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One of the more fascinating characters in American jewelry history, Paul Flato, designed jewels that were as inventive and flamboyant as their creator.
Born in 1900 into a prosperous family in Texas, Paul Flato enjoyed a privileged upbringing, exposing him from childhood to a world of elegance. In the fall of 1920, he left Texas as an ambitious young man to study business at Colombia University in New York City. Following his first year in the city, he was cut off from his family allowance after declining entreaties to return home. Always interested in jewels, he took a job at jewelry and watch dealer, Edmund Frisch, to support himself. Flato's outgoing personality served him well and using his wealth of connections he was soon able to branch out on his own, opening his own salon on W 57th St.
His earliest sales concentrated on increasingly rare strands of matched natural pearls and designs featuring large diamonds. Flato's most notable diamond supplier in the late 1930s was, a then relatively unknown but ambitious diamond dealer, Harry Winston.
Flato's jewelry ran the gamut from elegant, important jewelry to urbane and slyly witty pieces. Central to his enduring legacy was his talent for employing gifted designers, including several high society notables. His chief designer, Adolph Klety specialized in creating the more formal platinum and diamond jewelry. George Headley, another of his featured designers, was known for creating fanciful gold jewelry and accessories.
The most famous designer associated with Flato however, was Fulco Santo Stefano di Verdura who designed a number of bold, colorful pieces that reflected a shared sense of aesthetics and exuberance.
Flato's wit and imagination were displayed in such original pieces as his series of gold sign language brooches. Other unexpected subjects, often echoing the surrealistic movement of the early twentieth century, included such disparate subjects as feet, nuts and bolts, envelopes, gold boxer shorts, radishes and cactus that were transformed into brooches.
In 1938 Flato opened an elegant store in Hollywood. Forging both personal and professional ties, Flato's jewels were credited in five Hollywood productions and worn by such stars as Rita Hayworth, Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn.