Mystery of necklace which disappeared from Paris catwalk 30 years ago

A distinctive necklace which disappeared from a Paris catwalk show three decades ago is at the centre of an international search.

Craftsman Malcolm Morris had made the silver jewellery, which features a taxidermy butterfly mounted behind a rock crystal dome as its centrepiece, for a friend who offered it to designer Alexander McQueen – later to become head of French fashion house Givenchy.

The one-off piece, created in 1994, was transported to Paris – and then went missing.

Now Sarah Burns-Collins, who has worked with Mr Morris for decades, is appealing for more information as she puts together a 50-year retrospective on the craftsman’s work.

“It’s been missing now for about 30 years but there was no way of finding out what really happened to it,” the jeweller, who runs Gold Lark in Salts Mill, near Bradford, said.

“Obviously it got raised as part of Malcolm’s exhibition. We were talking to him about this necklace and really wanted to see more photos of it.

“It was an exciting time for Malcolm because he was expecting this creation he had made on the catwalk… but nobody knows what happened.”

“It was there, ready to be launched, and then it just disappeared,” Ms Burns-Collins, who lives in Harrogate and trained at Sheffield Hallam University, added.

Mr Morris, now 67, lives in Shropshire and is renowned for making items for stage products and films.

A few years after the disappearance of his necklace, he created two tiaras for Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

He said: “It [the necklace] was commissioned by my friend Simon Costin, I think he’d been asked to make it for somebody else.

“It’s very heavy, it’s like a mayoral chain. I don’t think it’s been scrapped, it’s a real statement piece.”

Mr Morris said the original took three weeks and “a couple of grand” to make although it would be cost considerably more “in terms of hours and outlay” to make today.

“It would be nice to know where it is now,” he added.

Art director and curator Mr Costin, who commissioned the piece from Mr Morris, said he approached McQueen with the intention the piece could be used in one of his shows.

Ms Burns-Collins said Mr Costin later asked the designer, who took his own life in 2010, what happened to the necklace but he had “no idea where it had gone.”

She said: “I suspect it is still somewhere in Paris.

“It might be in an antique shop. There’s a possibility one of the models might have taken it home, it might be their favourite party piece.

“We’re just really curious and want to see if we can find out more about it, especially as Malcolm is now celebrating 50 years of being a maker.

“It would be lovely to have this final piece of the puzzle.”