Jewels by Paul Flato: America's First Jeweler to the Stars

Signature of Paul Flato, courtesy Wikimedia Commons (PD-signature).   There is nothing more awful than to wear some new jewelry and have nobody notice it, a contingency you can easily avoid by making sure yours are Jewels by Flato, which is to say, conversation pieces. ~Ad copy from the 1930s. The conversation piece in question was a brooch consisting of jeweled radishes, complete with Flato's signature naturalistic leaves and a diamond tie holding the bunch of red radishes together. Conversation pieces by Paul Flato were all the rage in the 1930s and 1940s, especially among New York's socialites and Hollywood's elite. Known as one of the first of the Jewelers to the Stars, Paul Flato infused every piece with whimsical humor, exquisite gemstones, and flamboyant style. His fascination with jewels began when he encountered a Gypsy at the age of 8. Out hunting for birds in the woods near his boyhood home in Texas, he and his friend accidentally burst into a Gypsy encampment. Wild-eyed with wonder and more than a measure of fear, they watched as a Gypsy man twisted and bent silver wires into a necklace. Paul, fascinated beyond his fear, spoke up and asked the man if he was going to put a coin in it. Before the man could answer, the two boys high-tailed it home. {1} Days later, Paul returned to the camp. All that was left was a large patch of matted grass, blackened ash, and a fragment of silver wire. He tucked that piece of metal into his pocket, just as he had tucked the memory of its transformation into his memory. {1} After abandoning his pursuit of medicine as a late teenager, Paul turned that boyhood memory into a monumentally successful business venture. Collaborating with the likes of Harry Winston, who sold him diamonds and gemstones, and a team of top-notch designers, including Fulco di Verdura and George W. Headley, Mr. Flato launched himself into the jewelry stratosphere. His jewels adorned some of Hollywood's hottest stars, including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, and Ginger Rogers. Among his most notable celebrity jewels are a diamond and ruby bracelet patterned after Mae West's corset, and a gold pickax with black enamel sign language clips for Katharine Hepburn. {11} Mr. Flato also collaborated with debutantes and socialites, including Millicent Rogers Balcom, heiress to Standard Oil, who designed a heart brooch, which Mr. Flato studded with rubies and sapphires. During his heyday, Mr. Flato opened two stores, one on East 57th Street in Manhattan and one on LA's Sunset Strip across from the Trocadero nightclub. Alas, in 1943 Mr. Flato took a sharp nosedive. Convicted of grand larceny, Mr. Flato served 16 months* in Sing Sing. A $60,000 diamond, given to him on consignment by a trusted client, vanished from his store. Turns out, Mr. Flato had made a practice of pawning such consigned pieces. Upon his release, he moved to Mexico, reportedly to avoid another prison sentence. Some reports place him back in the US for a spell in the 1950s. However, his old friends Winston and Verdura had upstaged him by then. Ultimately, he reinvented himself in Mexico City, opening a successful shop on the Zona Rosa. He thrived in New Mexico, but after an 8.1-magnitude earthquake struck near his home in 1986, his family insisted that the 85-year-old jeweler return to the US. America's first Jeweler to the Stars died amid his family in 1999, at the ripe old age of 98. Today, Mr. Flato's "chic, timeless, blood-stirring, intriguing, thrilling, and absolutely unforgettable" {cited} jewels are among the cream of the crop for jewelry enthusiasts and collectors.  Many of his pieces have sold at big-name auction houses for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Truly, if you have the opportunity to lay your hands on one of his pieces, don't let go! by Angela Magnotti Andrews

*some reports say 18 months

  BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bray, Elizabeth Irvine. Paul Flato: Jeweler to the Stars. China: Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2010. 2. Grima, Francesca. "Jewellers from the past..."Francesca Grima's Jewllery Blog. December 29, 2009. http://francesca-grima.blogspot.com/2009/12/jewellers-from-past.html. 3. "Jeweler to the Stars: American Creative Genius." Paul Flato Website." http://paulflato.tntmax.com/history. 4. "Jewelry in Focus: 'Say it in Jewelry'--Flato's 'Deaf & Dumb' Sign Language Clips." Jewels du Jour Blog. March 21, 2013. http://www.jewelsdujour.com/2013/03/say-it-in-jewelry-flatos-deaf-dumb-sign-language-clips/. 5. "Obituaries: Paul Flato; Jewelry Designer." Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1999. 6. "Our Story." Paul Flato Website. http://paulflato.tntmax.com/our-story. 7. "Paul Flato." Lucas Rarities Website. http://lucasrarities.com/paul-flato-jewellery/. 8. "Paul Flato Hollywood Whimsical Jewelry." Learn to Bead Blog. December 19, 2010. http://blog.landofodds.com/2010/12/19/paul-flato-hollywood-whimsical-jewelry/. 9. Rodriguez-Arguelles, Ines. "The Duke of Verdura." Jewels Bijoux Joyas Blog. January 3, 2012. http://jewelsbijouxjoyas.blogspot.com/2012/03/duke-of-verdura.html. 10. Sarah. "Life on the Roadshow." The Pink Shoe Diaries Blog, March 31, 2010. http://ilookgood.blogspot.com/2010/03/life-on-roadshow.html.