Costume Jewelry Liberated at Last

By BERNADINE MORRISOCT. 11, 1977 This is a digitized version of an article from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems. Please send reports of such problems to . Discreet gold chains and circle pins have little to do with today's voluminous freeform clothes. Costume Jewelry, generally, has been "fairly boring lately," according to Gloria Fiori, Jewelry buyer for Bonwit Teller.To remedy the situation, new collections in stores here are as free as the clothes they are supposed to embellish.At Bonwit Teller, Umberto Borbonese uses wool and silk braid with a lot of bold splashes of color.Mr. Borbonese, who works in Turin, Italy, has a penchant for ornaments that can be tied around the neck to serve as a bib or necklace and alternately wrapped at the waistline to hold in the voluminous folds of a dress. The most dramatic resembles a mask with a gold mesh base overlaid with leafshaped plastic forms centered with red stones.A fairly practical idea is a gold kid belt bag decorated with goldcolored coins, and there are pendants that look like bottles on black silk cords.AdvertisementPrices are in the $55 to $155 range and for those who like to go further, there are leather handbags that go up to $295.AdvertisementAt Henri Bendel, a corner of the main floor street of shops has been designed to reproduce Butler & Wilson's store on Fulham Road in London. Its specialty: silver and enamel pins and pendants."It will be interesting to see how receptive American women are to these things," said Simon Wilson, who helped set up the Butler & Wilson corner. With his partner, Nicky Butler. he started reviving Art Deco designs in a stall on King's Row in London eight years ago. They moved to their present shop on Fulham Road four years later.They still retain such old things as alligator wallets with silver corners that date back to 1910, but the delicate enamel jewelry is their own design.Butterflies, dragon flies and lilies have undulating tendrils that look more Art Nouveau than Deco and are often made in two interlocking parts so they can serve as belt buckles. A butterfly in pale shades of mauve and blue with a silver body costs $120.Silver figures, such as a flapper and her Borzoi hound, are strictly 1920's. There are tennis players, jazz musicians and dancing couples in the same sequence, with the prices running from $40 to $84.For obvious drama, flower necklaces with petals of colored glass at $100 are as arresting as emeralds and a far cry from simple gold chains.A version of this archives appears in print on October 11, 1977, on Page 59 of the New York edition with the headline: . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe