MTJ Style Icon: Elizabeth Taylor
Photo credit: @elizabethtaylor
She was all about drama, décolletage—and diamonds
No woman in modern history has evoked glitz and glamor more than Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. Considered one of the most beautiful women of all time with her violet eyes, raven hair, and hourglass figure, Taylor kept the world enraptured during her decades-long career. Fans were fascinated by her jet-setting lifestyle, dramatic love life that included eight marriages (two of them to Richard Burton), and lavish style reflected in her massive collection of over-the-top bling.
Taylor catapulted to stardom after her appearance in National Velvet (1944) at age thirteen. She went on to star in dozens of films including A Place in the Sun (1951), BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), nabbing Oscars for the latter two. During the filming of the scandal-ridden Cleopatra (1961) she began her passionate affair with Burton, who later bestowed her with the 33-carat Krupp diamond.
At events, decked in Valentino, Halston, or Dior, her porcelain skin was reliably covered in diamonds, emeralds, or rubies. With the exception of a delicate heart pendant given to her by husband-number-three, Mike Todd, and worn in both Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Taylor opted for flashy pieces: chandelier earrings, chunky brooches, thick bangles, and statement necklaces that complemented her plunging necklines.
The outfit was always dictated by the jewelry, some of which became as famous as the actress herself. When she won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1993 Oscars, Taylor donned a yellow Valentino gown to match a suite of Van Cleef & Arpels daisy jewelry. For the 70th Academy Awards, she commissioned costumer Edith Head to design a periwinkle blue gown with a plunging neckline to show off Burton’s latest gift: the 68-carat “Taylor-Burton Diamond,” for which her then-husband aggressively outbid the likes of Aristotle Onassis.
Burton, who wrote in 1971 that he “loved Elizabeth to the point of idolatry,” presented his beloved with dozens more trinkets during the course of their tumultuous, on-again-off-again relationship. Among them were “La Peregrina,” a 16th-century pearl that once belonged to King Philip II of Spain; the “Night of the Iguana” brooch by Schlumberger at Tiffany & Co.; and the ruby-and-diamond “Taj Mahal” necklace from Cartier. After Taylor’s death in 2011, much of her jaw-dropping collection was auctioned at Christie’s for a record-breaking $115 million, with proceeds benefiting the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
While there will never be another Liz, the jewelry icon’s lush style can be emulated with these extravagant pieces.
Editor: Samantha Durbin
Wordsmith: Maryann LoRusso
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