While tennis fans around the world were focusing on the Olympics, I was musing about the sport’s jewelry namesake: the tennis bracelet. How did a flexible, narrow, straight-line bracelet set with diamonds get its name?

According to oral history, Chris Evert (a former world No.1 tennis player) typically wore one to adorn her chic attire while on the court. During an early round of the U.S. Open in 1978, her bracelet fell off her arm, and the game was halted until she recovered her jewel. In a 2022 interview with Town & Country, Evert recalled that event: “I guess it caused quite the spectacle! After the match I walked off the court for my interview, and they asked me about it, and I said, ‘Oh, that was my tennis bracelet’”.

This off-hand remark in the late-1970s renamed a classic flexible bracelet style that has been popular with lovers of both fine and costume jewelry since the 1920s – the line bracelet. So, let me tell you how it became one of the most essential jewelry accessories of the Jazz Age.

1920s Fashion & Costume Jewelry

Because jewelry styles evolve with fashion styles, I have to start the story with a bit of fashion history. During World War I, women abandoned their corsets, long skirts and wide hats when they worked in factories, farms, offices and other male-dominated areas of the workforce.

At that time, “[t]o give themselves more freedom, they adopted shorter skirts, exposed their arms, cut their hair and took on a boyish appearance; the change was spectacular" (Raulet, 18). This style prevailed after the war’s end, when women delighted in new-found freedoms, such as participating in sports, driving cars, drinking cocktails and smoking in public.

The S-shaped pre-war silhouette was now long and flat. Shorter hemlines, dropped waists and short sleeves were the norm. Low backs were a typical feature of evening gowns. This look required complementary types of jewelry with simple lines and vivid colors. New styles in necklaces, brooches, earrings and bracelets were introduced. Flexible line bracelets, in particular, were all the rage.

“With the retreat of the long sleeve, the arm exposed to the shoulder, the fashion for bracelets took off as never before. Two different types of bracelet shared the task of adorning the wrist: flexible, narrow bracelets like embroidered ribbons of stones, and wide bangles … The lightness and flexibility of these [line] bracelets – the result of eliminating the divisions between the stones – sometimes inspired women with the idea of wearing several at a time” (Raulet 74-75). This image from a 1925 Wachenheimer Brothers (Diamonbar) ad illustrates how important bracelets were to the style of the era. They were provided by both fine and costume jewelry makers.

Previously referred to as “junk jewelry”, costume jewelry became increasingly accepted at this time because of the need for more affordable jewelry to adorn more affordable clothing. In addition, French couturiers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli promoted the new style of wearing non-precious jewels designed specifically for a particular outfit.

Line Bracelets: 1920s to Mid-1930s

Over the years, I have held in my hands line bracelets made by Wachenheimer Brothers; Otis; Engel Brothers; H. Payton; Fishel, Nessler; as well as several that were unsigned. All of them were made in sterling silver. These pieces were copies of platinum bracelets inlaid with diamonds alone or in combination with a colorful gemstone.

I am most familiar with line bracelets made by Wachenheimer Brothers because of the extensive research I've done on the company. I also have two 1920s wholesale jewelry catalogs with the firm’s colored four-page ad inserts. This excerpt from one of them shows some of the bracelets the company was selling at that time under their “Diamonbar” trademark.

As the ad shows, the term “flexible bracelet” is used to describe this style. The reason is due to its construction: a series of moveable interlocked metal links. Line bracelets are a type of flexible bracelet with round or calibré-cut stones set in linked square boxes. Choices of stones included all-diamantés, all one type of imitation gemstone, as well as a combination of diamantés and a colored stone. This last option was offered in different patterns. One-, two- and three-row bracelets were also made.

Here are four one-row line bracelets that are currently available in the TruFaux Jewels boutique.

1: Faux Onyx, Diamanté & Sterling Bracelet by Fishel Nessler; 2: Diamanté & Sterling Bracelet by Otis; 3: Faux Emerald, Diamanté & Sterling Bracelet by Otis; 4: Faux Onyx, Diamanté & Sterling Bracelet by Wachenheimer Bros.

All four have calibré-cut stones set in sterling silver. The first has a pattern of three dark stones alternating with a single clear one. The last two have two clasps, which make them extremely versatile. You could put the two together to form a choker for a very slim neck. Or, you could create two bracelets that are each half black and half green. You can see my favorite model wearing this pair in my blog post “Double Date: Two-for-One Convertible Jewelry”.

These three line bracelets in the TruFaux Jewels boutique (shown below) were all made by Wachenheimer Brothers. The one with the buckle is hard to find. The first two have one-quarter-inch calibré-cut stones, which are twice as wide as the bracelets shown above. Another in that format by the same maker, not shown, has faux Golden Topaz stones set in sterling. The last in this photo is a three-row bracelet set with alternating rows of round diamantés and onyx glass.

5: Faux Aquamarine, Diamanté & Sterling Buckle Bracelet; 6: Diamanté & Sterling Bracelet; 7: Faux Onyx, Diamanté & Sterling 3-Row Bracelet

How to Wear Them

Although Chris Evert ignited a trend for wearing diamond tennis bracelets with denim and other casual clothes in the late-1970s, she was not the first to do so. “As far as Chanel was concerned, there were no longer places where the wearing of jewelry would be in bad taste; elegant women wore jewelry on the beach and in the sea” (Raulet 252). I’ll bet they wore line bracelets on the tennis courts in the Twenties, too!

For More About Wachenheimer & Otis Bracelets

Read the feature article "Bracelets by Otis: A Surprising Connection", which I wrote with my colleague Robin Deutsch.

Printed Sources

Illustration by McClelland Barclay for Kellogg’s Krumbles ad 1920, courtesy mcclellandbarclay.ca.

Raulet, Sylvie. Art Deco Jewelry. Rizzoli, 1984.

© Barbara Schwartz