Women Muses
An informal study of personal style (1900–2000)
Style, at its most compelling, is not decorative.
It is structural.
We are drawn to women whose presence felt composed — whose clothing and jewelry were extensions of their interior world. Not loud. Not trend-driven. Just certain.
Tina Chow (1949–1992)
Tina Chow understood scale.
Her silhouette was often minimal — fluid knits, monochrome dressing, strong shoulders — but she balanced it with bold, sculptural jewelry. She wore objects not as embellishment, but as punctuation.
What makes her enduring is restraint. Even at her most maximal, there was space. Her jewelry sat confidently against the body — never fussy, never delicate in the conventional sense.
There is a directness to her style that feels modern even now.
Elsa Peretti (1940–2021)
Before minimalism was branded, it was instinctual.
Elsa Peretti’s forms were organic but controlled. Silver cuffs that wrapped like bone. Pendants that felt like droplets suspended in air. Her work — and personal style — blurred sculpture and adornment.
Loulou de la Falaise (1948–2011)
Though associated with exuberance, Loulou had an instinct for balance. Her silhouettes were elongated. Her use of jewelry was layered, but intentional.
Even in boldness, there was clarity.
She reminds us that expression does not require chaos.
Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979)
An artist first.
Her approach to clothing and objects reflected her work in abstraction — rhythm, repetition, controlled geometry. She dressed as she painted: with conviction.
Her jewelry choices were rarely sentimental. They were graphic. Structural.
In an era increasingly driven by immediacy, we return to women who embodied continuity.