Modern gothic jewelry for Halloween and beyond

As winter sets in, dramatic crucifixes, jet-black chains, and various Gothic symbols line its side. This month at PAD London, Parisian jeweler Elie Top unveiled his most dramatic crucifix designs yet. And on the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2025 runway in Paris, Nicolas Ghesquière’s oversized, giant, matte black chains weren’t particularly sunny. So far, so Bohemian.

Then this year there is the release of Fear and Love: The Story of the Exorcista behind-the-scenes retelling of the famous horror film for which Aldo Cipullo designed jewelry. Arguably the most legendary jewelry designer of modern times, the American-Italian designer created Cartier’s Love bracelet with a screwdriver clasp and Juste un Clou (nail) jewels. And it is Cipullo’s hamsa hand pendant design that we see meaningfully swinging around the neck of Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil in William Friedkin’s 1973 film.

Elie Top’s oeuvre is steeped in the magnificent influences of Gothic architecture. “I was born in Flanders and from a young age I meticulously drew what I was passionate about: Gothic churches, castles and maps,” admits the designer. In fact, after my first visit to his Vincent Darré-designed Parisian wallpaper studio (shown in issue W*198), it was Top who convinced me to go to Saint Chapelle straight after. This city chapel, with its 15-foot-tall stained glass windows so large that the walls are almost invisible, is, as its caretakers claim, a “shining jewel.”

This month, Top adds a majestic new element to its La Dame du Lac collection, inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrated Arthurian tales. He introduced two precious crucifixes. Both are edged in the designer’s signature gold and distressed silver and designed in a square Maltese cross style. One is simply set with diamonds, citrines and gray Tahitian pearls, the other is rich in tanzanite, garnets, diamonds and central Tahitian pearls. Each shines in ecclesiastical splendor.

Deep in the Sussex countryside, a very different expression of medieval craftsmanship has emerged in the form of artist and jewelry designer Natasha Wightman’s haunting designs, such as her jeweled hair comb, A Call to the Wild, pictured above. Her deep fascination with the wild nature, forests and corvids that surround her home has taken Wightman into the precious world of ancient English art.

Today, the artist works directly with a handful of master craftsmen whose precise design philosophy and understanding of ancient, organic materials give her gold and boxwood jewels and Edwardian necklaces a medieval touch. Each design goes beyond the idea that the pieces are simply handmade. These seriously studied, museum-worthy designs amount to wonderfully eerie fables.

Perhaps it is Gabrielle Coco Chanel who we have to thank for the cyclical influence of medieval Gothic on costume jewelry design. She was so fascinated by Roman jewelry, Venetian basilicas and the cabochon-studded statuettes in the Munich Treasury that in the late 1920s she invited Duke Fulco di Verdura to make a pair of Maltese cross cuffs in her reflection. In the 1950s, Chanel formed an enduring partnership with master costume jewelry designer Robert Goossens, who introduced a more organic expression of Chanel’s passion for ancient symbols and styles.

Specifically, Goossens updated Chanel’s Byzantine jewel aesthetic with natural rock crystal, introducing an icy, ethereal blanche as a counterpoint to the traditional bold-colored stones. This distorted the medieval dictates and introduced a more mystical, futuristic aesthetic. Today, Goossens, still family-owned and owned by Chanel, gravitates toward collections with pastel-colored semi-precious stones. However, his distinctive rock crystal designs continue to fill a welcome space between old and new Gothic traditions.

So it’s not all just poetic doom and mysterious gloom. New York jeweler Eva Fehren’s Pink Warrior ring, characterized by its large pink-brown diamond in the “coffin” or shield shape, exudes a supernatural appeal all its own. Simone Rocha, meanwhile, creates costume jewelry that draws on the drama of Victorian Gothic traditions, with a hint of light relief.