“Sobriété, Chic, Discrétion”: Promoting Modern Jewelry and Accessories in Adam: La revue de l’homme, 1925-1940

Abstract

This paper discusses the promotion of modern jewelry and accessories in interwar France using the men’s fashion magazine Adam: la revue de l’homme as a case study. It focuses on a number of the magazine’s features on jewelry and accessories from the period 1925-40 in order to demonstrate how its mission to become “the magazine of the rue de la Paix” encompassed the promotion of jewelry and accessories. Recognizing that jewelry and accessories is an under-researched area, particularly in relation to studies of men’s formal attire of the period, this essay provides evidence of the seriousness with which the style commentators of Adam, complemented by its editorial decisions and advertisers’ contributions, were prepared to lend to the subject. Ultimately, the paper argues that a consideration of modern jewelry and accessories in the context of a relatively conservative men’s fashion magazine can help to further our understanding of the role played by modern objects of personal adornment in the interwar period.

Keywords:

• jewelry
• accessories
• Adam magazine
• men’s fashion
• interwar France

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

Notes

1 The first edition of Adam: Revue des modes masculines was published in Paris on 15 December 1925. Its founder was Edmond J. Dubois. By November 1926 its subtitle had changed to la revue de l’homme. In 1940 the magazine merged with the equestrian publication L’Éperon. Post-war, Adam reappeared in its own right in May 1945. From July 1966 to 1969, it was re-named Le nouvel Adam, ceasing publication in 1973.

2 Cristina Giorcelli charts the evolution of thinking about the accessory from its consideration as a “secondary” item in dress to that of representing “the quintessence of market forces” in modern fashion as well as that of a signifier of social class, status, religion and individual identity. She points out that men’s accessorizing, though limited within the context of a formal “uniform” in dress, nevertheless allowed for “a hint of individual character” (Giorcelli 2011, 4).

3 The wristwatch for men was not popularized until the late nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. However, women had been wearing them since the early part of the nineteenth century.

4 The inability of some men to re-enter the civilian world with a sense of purpose undiminished by these experiences is perhaps encapsulated in the fate of Frederic in Colette’s 1926 novel La fin de Chérie [The Last Of Chérie]. The protagonist, energies profoundly diminished by war service, cannot recapture the vigor of his youth and his pre-war lover has changed almost beyond recognition. Tellingly, he finds his pre-war enthusiasm for impeccable sartorial elegance impossible to rekindle.

5 A full discussion of the significance of Charlotte Perriand’s famous ball-bearings necklace can be found in Bliss (2013). “Charlotte Perriand, Ball-Bearings and Modernist Jewelry.” Modernism/modernity 20:169–188.

6 Fonderie Deberney et Peignot, played a major role in developing modern type faces in the interwar years (e.g. Europe, Bifur, Acier) as well as popularizing modernist graphic design through their self-published interwar magazines Divertissements typographiques and Arts et métiers graphiques.

7 Interestingly, and certainly entertainingly, Movado illustrates a contemporary Ermeto watch belonging to Pope Pius XI (decorated with his Papal coat of arms) in an advertisement in Adam for December 1929. Below the illustration is the legend “the Ermeto watch is the loveliest Christmas present…the watch for Sovereigns and everyone else” (“Le noël Ermeto” 1929, np).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simon Bliss

Simon Bliss is the author of a number of articles on modern silver, jewelry and accessories of the interwar period. His monograph “Jewellery in the Age of Modernism 1918-1940” is published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts as part of the Material Culture of Art and Design (MCAD) series. [email protected]