Many of the recent Chloe and Isabel collections and capsules contain Jet. I never knew what this was and assumed they shortened “Jet Black” to simply “jet”.

Upon further research, I discovered that jet is an actual minor gemstone. Jet is a precursor to coal but is not considered a true mineral but rather a mineraloid. Jet can be either Black or dark brown and some jet stones contain pyrite (fools gold). Jet is a product of high pressure decomposition of wood from millions of years ago, commonly the wood of trees of the family Araucariaceae.

Jet comes in two forms:

Jet has been used as far back as the bronze age and saw a massive resurgence in the victorian era (is anyone surprised by this?) Jet as a gemstone was fashionable during the reign of Queen Victoria, during which the Queen wore Whitby jet as part of her mourning dress, mourning the death of Prince Albert. Jet was associated with mourning jewellery in the 19th century because of its sombre color and modest appearance. It has been traditionally fashioned into rosaries for monks. In the United States, long necklaces of jet beads were very popular during the Roaring Twenties, when women and young flappers would wear multiple strands of jet beads stretching from the neckline to the waistline.