MANACLED!
Why ARE so many women paying £4,000 for this look-at-me bracelet... which you can only take off with a screwdriver?
ONCE nicknamed the ‘slave bracelet’, its design is rumoured to have been based on the medieval chastity belt in which men would lock their wives when they went to war. Yet this has not hindered the rise of a bangle that has become a must-have trinket for a new generation of celebrities.
The Cartier Love bracelet has graced the wrists of Hollywood actresses Lindsay Lohan and Katie Holmes, while Pippa Middleton was spotted in Cartier’s store in Bond Street getting her 18-carat gold bangle replaced last week.
Chloe Green, the daughter of Topshop tycoon Philip Green, has no fewer than six, often wearing several at the same time.
The upmarket jeweller, a favourite of Kate Middleton, launched its Love bangles in 1969. The bracelet was designed to be given to one’s true love and then screwed on to their wrist for all eternity.
It consists of two C-shaped halves which are then secured using two working screws on either side.
It is understood that 31-year-old Pippa Middleton, who is in a relationship with financier Nico Jackson, had lost or misplaced her bangle when the screws came loose.
A replacement screw costs as much as £245, while the bracelets themselves range from £4,450 to an eye-watering £39,900 for bespoke designs inlaid with diamonds – making them a powerful status symbol on a
Inspired by chastity belts used in medieval times
par with a Rolex watch.
It is understood Ms Middleton was so upset by the loss of her bracelet, she went straight to the brand’s London store to buy another one. According to a source, her replacement was a gift from the company.
Cilla Black was lucky too when her Love bracelet – given to her by her late husband Bobby – was one of the pieces burglars left behind when they raided her home.
Tom Cruise bought an 18-carat gold Love bracelet as a ‘push present’ for his then wife Katie Holmes on the birth of their daughter in 2006.
Meanwhile, actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was then the face of Estée Lauder, was presented with one of the bracelets by the firm’s boss, Leonard Lauder, as a token of his affection.
The bracelet, which this year celebrates its 45th birthday, was created by Cartier’s Italian designer Aldo Cipullo. He started working there in 1969, producing his iconic Love bracelet the same year.
Cipullo had been fascinated by history and often produced work around legends and old practices.
He was particularly interested in the story of men locking up their wives with iron chastity belts to ensure their fidelity while they were away on the battlefield. The designer is thought to have adopted the idea of being locked in a committed relationship in his Love bracelet design.
In a magazine interview at the time, Cipullo said: ‘Love has become too commercial, yet life without love is nothing – a fat zero. What modern people want are love symbols that look semi-permanent – or, at least, require a trick to remove. After all, love symbols should suggest an everlasting quality.’
When the bracelets were launched, Cartier enforced a rule that customers were not allowed to buy one for themselves. They could only make a purchase for somebody else. That rule has since been abolished.
Cartier presented the bangles to 25 well-known couples including, rather ironically, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, at a ceremony in its boutique in New York.
Each couple locked each other in before exchanging screwdrivers. To ensure that they were authentic to the last, Cartier last year loaned the BBC a pink-gold Love bracelet, set with four diamonds, for its 2013 film Burton And Taylor starring Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter.
Soon Cartier found it could not keep up with production.
Love bracelets were spotted on the wrists of Nancy and Frank Sinatra and later Joan Collins, Princess Diana, Jane Seymour, Elton John and more recently Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.