Rhinestones

From River Stones to Coated Glass

The rhinestone begins as a found object. The first stones to carry the name were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine — clear, water-worn quartz pebbles that could be cut and worn as inexpensive imitations of diamond, taking their name from the river that supplied them. Natural crystals, however, arrive in whatever quantity a river chooses to provide, and a fashion for sparkling stones cannot be built on a supply that limited. The breakthrough came around 1775, when the Alsatian jeweller George Frederic Strass had the idea to coat the lower side of glass with metal powder. The metal backing turned plain glass into a convincing imitation diamond: light entering the cut glass reflected off the coated underside and returned to the eye with the brightness that clear glass alone cannot produce. The invention was important enough to rename the product across a language — in German, rhinestones are still called Strass, after the jeweller who made them manufacturable.

That backing principle is the whole technology of the rhinestone, and everything since has been refinement of materials and color. A rhinestone is made from rock crystal, glass or acrylic, cut with facets like a gemstone and backed or coated so it throws light back at the viewer. In 1955 a further step arrived with Aurora Borealis, a coating applied to crystal stones to produce a rainbow of colors effect, shifting the stone's fire from white sparkle to iridescence. Production settled into centers of skill: crystal rhinestones are produced mainly in Austria and the Czech Republic, heirs to long glassmaking and stone-cutting traditions, while acrylic rhinestones — lighter, cheaper and molded rather than cut — are manufactured in several countries. The two materials serve different work: crystal for maximum brilliance on jewelry and fine costume work, acrylic where weight, cost or sewing through large quantities matters more, as on garments produced at scale. The cut of the stone matters as much as its material. A rhinestone is faceted like the gemstone it imitates, and the number and arrangement of its facets decide how it handles light: a well-cut stone flashes as the wearer moves, while a flat or poorly cut one sits dull. Size creates its own range of effects, from stones so small they read as a continuous glittering surface to large single stones used as the centerpiece of a brooch, buckle or neckline. Makers therefore sell rhinestones by size, color, cut and backing, and a costume workshop stocks them the way a tailor stocks buttons — in trays of graded options, because replacing a lost stone requires matching all four qualities at once. Colored rhinestones extend the idea beyond diamond imitation altogether, turning the stone into a way of setting sapphire, ruby or emerald tones into a garment without any precious material at all.

Stones for Costumes, Apparel and Stage Dressing

Today crystal rhinestones are primarily used on costumes, apparel and jewelry, and the reason is a simple economic and practical fact: a rhinestone delivers the visual effect of a diamond — a point of intense, faceted light — at a cost and weight that let a designer use hundreds of them. A real gemstone sets a limit of one or a few; rhinestones remove the limit, so decoration becomes a surface rather than an accent. They are glued, set or sewn across bodices, collars, cuffs, shoes and accessories, catching stage light and camera flash in a way flat sequins and beads, their close relatives in the trim family, do not quite match. Because the stones are imitations by design and proud of it, they belong to the honest artifice of costume: nobody in the audience is meant to believe the stones are diamonds, only to see the light they throw.

Heavy use of rhinestones is often associated with country music singers, and with performers such as Elvis Presley and Liberace, for whom maximum sparkle was part of the act. The form's most famous garment is the rhinestone-studded Nudie suit, invented by Nudie Cohn in the 1940s — an Americanization of the matador's suit of lights, translated into a rhinestone-covered suit for country and western performers. Nudie Cohn — born Nuta Kotlyarenko (December 15, 1902 – May 9, 1984) — was an American tailor who designed decorative rhinestone-covered suits, popularly known as Nudie Suits, and other elaborate outfits for some of the most famous celebrities of his era, and the style echoes onward in the figure of the Rhinestone Cowboy. From Rhine pebbles to Strass glass to Austrian crystal and molded acrylic, the rhinestone's story is the story of sparkle becoming affordable: an imitation diamond good enough, and cheap enough, to cover an entire suit, trim a pair of shoes, edge a neckline, or turn an ordinary handbag into evening wear at a glance.