Season 1, Ep. 1
HOLLYWOOD JEWELS with Victoria Brynner and
Martyn Lawrence Bullard
Victoria Brynner is daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Yul Brynner and Chilean model Doris Kleiner (whose best friend, Elizabeth Taylor, was Victoria’s godmother). Victoria’s company, Stardust Brands, links stars with brands, providing casting and creative consulting in the luxury world. Martyn Lawrence Bullard – the TV personality and award-winning interior designer – who designs ring collections for his Melrose Avenue atelier, where the glittering clientele includes Kylie Jenner, Khloe and Kourtney Khardashian, Eva Mendes, Cher and Ellen Pompeo. It’s a sparkling chat about behind the scenes in Hollywood and we enter the violet bedroom of Elizabeth Taylor and rifle through her jewel closet as Victoria describes her dressing rituals.
Season 1, Ep. 3
SUPERSTITIOUS GEMS - Stephen Webster and Dr Jeffrey Post
Jewellery is one of the oldest decorative arts, originally answering our need for adornment in the form of shells, feathers, bones and pebbles. This rich cultural history dates back beyond recorded history. Their rarity and beauty meant they were used as decoration as well as amulets, to ward off evil. Gradually jewellery became attached to status, but stones were still considered to bring good health, wisdom and love, while superstitions and curses associated with others linger to this day. Dr Jeffrey Post, mineralogist and Curator of Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (home to the infamous Hope Diamond) and British jewellery designer Stephen Webster, the original rock’n’roll jeweller, discuss stones with supernatural powers.
Season 1, Ep. 5
BRIDGERTON - Ellen Mirojnick and Lorenzo Mancianti
No one on the planet can have missed the mass hysteria created over Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes' Netflix show. If you’re one of the rare people who haven’t watched it, I urge you to do so, it's a sort of new Gossip Girl meets Jane Austen, offering visually compelling escapism set around a fictional high society in London’s Regency era, dancing at ostentatious balls and dances, sipping tea in empire-waist gowns, and reading gossip about the night before, written by an anonymous columnist named Lady Whistledown.
Now, there was a craving for jewellery during the Regency era, fuelled in part by the Prince Regent’s insatiable appetite for jewels and the endless whirl of social events. The spectacular costumes in Bridgerton include royalty-worthy gems, which have set the sales of early 19th century style jewellery spiking - due to guests on this episode. Ellen Mirojnick, the legendary Emmy-winning American costume designer, and Lorenzo Mancianti, jewellery and prop designer, who was in the wardrobe department knocking up tiaras by the dozen.
Season 1, Ep. 7
KATE WILLIAMS - The Jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots
Carol speaks to historian Professor Kate Williams, about the life and fabulous jewel collection of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Season 1, Ep. 2
ALL THAT GLITTERS - Katherine Ryan, Shaun Leane and Solange Azagury-Partridge
The new BBC 2 jewellery talent competition, All That Glitters, is like The Great British Bake Off but contestants cook with precious metals and gems instead of flour and sugar. Eight jewellers battle to create bestsellers and bespoke pieces for real-life clients – in 3 hours. Carol meets the show’s host, Canadian comedienne Katherine Ryan, and the judges Solange Azagury-Partridge and Shaun Leane, two of Britain’s most respected contemporary jewellery designers
Season 1, Ep. 4
LIFE IN JEWELS - historian Diana Scarisbrick
Carol talks to the leading jewellery academic Diana Scarisbrick – an author, curator and specialist in neo-classical gems – who studies the cultural, social and political significance of jewellery. Over her 50-year career she’s written more than 20 books, including such definitive works as Rings: Jewellery of Power, Love and Loyalty; Jewellery in Britain from 1066-1837; Portrait Jewels: Opulence and Intimacy from the Medici to the Romanovs; and most recently Diamonds: 700 Years of Glory and Glamour. Diana has also amassed a personal collection of Renaissance, 17th- and 18th-century rings. Now in her 92nd year, she is immersed in academia, and her enthusiasm, joie de vivre, and work ethic are as strong as ever.
Season 1, Ep. 6
FIRST LADY JEWELS - Francesca Amfitheatrof and Frank Everett
The UK has the Crown Jewels, but in the US and France jewellery connoisseurs observe their First Ladies. In this episode, Carol and her guests Francesca Amfitheatrof (Artistic Director of Jewellery at Louis Vuitton) and Frank Everett (former Senior Vice President of Jewellery at Sotheby’s New York) explore the hidden meanings of the White House jewels. Jewellery is a powerful messenger and the First Lady makes a subtly powerful statement with what she wears. Francesca Amfitheatrof is brilliantly placed to look at US style, having been Design Director at Tiffany as well as the French maison Louis Vuitton, while Frank Everett is described as the Pied Piper of the New York jewellery scene, having handled some of the world’s most important jewels during his time at Sotheby’s.
Season 1, Ep. 8
ELIZABETH SALZMAN
Carol speaks to celebrity super-stylist Elizabeth Salzman about her life and work, and her top tips for the red carpet.
Follow Carol Woolton on Instagram: @carolwoolton
Produced by Natasha Cowan @tashonfash
Music and editing by Tim Thornton @timwthornton
Creative direction by Scott Bentley @bentleycreative
Illustrations Jordi Labanda @jordilabanda
Read Carol Woolton in Vogue magazine – vogue.co.uk/fashion/jewellery