Heritage

Westwood Heritage: A History of Charms

21/03/2025 — Vivienne Westwood

Charms have existed throughout history, as symbols of personal adornment. Beyond their aesthetic value, they possess a deeper significance, connecting memory and sentiment to jewellery. During Vivienne’s youth, around the 1940s and 50s, charms were often worn by Hollywood stars, or gifted by young suitors, as tokens of affection. They were also collected when travelling abroad, becoming classic tourist gifts, before being added to bracelets as keepsakes. Earlier examples of their popularity involve Queen Victoria’s influence, as she would regularly wear charm bracelets, personalised with initials, or even the cross of Christ. This contributed to their popularity among European noble classes during the 19th century, who would often wear jewellery with good luck amulets – an idea with doubtless appeal to Vivienne.

For Vivienne, charms were a way of honouring the past. Her own designs would go on to revive signature house motifs, with an early example found in the archive Anglomania necklace, from the Autumn-Winter 1993/94 collection, Anglomania. The piece magnified a traditional charm bracelet, designed to be worn as a necklace. Hung with classic Westwood emblems, charms featured dressmaking scissors, as an ode to craftmanship; a gilded Rococo frame, following Vivienne’s reverence for art history; a dancing satyr; in celebration of human sexuality, as depicted through Greek mythology; a classic corset, as Vivienne was among the first to subvert the traditional garment and introduce underwear as outerwear; and a fig leaf, which was famously appliquéd onto flesh-coloured tights, for the Autumn-Winter 1989/90 collection, Voyage to Cythera – challenging the prudishness of 19th century attitudes to nudity.

The precious, and often nostalgic, nature of charms has made them timeless. Appearing on bracelets, necklaces or even adorning accessory pieces, their value is ever-present. Recent iterations featured in our Autumn-Winter 2024/25 jewellery collection, notably with the release of the Anglo Pearl necklace, which offered a row of opulent pearls, with charms evoking themes of romance, glamour or rebellion – central to the house's history. For Spring-Summer 2025, we also launched the Charm Frame Purse - complete with an intricately crafted garland design. Offered in silver and gold colourways, the charm adornments include the archive Teddy Bear motif, originally printed on corsets for the Spring-Summer 1988 ‘Britain Must Go Pagan’ collection; a detailed frame charm, inspired by historical picture frames, first introduced as a print in the Spring-Summer 1989 Civilzade collection; or a dog clip, lending a punk edge to the feminine style. There are also symbols of freedom, good fortune and independence, alongside classics such as a horseshoe, finished with the signature house orb, taking tradition into the future.