We examine the pieces which are at once chic accoutrements and an elegant throwback to The Land Before Time
Toy Small Dinosaur Earrings by Céline
Blue and green resin, silver brass
When I was growing up, the highlight of my week was the acquisition of Dinosaurs magazine: a publication whose 90s graphics and prehistoric factboxes were, each issue, accompanied by a different part of a 3D wooden puzzle. After about six months, you could construct a fully-formed Tyrannosaurus Rex from collecting these pieces, and mine took pride of place in my bedroom. I don’t know what happened to that T-Rex, but I do know that I can now transfer my childhood fanaticism for chasmosaurs and dimetrodons into these Céline earrings which, formed from translucent resin, look a little like a throwback keepsake – and thus encompass both the thoroughly 90s fascination with the prehistoric era (Jurassic Park, A Land Before Time and Super Mario’s Return to Dinosaur Land were all particular playground favourites), and the intangible chic that Phoebe Philo is so renowned for. Plus, with their tiny little arms, I am pretty sure they are a T-Rex, too (the development of such small appendages is, according to Dinosaurs, a particular palaeolithic mystery).
They are the grown-up version of the sort of trinket that I probably would have attached to a pencil case in my youth, but are now rendered in silver brass and resin rather than plastic and stainless steel. Elevating infantile obsession into adult luxury is nothing short of delightful, and my eight-year-old self would be crowing with glee if she saw a grown-up sporting such accessories. So I shall wear these proudly, knowing it will transform me at once into both the ultimate fantasy that is Céline woman, and the Pied Piper. Surely such a multifarious presentation of self is worth the cost.
