One of the most popular costume jewelry designers around, Lane's fakes are so good, high-end jewelers make copies of his designs with more expensive gems.

Detroit native Lane attended RISD in the '50s and after graduation headed straight to New York, where he worked in the Vogue art department before turning his attention to shoe design. In the 1960s he made his name with designs for Delman and Christian Dior, but it was while working on a shoe collection for Arnold Scaasi that his jewelry career began, when he decided to create earrings to match a pair of rhinestone heels. Within a few years, stores like Neiman Marcus were carrying Lane's jewelry, and society matrons and glamorous celebs were seeking him out to copy million-dollar Cartier designs using fake gems. Over his five decades in the business, Lane has glammed up the likes of Jackie O, Babe Paley, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Vreeland, Nancy Reagan, and Pamela Harriman Lane, while earning millions from his jewelry empire even though there's nary a real diamond or sapphire to be found in his creations.

Lane's designs and high society connections made him a virtual household name in the 1970s and '80s, when his big, bold jewels were red carpet staples and acquired the status of classics in their own right, taking much of the stigma out of "junque" jewelry. His career lulled a bit on the mid-1990s as big baubles fell out of fashion, but he's enjoyed a revival thanks to regular appearances on QVC and a new generation of celebrity fans like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, and Mary-Kate Olsen. [Image via Getty]