Stephen Webster Crystal Haze

Iconic British jeweler Stephen Webster MBE shook everything up when he introduced his Crystal Haze rings in 1995.

The jewelry landscape was almost barren during the 1990s. Fashion dictated minimalism, and stars treading the red carpet wore Armani gowns in earth tones with very few sparkling accessories. Elsa Peretti’s little diamond solitaire necklace for Tiffany & Co. was in vogue. And the gold Cartier Panthère watch was the only item many female stars wore.

The seismic shift was sparked in 2000 when Madonna attended a party for the premiere of her movie The Next Best Thing wearing the Crystal Haze ring. She had purchased it directly from Webster, to whom she’d been introduced by a friend. Pictures of the star singer’s outing popped up seemingly everywhere — on her index finger, Webster’s Crystal Haze ring was so much bigger and bolder than the styles most celebrities were wearing at the time. The press coverage snowballed in the months and years to come as other celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Pink, were spotted in the now-immediately recognizable jewel.

This massive success came to Webster when he was in his 30s, not long after he launched his label, in 1989, but the design was the culmination of a lifetime of experience. At the tender age of 16, Webster found his calling when he toured Medway College of Design in Rochester, England, with a career counselor. He was immediately attracted to the jewelry department, which was “noisy, slightly grubby and lit with orangey, naked flames.” After graduating, he worked for a few years as a bench jeweler in London and the resort town of Banff, in Alberta, Canada, finally settling in Santa Barbara, California.

The luxurious, laid-back style of the city, nicknamed the American Riviera, opened Webster’s eyes to the possibility of a kind of jewelry different from the traditional designs that defined the field in England. He began working with semiprecious stones, an integral element of the Crystal Haze line. The Santa Barbara community embraced the colors and was open to lesser-known gems in fine jewelry, such as apple-green chrysoprase, lavender chalcedony and Peruvian pink opal.

The idea for the Crystal Haze ring came to Webster when he was having lapidaries in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, cut rock crystal into special shapes for big brooches. He wanted to create statement jewels in which two gems cut into a narrow arc would curve over the finger in a gold ring. The contour and connecting of the stones required a couple of years of development, some innovative thinking and plenty of expertise.

Today, Webster’s stores dot the globe, and he has a long list of illustrious collectors. The many lines he has produced over the years — from Vertigo and Dynamite to Fly By Night and Jewels Verne — display the same qualities that characterize Crystal Haze: bold, edgy designs, beautifully manufactured.

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Gold is the feel-good metal, the serotonin of jewelry. Wear vintage and antique gold necklaces, watches, gold bracelets or gold rings and you feel happy, you feel dressed, you feel, well, yourself. 

Gold, especially yellow gold, with its rich patina and ancient pedigree going back thousands of years, is the steady standby, the well-mannered metal of choice. Any discussion of this lustrous metal comes down to a basic truth: Gold is elementary, my dear. Gold jewelry that couples the mystique of the metal with superb design and craftsmanship achieves the status of an enduring classic. Many luxury houses have given us some of our most treasured and lasting examples of gold jewelry over the years.

Since its founding, in 1837, Tiffany & Co. has built its reputation on its company jewelry as well as its coterie of boutique designers, which has included Jean Schlumberger, Donald Claflin, Angela Cummings and Elsa Peretti. There are numerous gold Tiffany classics worth citing. Some are accented with gemstones, but all stand out for their design and the workmanship displayed.

For the woman who prefers a minimalist look, the Tiffany & Co. twist bangle (thin, slightly ovoid) is stylishly simple. For Cummings devotees, signature pieces feature hard stone inlay, such as her pairs of gold ear clips inlaid with black jade (a play on the classic Chanel black and tan), or bangles whose design recalls ocean waves, with undulating lines of lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl. And just about any design by the great Jean Schlumberger is by definition a classic.

Even had he eschewed stones and diamonds, Southern-born David Webb would be hailed for the vast arsenal of heavy gold jewelry he designed. Gold, usually hammered or textured in some manner, defines great David Webb jewelry. The self-taught jeweler made very au courant pieces while drawing inspiration from ancient and out-of-the-way sources — East meets West in the commanding gold necklaces made by Webb in the early 1970s. The same could be said for his endlessly varied gold cuffs.

In Europe, many houses have given us gold jewelry that sets the highest standard for excellence, pieces that were highly sought after when they were made and continue to be so. 

Numerous designs from Cartier are homages to gold. There are the classic Trinity rings, necklaces and bracelets — trifectas of yellow, white and rose gold. As a testament to the power of love, consider the endurance of the Cartier Love bracelet.

Aldo Cipullo, Cartier’s top in-house designer from the late 1960s into the early ’70s, made history in 1969 with the Love bracelet. Cipullo frequently said that the Love bracelet was born of a sleepless night contemplating a love affair gone wrong and his realization that “the only remnants he possessed of the romance were memories.” He distilled the urge to keep a loved one close into a slim 18-karat gold bangle. 

BVLGARI and its coin jewelry, gemme nummarie, hit the jackpot when the line launched in the 1960s. The line has been perennially popular. BVLGARI coin jewelry features ancient Greek and Roman coins embedded in striking gold mounts, usually hung on thick link necklaces of varying lengths. In the 1970s, BVLGARI introduced the Tubogas line, most often made in yellow gold. The Tubogas watches are classics, and then there is the Serpenti, the house's outstanding snake-themed watches and bracelets.

A collection called Monete that incorporated the gold coins is one of several iconic BVLGARI lines that debuted in the 1970s and ’80s, catering to a new generation of empowered women. Just as designers like Halston and Yves Saint Laurent were popularizing fuss-free ready-to-wear fashion for women on the go, BVLGARI offered jewels to be lived in. 

Since Van Cleef & Arpels opened its Place Vendôme doors in 1906, collection after collection of jewelry classics have enchanted the public. As predominantly expressed in a honeycomb of gold, there is the Ludo watch and accessories, circa the 1920s, and the golden Zip necklace, 1951, whose ingenious transformation of the traditional zipper was originally proposed by the Duchess of Windsor. Van Cleef's Alhambra, with its Moroccan motif, was introduced in 1968 and from the start its popularity pivoted on royalty and celebrity status. It remains one of VCA’s most popular and collected styles.

Mention must be made of Buccellati, whose name is synonymous with gold so finely spun that it suggests tapestry. The house’s many gold bracelets, typically embellished with a few or many diamonds, signified taste and distinction and are always in favor on the secondary market. Other important mid-20th-century houses known for their gold-themed jewelry include Hermès and Ilias Lalaounis.

Find a stunning collection of vintage and antique gold jewelry on 1stDibs.