D&E Behind the Name: DeLizza & Elster for Les Bernard

September 12, 2026

When collectors think of DeLizza & Elster, they often picture the colorful rhinestone jewelry most closely associated with the Juliana name.

But DeLizza & Elster was first and foremost a jewelry manufacturer.

Over the years, the company produced jewelry for a number of other firms and designers. Sometimes D&E supplied designs from its own line. In other cases, those designs were changed or adapted to fit the needs and look of a particular customer.

One of those important customers was Les Bernard.

Fortunately for collectors today, this is a relationship we do not have to reconstruct from appearance alone. Frank DeLizza wrote about Les Bernard in his book, and a number of Les Bernard pieces from his own collection survive to help tell the story.

Les Bernard necklace and bracelet from Frank DeLizza’s personal collection. The necklace appears on page 131 of his book among his black-and-white design photographs, where it is dated 1975 and described as “pearl and 2 sided 18/30 drops.”

A Well-Documented Relationship

Frank DeLizza discussed Les Bernard in his book while writing about more than one period in DeLizza & Elster’s history.

In the section covering 1974–1977, he discussed Les Bernard as a customer and specifically mentioned Yvette Brownstein.

His discussion of Les Bernard appears again in the section covering 1980–1984, where he mentions jewelry being produced for the company, including multi-strand bib necklaces.

The jewelry itself lets us follow the story even farther.

On page 131, Frank pictured the jewel-tone necklace shown above and dated it to 1975.

A very different Les Bernard charm necklace and earrings design appears years later in a full-page color Les Bernard advertisement reproduced on page 167 of his book. The caption dates that advertisement to 1989.

Documented examples of DeLizza & Elster’s work for Les Bernard therefore span at least from 1975 to 1989.

That is important because fashion jewelry changed dramatically during those years.

Large stones, cast components, chains, beads, textured metalwork, molded elements and increasingly dramatic forms all became part of the DeLizza & Elster story.

But one of the most interesting things Frank tells us is how the Les Bernard relationship actually worked.

In his book, Frank DeLizza explained that the Les Bernard buyer could select designs from the DeLizza & Elster line and have them modified to fit the Les Bernard line.

That detail gives us an important insight into D&E as a manufacturer.

They were not necessarily producing one identical design and simply placing a different name on it. A design from the DeLizza & Elster line could become the starting point, with changes made specifically for the customer who would ultimately market the jewelry.

One Design, Two Ways

In one particularly interesting case, we can actually see this idea reflected in the jewelry.

Les Bernard charm necklace and earrings, previously sold through Our Vintage Rose Jewelry as IIJJ#6424. The design appears in the full-page 1989 Les Bernard advertisement reproduced on page 167 of Frank DeLizza’s book.

Shown beside it is a related DeLizza & Elster version outside the Les Bernard line.

The relationship between the designs is easy to see, but the finished jewelry is not identical.

This gives us a wonderful visual example of the kind of adaptation Frank described. A D&E design could provide the starting point, while changes in components, arrangement, finish or presentation allowed it to become part of the Les Bernard line.

For collectors, this is an especially useful lesson.

We sometimes look for one exact match when trying to identify jewelry. But manufacturers did not always work that way. Designs evolved. Components changed. Customers requested variations.

A familiar DeLizza & Elster idea could appear in more than one form.

Here, we have the unusual opportunity to see two related versions side by side.

There Is No Single “Les Bernard by D&E” Look

The Les Bernard jewelry that came from Frank DeLizza’s collection makes another point very clearly:

There was no single Les Bernard by DeLizza & Elster look.

Les Bernard necklace and earrings from Frank DeLizza’s collection. The Les Bernard earring card remains with the set.

Some designs use large, dramatic stones.

Others rely almost entirely on sweeping gold-tone metalwork.

Still others combine heavy chain, molded leaves, faux pearls and large translucent charms.

And sometimes even the type of jewelry is unexpected.

This elaborate multi-chain piece from Frank DeLizza’s collection is actually a belt, not a necklace.

Bold textured gold-tone components with small rhinestone accents show another very different direction.

Iridescent molded leaves, heavy chain and pearl drops demonstrate still another look found among the Les Bernard pieces from Frank DeLizza’s collection.

When these pieces are viewed together, it becomes easy to understand why later DeLizza & Elster jewelry can sometimes surprise collectors who first learned Juliana by studying the classic rhinestone jewelry of the 1960s.

D&E continued to respond to changing fashion, changing materials and the needs of individual customers.

What the company was producing in the late 1970s and 1980s did not have to look like what it had produced a decade earlier.

Pieces From Frank DeLizza’s Collection

One of the most valuable things about the jewelry shown in this article is its provenance.

These Les Bernard pieces came directly from Frank DeLizza’s personal collection.

That makes them particularly useful for study. We are not connecting this group to D&E simply because the construction looks familiar or because one piece resembles another.

We know where the jewelry came from.

Two of the designs shown here have an additional layer of published documentation.

The jewel-tone necklace appears on page 131 of Frank’s book and is dated 1975.

The charm necklace and earrings appear in the full-page 1989 Les Bernard advertisement on page 167.

These documented examples give collectors unusually strong reference points for understanding DeLizza & Elster jewelry produced for Les Bernard.

Is Every Piece Signed Les Bernard DeLizza & Elster?

No.

This distinction is very important.

A Les Bernard signature does not automatically mean that a piece was manufactured by DeLizza & Elster.

Les Bernard sold a wide variety of jewelry. The Les Bernard name tells us who marketed the piece, but it does not by itself identify the manufacturer.

That is why known pieces from Frank DeLizza’s collection, designs pictured in his book and other firmly documented examples are so valuable.

They give us a foundation from which we can study construction, materials and design relationships without assuming that every piece bearing the Les Bernard name must have come from D&E.

Traditional stone-set jewelry was also represented among the Les Bernard pieces from Frank DeLizza’s collection.

Looking Beyond the Juliana Name

The more we study DeLizza & Elster, the larger the story becomes.

Juliana is an important part of that story, but it is not the whole story.

D&E manufactured jewelry for other companies and designers, sometimes working quietly behind names collectors recognize without realizing that DeLizza & Elster had a hand in the jewelry.

Les Bernard is an especially fascinating example.

Frank discussed the company in several periods of his book. We have documented examples dating from 1975 through 1989. We have pieces that came directly from his personal collection. We have designs he chose to illustrate in his book. And we even have a comparison that allows us to see how a related D&E design could appear differently within the Les Bernard line.

Together, these pieces reveal a DeLizza & Elster that is much broader than one familiar style of rhinestone jewelry.

They show a working fashion-jewelry manufacturer that continued to change with fashion, experiment with materials and adapt its designs for important customers.

Sometimes the most interesting DeLizza & Elster jewelry is found behind another name.