Victoria

This brooch preserves the memory of an object at once utilitarian and ornamental: the châtelaine.

A jewel, a belt accessory, at times suspended from a bag or scarf according to the shifts of fashion, the châtelaine is among the most singular objects in the history of costume. Particularly fashionable in the 18th and 19th centuries, it brought together, in a single ensemble, small objects connected by chains and intended for the necessities of daily life.

Yet its function was never limited to use alone. Each châtelaine could be composed and personalised, turning this assemblage into a visible sign of belonging, distinction and authority. As a receptacle of its owner’s social rank, it both expressed hierarchy and adorned it.

To wear a châtelaine was therefore to claim a form of power: that exercised within the household or at court, according to the rank of the woman who wore it. The great artisans of the period were regularly commissioned to create original and sumptuous versions, equal to its social as well as decorative function. Here, it takes the form of a Vanitas, or Memento Mori — the Latin expression meaning “remember that you must die” — inviting us to meditate on our own mortality.

What once belonged to a reflection on Life and Death now meets the skin.
Victoria is an Elevation jewel.