Even the right little black Costume sometimes wants a bit of glitz.

That’s the reason “Beyond the Little Black Dress,” an exhibition operating by way of Oct. 29 on the Nationwide Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, is exhibiting an assortment of Jewellery alongside greater than 60 variations of the basic wardrobe staple.

Many of the “gems” are costume jewellery, a time period referring to cheap designs manufactured from widespread metals and stones or imitation gems, and have been created for vogue homes comparable to Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli.

The present charts the style world’s embrace of costume jewellery from the late Twenties to at the moment, and provides insights into jewellery makers’ view of the little black costume as a trendy backdrop for his or her often-whimsical creations.

It opens with a silk crepe long-sleeve day costume by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel from 1926, the 12 months “we’ve kind of mythologized in fashion history as being the birth of the little black dress, and also this kind of popularization of costume jewelry,” Stated Georgina Ripley, 37, the exhibition’s principal curator.

“I thought there was something in there to explore, about that little black dress — that she is now synonymous with — being this canvas for these accessories,” Ms. Ripley stated, though issues about doable injury prompted curators to position the jewellery in show instances somewhat than on the clothes.

One of many exhibition’s most important items of jewellery is an extended necklace of sterling silver and pale-yellow rock crystal that the Parisian jewellery home Lukès made for Chanel. Carys Wilkins, 33, who curated the jewellery alternatives, stated that the piece dates to just some years after Chanel opened her first costume jewellery counter, which occurred in 1924.

The designer “really has been credited as elevating the status of costume jewelry,” she stated, “and really with bringing it into the mainstream of the couture industry.”

The necklace belongs to William Wain, 66, a jewellery supplier in Northern Eire who lent a number of items for the present. One — a brooch made by the French jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger for Elsa Schiaparelli’s fall 1937 Circus assortment — depicts a gilded bronze bear with a glass-studded nostril ring and 4 simulated pearls.

One other is an unsigned brooch within the form of a rooster, attributed to both Schlumberger or Jean Clément (each labored for Ms. Schiaparelli). It’s manufactured from pink and inexperienced enamel, simulated pearls, glass and gilded steel. “A lot of the couture and early jewelry wasn’t signed,” Mr. Wain stated. “So therefore, we rely on documentation: photographs from old magazines and different sources.”

Such pictures helped Mr. Wain decide the provenance of a clip with three Bakelite acorns and gilded steel leaves, additionally within the exhibition. “I was doing some research with old magazines and I found a photographic illustration of it being worn on the cuff of a garment,” he stated. “Two of them. One on each cuff, which is an extremely stylish way of wearing them.

“Then I also found, in an old Vogue, a hand drawn double-page illustration of accessories, and there was the acorn,” described as a Schiaparelli clip, on the market at Saks Fifth Avenue. The museum stated Clément created it for the designer’s fall 1938 Pagan assortment.