The jewelry designer who specialized in fabulous fakes

Kenneth Jay Lane 1932–2017

Kenneth Jay Lane knew how to create the illusion of glamour. The designer built a thriving business producing fake and junk jewelry—or as he put it, “faque” and “junque”— and made it acceptable and fashionable to wear costume pieces. Aristocrats and Hollywood royalty, including Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana, and Elizabeth Taylor, wore his rhinestones alongside their real diamonds, and working women accessorized with his faux pearls. Lane believed there was no difference between costume jewels and real gemstones, but preferred cheaper, man-made materials because they could be manufactured without flaws. “I’m a jeweler,” he said, “not a mineralogist.”

Born in Detroit, Lane was the son of an auto-parts supplier and “an indulgent mother,” said The Guardian (U.K.). His early memories were of moviegoing and “afterward drawing Mae West ablaze in diamanté.” He left the University of Michigan for Manhattan, where he landed an internship at Vogue, and in the ’50s became a footwear designer for Delman Shoes and then Christian Dior. His foray into jewelry came in the early ’60s, when he put rhinestones on shoes for a fashion show, and then made earrings and jeweled buttons to match. Lane’s baubles appeared in Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, and by 1963 he was selling so many pieces that “he had to improvise a business.”

Lane was praised for his imaginative color combinations—“ amethyst and coral, amber and turquoise,” said The New York Times. He openly drew inspiration from all over the world, including the work of celebrated designers like Jean Schlumberger and David Webb and the crown jewels of European and Indian monarchs. “My designs are all original,” Lane said in 2014. “Original from someone.” ■