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Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamonds Celebrate a Bond with Jeweler Lorraine Schwartz
Elizabeth Taylor’s decade-long friendship with Lorraine Schwartz shone again in the Elizabeth Taylor earrings and diamonds Kim Kardashian wore at Balenciaga, as Schwartz recalls her favorite memories and iconic jewels.
Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond earrings, now in the Lorraine Schwartz collection. (Photographed by Darrin Haddad)
In July, when Kim Kardashian slow-walked through the Balenciaga couture runway show in Paris wearing Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond chandelier earrings, people rapidly lost their minds over the historic jewels with the deeply romantic Hollywood love story. Taylor was the only other person to have ever worn the one-of-a-kind treasures in the limelight.
The jewels had not been seen at a high-profile event since being sold at the Oscar-winner’s landmark auction in December 2011 at Christie’s in New York. Few knew the jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz had them safely tucked away in a vault for the last 14 years.
Amidst the excitement surrounding Taylor’s vintage designs, just about everyone overlooked how the major Lorraine Schwartz diamond necklaces Kardashian paired with the Elizabeth Taylor earrings were also a tribute to the actress.
Meet the Expert
- Marion Fasel is an esteemed jewelry expert, author, curator, and trend forecaster.
- She is the founder and Editorial Director of The Adventurine online jewelry magazine.
- She is the author of several books, including The History of Diamond Engagement Rings: A True Romance
How Kim Kardashian Revived Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamond Earrings With the Help of Lorraine Schwartz
Balenciaga’s mononymic designer, Demna, came up with the idea to revive Taylor’s mid-20th-century Hollywood style for his final presentation with the House before heading to Gucci. When he cast Kardashian, his longtime friend, in the show, he certainly knew about her passion for the icon. Last year, the reality star put a punctuation point on her years-long fandom when she produced and appeared in the BBC documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar.
Demna dressed Kardashian in a satin-and-lace number similar in style to the knee-length slip Taylor wore throughout her most intense scenes opposite Paul Newman in the 1958 film Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
For the diamonds that clearly need to be part of any Elizabeth Taylor tribute, Demna turned to Lorraine Schwartz. She came through with 11 jaw-dropping looks, including the historic chandeliers. In an extravagant styling decision, Kardashian and Schwartz paired the earrings with two necklaces set with over 200 carats of diamonds, that were made for the occasion in Taylor’s honor.
Lorraine Schwartz Pays Homage to the Taylor-Burton Diamond
“I wanted to do a Taylor-Burton Diamond-inspired necklace, but make it different from the original. So, I set it with a 30-carat oval diamond,” Schwartz explained. “For the choker, I put diamonds around the two pear shapes in the front in order to reference the way the pears are set in the earrings. I wanted to make something Elizabeth would be wearing if she were here today.”
I wanted to do a Taylor-Burton Diamond-inspired necklace, but make it different from the original. So, I set it with a 30-carat oval diamond.
Lorraine Schwartz and Elizabeth Taylor’s Flawless Friendship
Lorraine knows from where she speaks. Taylor and Schwartz became fast friends after meeting in 2001. At the time, Schwartz, who comes from a family of diamond experts, was at the dawn of her design career, which has made her almost as famous as her celebrity clientele. It was two years before she started bejeweling Beyoncé, a relationship that began when she made the earrings for her solo debut album Crazy in Love. The meeting with Taylor predates Schwartz’s status as the go-to engagement ring designer for high-profile couples. It happened before her work became a staple on the red carpet.
When Taylor and Schwartz first met, the New York–based jewelry designer visited the star at her home on 700 Nimes Road in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. “I sat with Elizabeth, which was really amazing, and she was so lovely,” Schwartz remembers.
“She bought diamond charm rings, bangles, hoops, and all this fun stuff that at the time nobody in the market was really doing in quite the same way.” The next morning, Taylor’s personal assistant, Tim Mendelson, asked Schwartz if she could come back to the house. “Elizabeth wanted to get some gifts for the people she was working with on her White Diamonds fragrance at Elizabeth Arden,” Schwartz says. “She was very generous with everyone around her.”
A couple of months later, Taylor tapped into Schwartz’s elevated expertise in diamonds. She purchased a ring set with a 27.42-carat fancy intense yellow diamond. On the first night of the 2011 Christie’s auction, aptly named “The Legendary Jewels,” the ring sold for $2,098,500, more than doubling the high estimate of $700,000.
A Diamond Bracelet Comes Full Circle
It didn’t take long for Taylor and Schwartz to start regularly getting together for all kinds of occasions, including holidays and birthdays. For Taylor’s 75th birthday party, Schwartz wore the rose-cut diamond and platinum fringe bracelet on these pages that inspired one of her most lively jewelry moments with the star.
“She took it from me, put it on, and went around the room saying to people, ‘Who is going to buy me this bracelet?’” Schwartz explained. “No one did, and at the end of the night, she gave it back to me. The next morning, she called me at 8:00 a.m. and said, ‘Lorraine, I know who’s going to buy me that bracelet. I’m going to buy myself that bracelet!”
When the bracelet came up on the second day of Taylor’s jewelry auction at Christie’s, Lorraine didn’t have plans to buy it, but she changed her mind as the bidding began and she thought back on the story.
How Lorraine Schwartz Purchased Elizabeth Taylor’s Iconic Chandelier Earrings
She was also thinking of Taylor when she bought the chandelier earrings. “Elizabeth really loved those earrings,” Lorraine explained. “Almost every time we got together, it was a three-hour session of talking about jewelry. The story of receiving those earrings was one of her favorites.”
It began when Taylor was in Paris with her third husband, movie producer Mike Todd. The couple was staying at The Ritz when they took a stroll down the arcade near the Place Vendôme, where she spotted a pair of costume chandelier earrings in a shop window and went in to try them on.
Despite the fact that they were faux, the diamond loving Taylor wanted the jewels, and she wanted them badly. According to her biography, My Love Affair With Jewelry, her exact words were, “Mike! Oh God, oh Mike, couldn’t I please, please, please? I can’t go home without them.” Needless to say, he bought them for her, but he clearly felt they were not up to her glamorous standards.
At the auction, I literally felt her kicking me and saying, ‘Oh, just buy them.’ Next thing you know, I was bidding and I bought them.
One day in 1957, when the couple was in New York, Taylor put on the jewels and thought they felt different.At that moment, he revealed that he had transformed her beloved costume jewelry into diamonds and platinum. While Todd knew his way to Cartier among other fine jewelers, his source for recreating the diamond chandelier earrings has remained a mystery. No one has ever come forward to claim the work.
“She wore those earrings all the time after she received them,” recalls Schwartz. “Even later in life, she would put those earrings on. At the auction, I literally felt her kicking me and saying, ‘Oh, just buy them.’ Next thing you know, I was bidding and I bought them. I am thrilled to have the jewels as a special remembrance of her. At the Balenciaga show, I could also really feel her smiling and saying, “Oh, my God, I love that those earrings are on Kim.”
