The Cartier exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London isn’t just a room full of shiny objects – it’s a room full of love stories, royal secrets, and bold fashion choices that once turned heads and changed rules.
The star of the show? A ruby-and-diamond necklace once worn by Elizabeth Taylor. Her husband, Mike Todd, had surprised her with the gift when the actress was at the pool, and without thinking, she pulled him into the water. The moment, caught on home video, flickers now on social media like a flame refusing to go out. She later wrote that she saw the necklace first not in a mirror but in the water’s reflection – rubies glowing like hot coals against the deep blue. That was 1957. A year later, Todd died in a plane crash, and the necklace stayed with Taylor until her death in 2011.
Elizabeth Taylor by the pool. Video from social media.
But Taylor is not the only woman whose story glimmers behind the glass.
Daisy Fellowes, heiress to the Singer sewing machine empire and once dubbed “the most stylish and wicked woman in fashion,” also makes an appearance through her bold, unconventional jewels. One necklace, the Collier Hindou, strings together sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds like a festival of gemstones. Originally hung on a long Indian-style cord, it celebrates the joy of color. The shapes dance together like different instruments in the same melody – imperfect alone, unforgettable together.
(Photo courtesy of Cartier)
Wallis Simpson’s jewels don’t whisper. They roar.
The Duchess of Windsor, once at the center of a royal earthquake that shook the British monarchy, built a collection that still commands attention. A panther brooch shaped like it’s ready to leap, made of white and yellow diamonds set in platinum and gold. It sits on a deep-blue sapphire that glows like still water.
(Photo courtesy of Cartier)
And then there’s the flamingo. A brooch bursting with rubies, sapphires, citrine, emeralds, and diamonds, designed to make sure no one ever forgot who she was or how she chose to live.
(Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s website)
Other royal stories dot the exhibition like stars in the same sky. A brooch from Queen Elizabeth II. A diamond ring worn by Princess Grace of Monaco. These jewels are fragments of lives lived under chandeliers and camera flashes, between duty and desire.
The exhibition runs until November 16.
