Why is the Duchess of Windsor still represents an icon of elegance today?

Barely divorced from an alcoholic and violent navy officer, Wallis Spencer, née Warfield, once again convenient with M.Simpson, an entrepreneur who installs the couple in Great Britain.It was there, in 1931, that she met Edouard, prince of Wales and heir to the crown.She is 35 years old, he 37.He fell madly in love with her, to the point of abdicating in December 1936, the Anglican church opposing a union between her monarch and a woman twice divorced.

A couple united by the love of jewelry

Having become Duchess of Windsor, but not Royal Highness, Wallis Maudira all her life Buckingham, who makes him well, prohibiting the couple from living on British soil.This does not prevent the time from consecrating the American man of the year 1936. Cette année-là, celui qui va officiellement devenir son mari en juin 1937 lui offre de superbes pièces signées Van Cleef & Arpels : un collier cravate en diamants et rubis composé d’une partie centrale en chute, un bracelet Jarretière en saphirs et diamants ou encore un bracelet en diamants et rubis au fermoir gravé Hold Tight (Tenir bon).She loves jewelry, he loves to cover it, what he will do until his death in 1972, often drawing the first sketches.

Always drawn to four pins and dressed by the great designers, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Saint-Laurent, Wallis Simpson knows how to take advantage of his assets, a wasp size, a pretty head port and a sparkling look atintelligence.Most often dressed in gloves, her hands are not what she has more delightful, but do not give it up an impressive engagement ring, an emerald of more than 19 carats bought from Cartier.The jeweler also provides a diamond bracelet on which will hang over the years eight cross in aigues-marine, emeralds, yellow sapphires, amethysts, each commemorating a memory of the couple.

The taste of spectacular and colorful adornments

Deprived of the official commitments of the Crown, the Duke and the Duchess of Windsor spend their lives in the Raouts which are given in their places of exile, between France, the Bermuda and the United States.Master in the worlds, the couple has the gift of coloring any evening.In the literal sense of the term since the Duchess of Windsor likes shimmering ornaments.Like this Cartier Cocktail Ring with burst and threaded gold bodies, coral cabochon circled with square emeralds or this flaming pink spindle with emerald emeralds, rubies and calibrated sapphires.Or this Calcédoine set ordered from Suzanne Belperron: two rows of flower -clasp balls in the heart of cabochons sapphires, pair of open bracelets and earrings with diamond ribs.

In June 1953, at the ball given to the orangery of the Palace of Versailles, the Duchess caused a sensation in Dior sheath and Cartier drapery necklace.The jewel brooding on the twisted gold 29 amethysts totaling 158.9 carats, one of which in the shape of a heart, 27 emerald size and, on the clasp, one of oval formatted shape.Supplied by the Duke, the purple quartz combine with two hundred turquoise cabochons, consolidating this new taste for fine stones.

The art of unpublished porters

Color lover, the Duchess of Windsor also appreciates symbolic jewelry.She will be one of the first women in good society to wear panthers.Until then, in fact, figurative jewelry is reserved for actresses or courtesans.The arrival of Jeanne Toussaint to the artistic direction of Cartier in 1933 changed the situation.Nicknamed "La Panther", the designer, who wears a tiger coat, has clearly identified Wallis's personality.When the Duke entrusts him with an imposing Cabochon of Emerald Oblong, she does not hesitate to style him with a panther showing the fangs, giving birth to a spindle that the duchess will wear on the belt.Place the feline as a metamorphosis of femininity flirts with the likely.

Especially since the following year, the Duchess buys a second panther spindle where the beast stands with pride on a cabochon sapphire of 152 carats, the body paved with calibrated sapphires and the look in diamonds jonquille prie.Pique low on the shoulder, the jewel confirms the character of its owner.

This character will lead her to bequeath her jewelry not to the crown, as tradition dictates, but at the Institut Pasteur.The latter will entrust the dispersion to Sotheby’s in a memorable sale, in April 1987, 95 lots reporting $ 33.5 million.Laurence Graff notably buys the Duchess engagement ring for $ 2.126 million and yellow diamond clips for $ 2.273 million.No one at the jeweler is unfortunately capable of saying what happened to these jewelry rich in history ...

To find on Vogue.FR: What secrets are hidden behind the jewelry that Lady Diana wore on her wedding day? Piaget unveils a collection of high jewelry in homage to the sun