Kenneth Jay Lane

For lovers of glamorous faux jewels, yes. Lane built his name making costume jewellery so well-crafted that women who could easily afford the real thing wore his pieces by choice. The quality reads in the hand, and vintage examples have a strong collector following, so a good piece is both wearable and collectible.

Making faux jewellery chic. Kenneth Jay Lane was an American costume-jewellery designer celebrated for bold, glamorous pieces that imitated high-end jewels, and he had a famous knack for copying an expensive design from a quick glimpse. In 1993 The New York Times compared him to Coco Chanel for the way he made costume jewellery fashionable.

He was an American costume-jewellery designer, born in Detroit in 1932 and trained at the University of Michigan and the Rhode Island School of Design. Before jewellery he worked on Vogue's New York art staff and designed footwear for Delman and the New York branch of Christian Dior, where he trained under Roger Vivier.

He launched his jewellery business in 1963, while still producing bejewelled footwear for Dior and Arnold Scaasi. He marked the 30th anniversary of the founding in 1993, a milestone that prompted that flattering New York Times comparison to Chanel.

Through one well-placed introduction. A fashion insider named Jo Hughes showed his designs to Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, who bought several pieces and recommended him to her friends. Costume jewellery and society reporting were both popular at the time, so press coverage of that moment effectively launched his business.

She did. Jacqueline Kennedy was among the clients who commissioned faux jewels from Lane so she could wear them freely while keeping the valuable originals safely locked away. That kind of high-profile patronage became central to his reputation.

An extraordinary roster. His clientele included Princess Diana, Nancy Reagan, Princess Margaret, Greta Garbo, Babe Paley and Nan Kempner, and he created designs for Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Vreeland and Audrey Hepburn. Barbara Bush wore one of his three-strand faux pearl necklaces to her husband's inaugural ball, and more recent stars like Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Katy Perry have worn his pieces too.

Partly freedom, partly fashion. Wearing faux meant the valuable originals could stay in the safe, and his designs were popular precisely with women who could have afforded authentic jewels. Stylists also loved them to complement the big hairstyles, short skirts and kaftans of the era in fashion photography.

Several of the era's top honours. He received a special Coty Award for jewellery design in 1966 and the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in 1968, along with the Tobé Coburn award, the Harper's Bazaar International award, the Swarovski award and others through the 1960s, plus the Brides award in 1990.

Beyond his American business he had boutiques in London and Paris. He also became a fixture on QVC, the cable home-shopping network, where in 1997 his twice-a-month, four-hour appearances each took in around $1.5 million, putting his affordable glamour in front of a huge audience.

Very. The FIT Museum held a 1998 retrospective of his work from the 1960s to the late 1990s, and his pieces are sought after by collectors today. Their appeal rests on Lane's craftsmanship and the glamorous history attached to the names who wore them.