Big stars, bigger bling: How Cartier made Hollywood sparkle

A new exhibition explores the allure of the jewellery brand celebrities love to wear.

When Italian-born film star Rudolph Valentino appeared as an Arab sheik in his final film 100 years ago, his turban, darkened skin and desert-friendly robes were not the most incongruous part of the picture. That honour went to the very contemporary, very Western-looking Cartier Tank watch adorning his wrist.

It was not the first example of product placement on screen – the Lumiere brothers got there 30 years earlier with some blatant plugs for Sunlight soap in their early silent films. Nor was the Tank’s appearance intentionally promotional: the feted matinée idol simply refused to remove it during filming, and such was his star status that the watch stayed put. But it was the beginning of a beautiful marketing bond between the luxury jewellery brand and the silver screen.

Even before The Son of the Sheik premiered in July 1926, Cartier’s celebrity-adjacent status had already been cemented on the much-admired necks and wrists of royals, aristocrats and other trendsetters. But the bond that began with Valentino flourished in the years that followed: there was Gloria Swanson wearing her favourite Cartier bangles in Sunset Boulevard and Perfect Understanding, Grace Kelly buffing her real-life 10.48-carat diamond engagement ring in High Society, Liz Taylor rocking a glorious 1951 ruby and diamond necklace from her third husband, Mike Todd, and Timothee Chalamet wearing a specially designed, candy-coloured necklace during his promotional tour for Wonka. Even the small screen got the Cartier dazzle when Meghann Fahy wore a yellow gold Tank watch in season two of The White Lotus.

Cartier’s connection to film reached its apotheosis in the 2018 heist movie Ocean’s Eight, in which Sandra Bullock’s Debbie Ocean hatches an elaborate plot to steal the $US150 million “Toussaint necklace”, describing it as “spectacular, blingy, big old Liz Taylor jewels”. The film version was modelled on a necklace made in 1931 for the maharaja of Nawanagar and speaks to the transformative power of jewellery, lighting up Anne Hathaway’s face the minute it is placed on her elegant, creamy-white neck.

The necklace worn by Hathaway is among the items that bear testament to this jewel-encrusted film history in the NGV’s Winter Masterpieces exhibition Cartier. This showcase of design, craftsmanship and celebrity adornment is an expanded iteration of the wildly successful exhibition that had visitors jostling for a glimpse of all that glitter at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum last year. It examin