Browse a vast assortment of retro lanvin earrings for sale on 1stDibs. Frequently made of
mixed metal,
gilt metal and
gold, these items were constructed with great care. Our inventory is broad and distinctive, with accessories on offer that were made as long ago as the 20th Century to those produced as recently as the 20th Century.
modern and
Romantic are consistently popular styles when it comes to retro lanvin earrings. Many examples in our inventory of these items are appealing no matter their origins, but
Maison Gripoix,
Dominique Aureintis and
Dominique Aurientis produced popular versions that are worth a look. If you’re browsing the variety of retro lanvin earrings for sale, you’ll find that many are available today for
women, but there are still pieces to choose from for
men.
The career of Jeanne Lanvin (1867–1946) and her eponymous brand began with a millinery apprenticeship in the late 19th century. Today, Lanvin Paris is a globally revered company and is among the oldest French fashion houses still in existence. It is renowned for its exquisite and sought-after vintage evening dresses, shoes, skirts and other garments and accessories and for having dressed such high-profile celebrities as Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Kim Kardashian and Sienna Miller.
In 1889, when her apprenticeship came to an end, the young French designer Jeanne Lanvin opened a custom hat shop on the rue Boissy d’Anglas in Paris. Four years later, she moved her business into a much more prominent space on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, one of the world’s most famous luxury fashion districts.
The new Maison Lanvin was big enough to display the pieces she would design for her daughter, Marguerite, who was born in 1897. The relationship between Lanvin and her daughter would be at the core of the brand, with a 1907 photograph of Jeanne and Marguerite in matching outfits inspiring the fashion house’s enduring logo.
In 1908, Lanvin launched a line of children’s clothing, one of the first such moves in high-end fashion. When mothers came in to buy the clothes, they often asked for similar designs for themselves.
Lanvin decided to introduce a women’s wear line with pieces that had a youthful femininity. This would grow to encompass everyday clothing, dresses, coats, lingerie and furs, as well as menswear, perfume and household items. Once she became a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture (Parisian Fashion Council) in 1909, her title officially switched from milliner to designer.
Along with her stylish designs, Lanvin identified the importance of brand identity through fabric colors, opening a dye factory in Nanterre, France. There the distinctive “Lanvin blue” was produced, so even if her designs were copied, the colors could never be exactly reproduced.
After Jeanne Lanvin's death, her daughter, Marguerite Marie-Blanche de Polignac, took over and a series of talented artistic directors would propel the brand through the trends of the 20th century, including Jules François Crahay, Dominique Morlotti, Alber Elbaz and, most recently, Bruno Sialelli. In 2018, Lanvin was acquired by the Fosun Fashion Group, which is now focused on celebrating Lanvin’s heritage while pushing it into a new chapter.
Find vintage Lanvin Paris clothing and accessories on 1stDibs.
In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.
Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.
Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.
While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.