Juliana Belts

This blog will be about some of the belts that Juliana (D&E) did.  Belts were a very large part of their business and the designs ranged from huge totally rhinestone covered belts to small belts without a single rhinestone.  In his book Memoirs of a Fashion Jewelry Manufacturer Chapter 7 (1967-69) Belts, Losing Wholesale Customers; Trying to Get Hip Mr DeLizza says on page 75:"I was working with Kenneth Lane in New York and he asked if we could make a belt for him.  With all our colorful stones he thought it would be a great idea.  When I got back to the factory we tried to lay out a belt, but neither Anthony nor Zangara were able to come up with something that would work.  I went home to lunch with my father and discussed our need.

He promised to come in later and work on the project.  When he arrived at the factory he grabbed some heart-shaped scrolls and some mesh chain and in a few hours he cane up with a concept for a belt.  It had a buckle and a hook that caught on to the scrolls, making a reasonably functioning adjustable belt." Then later in the same page. "We now added belts to our line.  We made them with rhinestones for our jewelry customers and one or two with twisted mesh.  Jewelry wholesalers, at first, just rejected them out of hand, as not being their item."  Throughout that chapter he talks about trying to get the belts accepted and they were able to find new customers for the belts.

Then in Chapter 11 (1978-79) Judy, Judy, Judy; Saved by the Belts; A Split at the Factory; Discovered Friends and Family in Italy Mr DeLizza says on page 134: "We were still earning more from belts than we were from jewelry"  Then later on the same page: "We made some innovative mesh belts, Judy put together some cord belts, we made some high polished solid brass belts"  It goes on from there for at least a half a page about all the different belt designs they did.

Most of the belts I have from Mr DeLizza's collection are shown in his book and I assume are the actual belts photographed for his book.  Most date from the 1970's to late 1980's.

These designs shown here and many more can be purchased in my store: https://www.ourvintagerosejewelry.com/shop/MrDeLizza/18.

Jan also included with the jewelry some signed Thank You cards for jewelry purchasers.  These cards are hand signed by Mr DeLizza.  I have a limited amount of them.  For each person that purchases 10 items, or a total purchase value of $400 I will send one of these Thank You notes, while the supply lasts. The items do not have to be purchased all at one time. I will keep track of each persons purchases.  
My next blog will be about Ethnic looking designs.

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