With its exclusive London boutiques, the family-run business of Fior was, for decades, the number-one address for costume jewellery and luxury accessories of the highest order. Apart from stars of the stage and screen, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly, the international jet-set also numbered among its customers, as did members of several European royal families.

Lawrence Feldman started collecting for the Fior Collection as early as the 1950s, by setting aside some of the most dazzling items from each season’s collection in his range of jewellery. Most of the objects in this unique collection, which stem from leading international manufacturers such as Trifari, Marcel Boucher and Louis Rousselet, are remarkable for displaying a great proximity in style and craftsmanship to ‘real’ jewellery of gold, silver, and gemstones.  Particularly noteworthy in this regard are the ensembles produced by the German Pforzheim-based company Henkel & Grosse and Mitchel Maer of London, created exclusively for the French couturier Christian Dior and which rank among the finest and most elaborate costume jewellery articles ever made. The Fior Collection of London frequently features manifold sets which impressively demonstrate the different design varieties for necklace, bracelet, brooch and clip earrings.

In the exhibition the approximately 290 selected jewellery items on display are accompanied by some 120 original fashion photographs from the Lipperheide Costume Library, which depict the fashion trends of each decade from 1950 to 1990.

For more information, please visit Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Image: brooch Kenneth Jay Lane (U.S.), circa 1965 metal, gold-plated and rhodium-coated, faceted glass stones and cabochons, faux coral, 9.5 x 7 cm. © National Museums in Berlin, photo: Martin Gosewisch