Art Nouveau design was first developed in France during the era called "La Belle Epoche" (The Beautiful Time). Coinciding with the Victorian era, it's a style intended as a statement against the industrialization of jewelry making. Designs are curvy, fluid; often of nude female figures, heads, insects, crescents, and common plants. The designs were sometimes intended to evoke mystical symbolism. Jewelry of this era was considered very "avant garde" for the time and it took a bold person who dared to wear it.