Costume Jewelry

New York Once costume jewelry was throwaway stuff, piled on dresser tops and eventually in shoe boxes. Now vintage reproductions or novelty designs of base metals, paste, rhinestones and coated glass beads add knowing chic to tweed jackets and evening clothes."

Cristina F. Manelli, an Italian immigrant who designed and sewed clothes for clients, family and friends and later created a line of costume jewelry, died Wednesday of renal failure at St. Elizabeth Rehabilitation Center in Southwest Baltimore. The longtime Catonsville resident was 96. The daughter of a farmer and a homemaker, Cristina Flagelli was born and raised in Teramo, Italy, where she was trained as a seamstress and embroiderer. There, she met her future husband, Luigi "Gino" Manelli, an artist who had been born in Philadelphia to Italian immigrants.

Costume jewelry -- glittering colored glass imitations of Cartier and Van Cleef; whimsical fakes by Miriam Haskell, Trifari, Hobe, Monet and Pennino; and Oriental fantasies by Joseff of Hollywood -- has been rediscovered by a growing number of collectors. Led by the Italians, English, German and French, who have been scooping up these passe novelties for the last decade, Americans now seem bent on regaining a heritage they nearly lost.Designer costume jewelry, sometimes faithful reproductions and many times aggressive kitsch brilliantly original, has become a thriving business coast to coast.

Association meeting The North Laurel Civic Association's general meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at the North Laurel Community Center, 9411 Whiskey Bottom Road. Information: 240-786-5747. Laurel exhibit "True Life: I'm a Laurel Mill Worker" is on view at the Laurel Museum, 817 Main St. The exhibit explores a different side of Laurel's history as a mill town and the community's early growth. Using an 1870s family to tell the story, it introduces visitors to the lives and experiences of the hundreds of men, women and children who worked in the town's cotton mills between the 1830s and 1929.  The exhibit includes artifacts, diaries, photos and a re-created mill worker's home.

There's a lot more to costume jewelry than your mother's old Monet circle pin. "Jewels of Fantasy: Costume Jewelry of the 20th Century," which opened at the Baltimore Museum of Art yesterday, is an eye-opening example of the extraordinary creativity craftsmen can bring to objects whose only function is to decorate and sparkle prettily.Costume jewelry is new to fashion history, only coming into its own in this century. The earliest pieces started as pretenders to royal jewels and heirlooms and were copies made to foil thieves.

Cristina F. Manelli, an Italian immigrant who designed and sewed clothes for clients, family and friends and later created a line of costume jewelry, died Wednesday of renal failure at St. Elizabeth Rehabilitation Center in Southwest Baltimore. The longtime Catonsville resident was 96. The daughter of a farmer and a homemaker, Cristina Flagelli was born and raised in Teramo, Italy, where she was trained as a seamstress and embroiderer. There, she met her future husband, Luigi "Gino" Manelli, an artist who had been born in Philadelphia to Italian immigrants.

Hemlines are plunging below the knee and fashion magazines are showing summer and fall dresses of feminine, flowing rayon crepes, with princess seams and button-down-the-front styling. Suits, meanwhile, are broad-shouldered, man-tailored and fitted. Platform shoes are making a comeback with a vengeance.Welcome to the retro look in fashion -- a nod to the '30s and '40s that started a couple of seasons ago with '40s tailored suits and berets and has this summer moved back another decade to embrace the romantic dresses and pajama-styled trousers that fashionable women wore in the '30s.

Pile it all on, or take it all off. When it comes to costume jewelry, those are the contradictory messages from, say, Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld of the more-is-more school and from Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein, who team up on the minimalist side.Taking it off is easy. Piling it on takes some doing. To wear three and four necklaces, three bracelets and a wristwatch all at once takes courage, says Camille Scifo, consultant to the costume jewelry industry."But if clothes are simply cut and come in just one or two colors -- not an exaggerated plaid or print -- an assemblage of jewelry will look chic and smart, even in an office situation," she adds.

I inherited my mother's collection of Godey prints. What can you tell me about them?Godey prints were the color fashion plates published in Godey's Lady's Book, which was actually a magazine published from 1830 through 1898. It merged in 1863 with Ladies Magazine, which was published by Sarah Josepha Hale.Hale, a remarkable woman who launched her magazine when she was 40 years old, continued as editor of Godey's until she was 90. She was responsible for having Thanksgiving declared a national holiday, and she was a leader in the fight for women's rights.

Several years ago, before the collectibles market became a feral beast, I worked at one of New York's leading auction houses. At that time, there was an almost small-town neighborhood feel to it all, and, like every small town, it had its characters.One of them was a truly eccentric, almost Dickensian woman who would scamper through the halls, heartily greeting most of the staff by name. I knew that her name was Miriam Haskell and was vaguely aware that she designed jewelry.Now her jewelry is an integral part of the tremendous boom in costume jewelry, her firm having produced pieces as baroque and sometimes surreal as she was.Her productions, many of which were designed by Frank Hess, William Markle or Robert F. Clark, could be fantasies incorporating any number of materials -- metals, wood, natural shells, simulated stones, plastic, rhinestones and glass.

Thank you for your portrayal of the recent downtown Baltimore sit-in ("'Occupy' protesters gather," Sept. 5). Reporter Peter Hermann 's account of a 53-year-old former real estate broker who quit her job to sell costume jewelry and now complains about not being able to afford "a bookkeeper" and a "web designer" brought home the degree of self-absorption, entitlement, neediness and sheer dweeb-iness of the assorted suburban PTA moms, tenured sociologists,...

Share your good news and events with the community. Contact Laurel Leader editorial assistant Pat Farmer, paf1@patuxent.com , or phone and fax 410-332-6653.   Monday Night Bingo — Sponsored by the Laurel Boys and Girls Club, resumes Mon., July 11, doors open 5:30 p.m., games 7 p.m., Phelps Center, 701 Montgomery St. To reward players' patience after missing two weeks for a water main break on Main Street and July 4 holiday, players receive free Bonanza package with chance to win guaranteed $500 prize.

LA BOUTIQUE DE MON AMIE 3748 Columbia Pike, Ellicott City / / Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday / / 410-465-3673; monamieboutique.com ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO, KIMBERLY KEPNES and Debbie Kehoe, two Ellicott City real estate agents, noticed a "For Rent" sign on a three-story stone building in the town's historic Tongue Row. Eyeing the great location, they jumped at the chance to lease the property. Then, Kepnes said, they asked themselves, "What are we going to sell?"

SAN FRANCISCO -- A year ago Jacqui Rogers, a retiree in southern Oregon who dabbles in vintage costume jewelry, went on eBay and bought 10 butterfly brooches made by Weiss, a well-known maker of high-quality costume jewelry in the 1950s and 1960s. At first, Rogers thought she had snagged a great deal. But when the jewelry arrived from a seller in Rhode Island, her well-trained eye told her that all of the pieces were knockoffs. Although Rogers received a refund after she confronted the seller, eBay refused to remove hundreds of listings for identical "Weiss" pieces.

Two afternoon armed robberies in the past week at Baltimore's Harborplace have put merchants on edge and prompted a heightened police presence at the city's premier tourist and shopping attraction. Detectives said yesterday that they are looking for one person in both cases - the holdup of a costume jewelry store Sept. 14 and a sunglasses stand Tuesday. Each time, clerks said, a man demanded money and lifted his shirt to display a handgun stuffed into his waistband. No arrests had been made as of yesterday.

Oh, Jackie -- she's still starting trends.After the frenzy of the April auction of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' estate, it's no surprise that the major accessories trend right now is Jackie O jewelry. Major costume jewelry designers who saw their pieces fetch astronomical prices are reissuing them, and they've got plenty of company.Kenneth Jay Lane, a friend of the former first lady who saw close to 50 pieces of his costume jewelry sell for four- to six-figure sums in the sale, is putting most of them back into production.

Thank you for your portrayal of the recent downtown Baltimore sit-in ("'Occupy' protesters gather," Sept. 5). Reporter Peter Hermann 's account of a 53-year-old former real estate broker who quit her job to sell costume jewelry and now complains about not being able to afford "a bookkeeper" and a "web designer" brought home the degree of self-absorption, entitlement, neediness and sheer dweeb-iness of the assorted suburban PTA moms, tenured sociologists,...

LA BOUTIQUE DE MON AMIE 3748 Columbia Pike, Ellicott City / / Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday / / 410-465-3673; monamieboutique.com ABOUT SIX MONTHS AGO, KIMBERLY KEPNES and Debbie Kehoe, two Ellicott City real estate agents, noticed a "For Rent" sign on a three-story stone building in the town's historic Tongue Row. Eyeing the great location, they jumped at the chance to lease the property. Then, Kepnes said, they asked themselves, "What are we going to sell?"