When collectors think of DeLizza & Elster, the name that usually comes to mind first is Juliana.
But D&E was a manufacturer.
For decades, the company produced jewelry for many different customers, working with designers and buyers to create jewelry for their individual lines. Sometimes those pieces look very much like the rhinestone jewelry we immediately recognize as D&E. Other times, they look completely different.
Carol Dauplaise is a wonderful example of just how broad that story can be.
A Relationship That Went Back Years
Carol Dauplaise appears more than once in Frank DeLizza’s account of the company.
In the section of his memoir covering the mid-1960s, Frank describes D&E’s showroom at 347 Fifth Avenue in New York. Customers and designers could visit the showroom, see what D&E was producing and work with the company on jewelry for their own lines.
Among the people Frank specifically remembered coming to the showroom was Carol Dauplaise, accompanied by her design staff.
What it shows us is that the connection between Carol Dauplaise and DeLizza & Elster did not begin with one isolated group of jewelry. It was a relationship that developed over time.
How D&E Worked With Its Customers
This is also a good example of how DeLizza & Elster operated behind the scenes.
D&E was not simply making a fixed assortment of jewelry and waiting for companies to buy it.
Customers could come to D&E with ideas. The company’s designers, model makers and production staff could then help turn those ideas into finished jewelry.
That collaborative way of working is important when we look at jewelry made for other companies, because the finished pieces could reflect both D&E’s manufacturing vocabulary and the particular look a customer wanted.
And as fashion changed, D&E changed with it.
Judy DeLizza and a Changing Fashion Market
By the 1970s, the jewelry market was moving away from some of the heavily rhinestoned styles most collectors associate with classic Juliana.
D&E began producing very different kinds of fashion jewelry.
There were beads, plastics, cords, lightweight pieces, belts, stretch bracelets, natural-looking materials and large statement designs.
Frank credits Judy with expanding into stringing, lightweight jewelry, cord belts, shoe-lace necklaces, plastic parts, stretch bracelets and color development. She worked closely with others at D&E and with customers including Carol Dauplaise.
This helps explain why a D&E piece made for Carol Dauplaise may look nothing like the rhinestone brooches and bracelets many collectors first learn to recognize.
It can still be part of the same DeLizza & Elster story.
One Design Idea, Many Looks
One especially interesting group made for Carol Dauplaise used a heavy twisted metallic cord decorated with dangling beads, stones and cast metal charms.
At first glance, the different examples can look surprisingly different.
The all-gold version shown here was included in Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation.
Another surviving example combines the gold cord with deep red cord and red beads and still retains its Carol Dauplaise tag.
A third variation uses rust and green cord with an entirely different assortment of beads, stones and charms.
And that is what makes these pieces especially interesting.
D&E did not simply change the color.
The beads and charms changed too.
The underlying design idea remained recognizable, but the individual components could be changed, rearranged or substituted to create a very different finished necklace.
Seen together, these pieces give us a wonderful look at how one fashion concept could be reinterpreted again and again.
Look How Different They Can Be
That same lesson carries over into other D&E jewelry made for Carol Dauplaise.
Put several of these pieces side by side and you might never guess that they were connected with the same manufacturer.
There are beads.
Natural stones.
Lucite.
Shell.
Cord.
Bold metal components.
And very different silhouettes.
For collectors, that is an important thing to keep in mind when studying D&E jewelry made for other companies.
We should not always expect to find an exact duplicate of a known piece.
Sometimes the relationship between pieces becomes clearer when we look at the broader design and construction vocabulary rather than expecting the same assortment of beads, charms or decorative components every time.
More Than the Juliana Look
Carol Dauplaise is an especially good reminder that the DeLizza & Elster story is much bigger than the word Juliana.
D&E worked with many customers.
Its designers collaborated with those customers.
Its materials changed.
Its styles changed.
And the jewelry changed as fashion changed.
Frank’s memories place Carol Dauplaise in the D&E story across different periods — from visits to the Fifth Avenue showroom to the newer fashion jewelry being developed in the 1970s.
Fortunately, enough of these pieces survive that we can still see just how varied that relationship became.
And sometimes the jewelry that looks least like the Juliana we first learned to recognize leads us into one of the most interesting chapters of the DeLizza & Elster story.
Want to see more?
Explore the Carol Dauplaise jewelry currently available at Our Vintage Rose Jewelry.
Sources: Frank DeLizza memoir; Juliana Jewelry – The Last Generation.