Sterling Silver RLM Studio Modernist Bracelet

This bracelet is nearly the opposite to the one (possibly) sitting next to it. It may’ve been sold already or I shuffled things around. I do that. I shuffle things around. Why? Sometimes I get bored looking at things together. I move stuff around my house. Except the living room. I have this purple velvet couch (I’m an adult, I can do this) that’s dedicated to Prince. I want to move it around, but I can’t. It’s very heavy but it really works in that space. And because it does, that makes it difficult to move it somewhere else. So maybe that’s the reason I shuffle things around in the store? I don’t know.

Anyway, this bracelet had/had an analogue. It’s convex as opposed to this one that’s more concave. Because it’s convex, it kinda puffy while this one is flattened -- but concave. As you probably already know, this style is called “modernist”. It’s all the stuff we decided to do stylistically after WWII. Some claim it was because of the shock to the senses that was “the entire planet embroiled in a war”, many designers opted for an art without a history. As histories can be messy things. You can see the roots of it in Western art from about the 1850s with a rejection of realism. Then you can see it more with the impressionists. Is was the bridge. You get a small resurgence with Art Nouveau (a bit), but then it breaks away when the Dadaists show up. Then we had Picasso and other cubists doing their interpretation of African styles. Then the Art Deco folks hit the scene with their rejection of all the old stuff. Around the same time we had the Bauhaus movement with its emphasis on simplicity. Then we have the Brutalist movement that at its core embraced expression and abstract shapes. This is the world we built.

So, by the ‘50s, you have this wave of modernist artists making jewelry in places like Mexico (Pineda) and Denmark (Jensen). It died off in favor of other styles in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In fact, Art Nouveau made somewhat of a comeback. Take a look at those psychedelic posters. Much of the artwork was cribbed from old Art Nouveau work (the ½ nudes and the plants, etc). Alright, so when did it come back? The ‘80s saw a resurgence of modernist clothing and styles that has yet to subside. The Gap, Madewell, JCrew, Ralph Lauren, and others make a staple of blouses, shirts, and pants in the modernist silhouette. What does this mean to you? It means you can wear this with anything. Yes, I could’ve said that. But I wanted to take you on a journey so you grasp that I’m not saying it because it’s cute. I’m saying it because it’s true. You need these in your repertoire because your closet is probably filled with modernist clothing. And accessories like these complement them well because modernism is here to stay. Tada!