Behind the Cartier Love Bracelet

The Cartier LOVE bracelet is an iconic staple today, but you might not know the story behind the most sought after piece of jewelry. In 1970, Cartier designer Aldo Cipullo partnered with Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon Cosmetics, to create a special edition LOVE bracelet. This early version was 18K gold plated while today's bracelets are solid gold. The company gifted bracelets to famous couples of the time like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, creating an early celebrity culture around the LOVE bracelet.

After Jillian and I decided we wanted to start offering the LOVE bracelet from the 1970's in our Vintage Designer Jewelry collection, we began the task of tracking down a few styles from estates and refurbishing them. These pretties photographed above sold fast, but we are busy finding more!

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Sweet & Spark Vintage Designer Jewelry

How to Authenticate Vintage Chanel Jewelry

When buying Chanel from a consignment shop or vintage store, there are a few details you can spot to make sure the jewelry piece you are looking at is authentic. After sifting through many estates for my personal collection and talking with shop owners who handle vintage Chanel often it is pretty easy for me to spot a fake immediately, but at first it can be intimidating. First thing I look at is the overall quality and feel, pieces from the 1980s through the 1990s are all gold plated, sometimes featuring faux pearl accents. They have a pretty substantial weight to them, and even if they are authentic I double check to make sure the gold plating has not chipped off anywhere as this significantly decreases the value. 

The second thing I look for is the Chanel stamp on the back, usually inside an oval shape. Jewelry made between 1986 and 1989 were stamped with "CHANEL" and "Made in France" while pieces after this time frame are also stamped with the season and year the collection was from. Seasonal letters like "P" stand for Printemps which means Spring or "A" for Automne which means Autumn or Fall in French. Chanel jewelry in the early 2000s began playing around with colorful plastic and resins, these styles are still stamped with the season and year. Not all jewelry styles feature the iconic double C logo front and center, so be sure to also look out for popular Chanel motifs like hearts, straw hats, clovers, quilted bags, perfume bottles and the camellia flower. Happy shopping!

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Sweet & Spark Vintage Designer Jewelry

Vintage Designer Jewelry

We have been overwhelmed from the success of our Vintage Designer Jewelry launch at Sweet & Spark, especially by all those fellow Chanel lovers out there! We are already busy hunting down more hidden gems to re-stock this special collection. I had so much fun working with Jillian to hand select each authentic piece, we saw so many beautiful estates and collections along the way. 

These were some of my favorite snaps I took from the launch this Spring, each piece is so gorgeous in person and has so much history to share. I'm thinking about creating a post about authenticating vintage Chanel jewelry, but in the meantime you can read my posts for Where to Buy Vintage Chanel, How to Buy Vintage Chanel, and where I like to shop for Vintage Chanel in New Orleans.

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Sweet & Spark Vintage Designer Jewelry

Where to Buy Vintage Chanel

As many of you know, I am an avid vintage Chanel collector. I have a weak spot for anything circa 1980's through 1990's when it comes to the brand's gold and bold jewelry. I always get asked by friends and followers where I like to shop for consignment Chanel, I even wrote a whole post about how to buy vintage Chanel which talks about how to validate authenticity or date an item. With all that in mind, I have to spill my new favorite place to shop the best, mint condition vintage Chanel jewels... Sweet & Spark! I've been working at Sweet & Spark this past year as creative director and I am thrilled to announce our newest venture into designer costume jewelry. We are in the early stages of curating a higher price point category, so for now we are posting new finds on our Instagram for first come, first buy customers. The two earrings photographed here sold after just two days! But we have more styles coming this Spring, so be sure to follow along and try to snag yourself a pair too.

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Keep a close eye on our Sweet & Spark Instagram for first dibs on rare vintage designer styles!

Vintage Glassware

I always take time to admire vintage glassware while shopping around antique malls. I would love to own a mix and match collection filled with pastel milk glass and depression glass plates, saucers and teacups one day, it all looks so dreamy together. I snapped these photos while on a recent road trip through Sacramento, I found the most amazing set of pink glass teacups! This vintage buying trip made it onto my list of Fall favorites among what I'm wearing and reading this season, see what else I'm loving as the lead stylist at Sweet & Spark and sign up for the newsletter for more snippets like this.