Why Don't We Wear Dress Clips Like Carole Lombard?
Among Hollywood's most fashionable women, the legendary actress wore this type of jewelry like no one else — including a pair given to her by Clark Gable.
We don't talk about Carole Lombard's style nearly enough. At the height of her too-brief career, celebrated equally for her work in screwball comedies like 1936's My Man Godfrey (in which she co-starred with first husband William Powell) and later romances like 1939's In Name Only with Cary Grant, Lombard also was considered one of Hollywood's most fashionable women, looking effortlessly chic no matter whether she was wearing a bias-cut gown in a 1930s George Hurrell portrait or she was dressed for outdoor sports with second husband Clark Gable. And often in the former scenario, Lombard could be seen wearing a key accessory of the 1930s and early '40s: dress clips.
Typically sold in pairs, jeweled clips rose to prominence in the 1920s at the height of the Art Deco movement in fashion and decorative arts, appreciated both for their versatility and their instant ability to add sparkle to an ensemble. Dress clips, as their name implies, were backed by a clip rather than a pin, which often offered the advantage of enabling the clips to be joined together and worn as a single piece, but also may have limited how they could be affixed to a garment — unless you were born with innate style and a sense of fun with fashion. Lombard undeniably fit that description, and it's easy to envision her enjoyment as she switched up how she wore her favorite pair of dress clips (more on that detail in a moment).
A deep dive into Lombard images from the 1930s into the early 1940s indeed illustrate Lombard's talent for making the most of her dress clips: paired together on the lapel of a silk robe, a single clip used to close a wrapped neckline (as seen in the top still photo from Mr. and Mrs. Smith), adorning the straps of an evening gown, to add a splash of sparkle on a deep open back, or perhaps to accent a hat. It's also pretty delightful to discover that the actress often was wearing her personal jewels in these moments; that's true of one set of dress clips in particular.
Founded in Paris in 1896, Van Cleef & Arpels continues to be celebrated for its Art Deco jewelry motifs, most often crafted of diamonds set in 18-karat white gold and accented with rubies, sapphires or emeralds, perhaps with a splash of onyx or black enamel work for further definition in a design. The jewelry house also became known for its mystery setting, a proprietary technique that allows the stones to sit closely together on a surface with no visible metal-prong settings. Introduced to the house's designs in 1933 and patented in 1934, Mystery Set, as it's known today, remains popular in Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, particularly in its high-jewelry designs, the designation for the one-of-a-kind pieces released once or twice yearly by jewelry houses and in large demand by private clients.
Marlene Dietrich also was a Van Cleef & Arpels fan and famously owned one of the jeweler's cuffs, crafted of diamonds and mystery-set rubies and which can be seen on Dietrich's wrist in 1950's Stage Fright. But more than a decade before, Lombard turned up on an important red carpet wearing a pair of Van Cleef & Arpels dress clips: It was December 15, 1939, and Lombard had accompanied then-husband Clark Gable to the Atlanta premiere of Gone With the Wind. They had been married for less than nine months at that point, and as the story goes, for Lombard's October 6 birthday that year, Gable gave her a gift of jewelry: Van Cleef & Arpels' Skyrocket clips, crafted of round brilliant and baguette-cut white diamonds that surround rubies that have been mystery-set in a fan shape, all set in 18-karat white gold.
It's not difficult to imagine that Lombard loved this particular present from her husband, also because she often was photographed wearing them, starting with that Gone With the Wind premiere, where she's seen wearing the clips at the neck of a the hooded silk coat she wore over her gown. That the Skyrocket clips also made an appearance in Mr. & Mrs. Smith was indeed somewhat unusual, given that the costume jewels designed by Joseff of Hollywood vastly dominated the sparkle seen onscreen during Hollywood's golden age.
Dress clips fell out of favor beginning in the 1950s, when single brooches overtook the style as a preferred jewelry accessory. This idea also seems to coincide with the more structured approach to women's fashion that became prominent in the post-World War II years, when a brooch with a pin fastener seemed like a more practical way to affix a bit of sparkle to the shoulder or the waist. Dress clips were easy to attach to the neckline, open back or other spots to create gathering or a moment of interest on a bias-cut gown, but brooches may have been a more practical option on a ballgown or a structured dress fitted to a woman's body. (Of course, Lombard also was ahead of her time in that respect, as one of her most memorable costumes is seen in 1942's To Be or Not to Be, when she wears an Irene gown featuring a clever asymmetrical halter necklace, with a brooch artfully placed at her waist.)
Lombard fans are grateful for this final glimpse at her flawless onscreen style and how she may have personalized it. A little more than a month before the February 19, 1942 premiere of To Be or Not to Be, Lombard was killed in an airplane that crashed roughly 33 miles southwest of Las Vegas on January 16, 1942. She had been on a war bond tour — raising $2 million for the war effort in a single evening, it was reported — through cities that included Chicago and Indianapolis, and she was anxious to get home to Gable, so she chose a plane vs. the slower train. Lombard, her mother, press agent Otto Winkler, and 15 U.S. soldiers were all killed in the crash, the cause of which was determined to be the pilot's inability to navigate nearby mountains after take-off in Las Vegas.
Gable naturally was devastated and visited the crash site soon after. Seven months later, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force, enlisting as a private in Los Angeles before attending Officers' Candidate School in Miami Beach. He later attended aerial gunnery school and, upon personal orders from Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, traveled to England to make a film about aerial gunners in action. Gable took part in combat missions and remained in active duty until 1944, when he transferred to Army Air Force reserve status.
From Lombard's death until Gable's own in 1960, it was said he carried a remembrance of her at all times: a locket, which contained a lock of her hair — and a piece of one of the Skyrocket dress clips, which she reportedly had been wearing on the plane. The locket has never been seen since Gable's death, leading to speculation that his fifth and final wife, Kay Spreckles, was kind enough to know he would want to be buried with it. Gable was laid to rest next to Lombard at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Tributes began pouring in from the moment Lombard's death was announced, focused not only on her bright, lively personality, but also on her fantastic style. The Los Angeles Times included a quote from costume designer Travis Banton in its obituary of the actress: "You could throw a bolt of material at Carole and whichever way it landed, she looked smart." In the same story, Errol Flynn is quoted as noting that “Carole Lombard’s tragic death means that something of gaiety and of beauty have been taken from the world at a time they are needed most.” James Cagney said, “Carole Lombard died doing her job for her country. Every one of us is proud of her, though saddened by her passing.”
On January 20, 1942, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran a full-page portrait of a photograph taken just days before in the newspaper's studio, which Lombard visited while in the city the week before. The paper's editors noted they were reproducing the image as a full page "as a tribute to a fine actress and an American patriot." In the photo, Lombard is wearing her Skyrocket dress clips.
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