Do you know what an aigrette is? It is a jewel that serves to highlight the hair and face. That’s what the aigrette is, which is back in fashion ♦
If they ask you if you want to wear an aigrette, don’t blink as if you were asked to invent a new algorithm. Simply put, an aigrette is a feather-based piece of jewelry that adorns a tiara or is used as a hair clip. It went out of fashion from the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. It has now been reevaluated.
You should know, though, that aigrette is a French word that indicates a volatile, the egret, or white heron. The feathers of this bird have been used to compose these brooch from head for a long time, only to be supplanted by jewelry made only of metal and precious stones. Perhaps the most famous jewels of this type are the Aigrettes Cartier, become an essential part of the evening dresses provided by the famous couturier in London, House of Worth, which was all the rage in the early twentieth century. She wore one the actress Carey Mulligan during the shooting of the film The Great Gatsby, set in the twenties.
A very special example of aigrette is the peacock-shaped one of the Parisian jeweler Mellerio. The jewel belonged to Anita Delgado, the fifth Spanish wife of Kapurthala’s maharaja. The maharaja had purchased the aigrette before meeting his future wife, a flamenco dancer, and had given it to him during their civil wedding ceremony in Paris. The ornament is made of gold, diamonds and enamel.
This gem was also appreciated by men, but in the East. Aigrette, studded with diamonds and rubies, they decorated the turbans of the sultans in Istanbul. Many of these plumes are now on display in the halls of Topkapi Treasury. An aigrette was worn once even by senior officers of the French army. The most famous, however, is The Eye of the Tiger, diamond mounted by Cartier in an aigrette for the turban of Jam Sahib, Maharajah of Nawanagar, in 1934.
