For all the dresses, diamonds, and dramatic water-taxi entrances that define the collective image of Venice Film Festival, one of Kendall Jenner’s most special accessories this week was a true “if you know you know” moment.
While in Venice for her first-ever turn on the storied Lido, Jenner stepped out in a smoke-gray, bell-sleeved, silky and sheer Vivienne Westwood dress, a woven Maison Ola basket bag, vintage Manolos (from her go-to, The Vintage Marché), and a pair of abstract silver earrings. To the uninitiated eye, they were simply an elegant, slightly off-kilter addition to the look, fitting into Jenner’s pared back, The Row-forward aesthetic. But they are, truly, miniature works of art: a pair of Alexander Calder earrings dating to 1955, made from hammered silver and steel wire.
Photo: Instagram (@kendalljenner)
And they weren’t pulled from the archive of a major jewelry house; they came from Louisa Guinness, the London-based gallerist who has spent decades collecting, commissioning, and dealing in jewelry made by artists, from Calder and Man Ray to Niki De Saint Phalle and Anish Kapoor.
The request reached Guinness through the Calder Foundation, a trail that weaved through the foundation, a New York collector, and Jenner’s stylist Dani Michelle, eventually landing at her gallery. “Her stylist said, ‘We’re looking for some Calder earrings.’ And so I sent her a small selection,” Guinness tells Vogue.
Calder earrings are particularly scarce, Guinness says, even within a body of jewelry that has become highly collectible in its own right. “I don’t have so many earrings left. Earrings are quite rare and rings are rare,” she says. The pair Jenner wore were especially difficult for Guinness to relinquish. “I love those earrings, they were hard to let go of!” And compared with some of Calder’s more imposing, sculptural pieces, “they’re very easy to wear… so they’re perfect, and particularly perfect for Kendall’s sense of style.” Jenner is also a known art collector, with a collection that includes a James Turrell sculpture, a neon light installation by Tracey Emin, and pieces by Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince, Raymond Pettibon, Lauren Greenfield, and Sterling Ruby.
American artist Calder is, of course, better known for the abstract mobiles that transformed modern sculpture, as well as his playful Circus, assembled from wire, cardboard, buttons, cork, and other everyday materials. Jewelry, however, was hardly a footnote to his practice. His first pieces were made for his sister’s dolls, and by 1929 his jewelry was already being exhibited in galleries. Over the decades that followed, Calder returned again and again to wearable objects, working largely in relatively humble materials like brass and silver wire and occasionally making pieces spontaneously for friends.
