January. Holiday credit card bills are beginning to roll in and you may be feeling as low as your bank account.
What you need is a wardrobe lift you can afford: a bright signature piece-something catchy but not too wacky. What you need is a new plastic bracelet.
Plastic? Well, there`s plastic and then there`s Bakelite, the plastic jewelry popular during the 1930s and early 1940s. Then, as now, the candy-colored, inventive designs of Bakelite jewelry are a bright spot in a dreary day. Just like the peppy Depression era songs (”Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, Start All Over Again”), a Bakelite bangle from Woolworth`s was like a courageous smile in the face of tough times.
Bakelite doesn`t pretend to be anything but plastic, and that boldness made it part of a Depression design movement that, for the first time, turned the heads of fashionable women away from fine jewelry. Coco Chanel often is credited with starting the trend in the late 1920s with what she called her
”frankly fake costume jewelry,” as she catered to the needs of patrons who no longer could afford the real thing.
But it was a Belgian-born chemist, Leo Baekeland, who in 1909 in his back-yard laboratory in Yonkers, N.Y., made it all possible by accidentally inventing the material that would grace the arms and necks of millions of American women.
Bakelite was welcomed as the ”material of a thousand uses,” and it was sawed, sliced, ground, drilled and carved into radio cases, telephone and auto parts, kitchenware, billiard balls, and finally, jewelry.
By 1936, American women couldn`t resist the look of Bakelite`s rich colors and flamboyant designs. That year 70 percent of all costume jewelry manufactured in the United States was made of Bakelite.
Sadly for Bakelite lovers, its heyday was over all too soon. World War II meant Bakelite went for more serious industrial uses, and by the time the war was over, the economy and technology had changed and Bakelite jewelry had become a thing of the past.
Today, you might find a Bakelite bangle in the bottom of your mother`s or grandmother`s jewelry box. You will surely find bangles, pins, necklaces and earrings at flea markets and vintage and collectibles stores.
At Chicago`s Flashy Trash store, owner Harold Mandel harbors one of the city`s largest collections of Bakelite jewelry.
Prices at Flashy Trash range from $8 to about $175. Of his higher-priced pieces, Mandel says, ”Things that are rare and wonderful are expensive, no matter what they`re made of.”
There is plenty of Bakelite in the lower price range, too; it was for good reason that Bakelite became so popular during the Depression. Fashion houses molded and carved it and decked it with rhinestones. English, French and German designers combined it with everything from chrome and brass to feathers.
But American dime and department stores stole the show with mix-and-match bangles of varying widths, fruit pins, geometric designs and amusing
”sports” jewelry. Mandel has pins in the shape of horses` heads, and if you comb vintage shops you might find a baseball bat, a tennis racket, a sailboat, a pirate, or a Scottie dog modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt`s pet, Fala.
If Bakelite`s whimsical style catches your fancy, and if you`re interested in some serious collecting, you should ease into it, suggests Marsha Evaskus, owner of Chicago`s Zigzag, a vintage store that features Bakelite jewelry and objects.
”Experience helps you develop a sense of value,” says Evaskus, acknowledged by many Chicago dealers as the ”Bakelite queen,” because of her vast collection.
Whether you`re ready to prowl out-of-the way shops as a potential collector or you`re just looking for one amusing piece to brighten a winter outfit, Bakelite jewelry is a fun way to let your personal style shine.
Where to buy
On model in red: necklace, $185, earrings, $25, and all bracelets-prices from $25 to $195, from Zigzag vintage store, 3419 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, 312-525-1060. On model in black: pendant necklace, $68, matching hinged bracelet with rhinestones, $235, matching carved bracelet, $185, matching pin, $185, and novelty pinwheel earrings, $28, all from Zigzag. Other pieces, clockwise, from lower left: constructed pin, $28, from Studio V, 672 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, 312-440-1937. Cherry cluster pin, $200, green carved pin, $60, and beaded brass/coral/onyx cuff bracelet, part of a set with necklace, $195, carved red pin, $85, pirate pin, $85, all from Studio V. Striped pin, $125, carved flower pin, $125, from Zigzag. Red/black fused pin, $98, from Studio V. Sweaters, $60 each, from Nordstrom.
