the moment where we collectively decide what we desire… creating a trend… creating a demand.

How did this all come to be, you ask? Studios have been borrowing jewelry for their starlets to wear in films since the 1930s, but Harry Winston claims to have been the first to lend diamonds to a star to wear the Academy Awards. In 1944, Jennifer Jones donned them as she won the lead actress award for the film “The Song of Bernadette.” Sadly, the earrings don’t show in any of the images and nobody knows what happened to them afterwards, but this has become a part of the Harry Winston legends. Currently, the firm, by itself, lends out millions of dollars worth of diamonds each year.
These simple acts paved the way for stars and stylists to have access to the most unique and expensive collections from both clothiers and jewelers; leaving us to wonder, “What will she wear next?” in anticipation, as we count down the days until the next red carpet event.