Jewels on Jewels
A look at trends influencing your customers and tips on helping them choose flattering jewelry, from an image consultant and co-author of Jewelry Savvy.
Trend Watch: It’s Crystal Clear
One of my recent posts commented upon icy silvery wristwatches, noting that they were, in a manner, colorless, a brilliant extension of a white hue. Colorless is an important trend now and through spring 2010 in accessories, and particularly in jewelry. In the Italian designer collections for spring, clear Lucite made a strong showing, appearing in the collections of Fendi (Lucite clutches), and P ...... Read More
Comments (0)Not Just for Halloween: Scary Rings and Silly Ears
Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, and costume parties lasted extra long as we set our clocks back an hour. Lately, certain extreme styles of jewelry and accessories have been crossing the line into the realm of costumes. Although it takes more than a little gumption to wear these looks, some women who embrace edgy style are extending the look and longevity of costumes ever further. While Got ...... Read More
Comments (0)The Influential Bride: How Ivanka Trump’s Wedding Style May Cause an End to the Ubiquity of Strapless Gowns and Influence Brides to Wear Jewelry in Their Hair
One beautiful and influential bride can have a significant effect on the direction of bridal fashion. Last Sunday, Ivanka Trump was such a bride as she wed Jared Kushner at the Trump National Golf Club. Both her wedding gown as well as her wedding jewelry, the latter from her own Ivanka Trump Collection, created ripples in the bridal fashion world. Her wedding gown, developed in collaboration wit ...... Read More
Comments (0)Spilling the Beads—Long Necklaces with the Season’s Blouses
Adornment around the neck continues as the key trend in jewelry this season, the easiest way to update a look. Moreover, in these economic times, shoppers want value for their money, so the more versatility that can be wrung from a single item of jewelry, the more its perceived value. The result is that a single necklace or a single combination of necklaces is often burdened with the task of updat ...... Read More
Comments (1)Surprising Poll Numbers About Piled-On Pearls in Glamour Magazine
Despite the fashion world’s enthusiastic endorsement of wearing many, many strands of real or faux pearls together, and the regular sighting of this look on numerous celebrities, the November 2009 issue of Glamour magazine discloses that the look is not equally endorsed by consumers. Opinions are almost equally divided, with a surprising 49 percent of Glamour readers polled saying that ...... Read More
Comments (1)Trend Watch: Exuberant Color—Jewelry for the Young and the Young at Heart
With jewelry this season trending toward low-key matte, japanned and antiqued metals and colorless stones (more on these trends to follow in future postings), there is a countervailing trend bound to put a smile on even a curmudgeon’s face. This look employs bright gemstones in eye-popping mixes of color. In their most outrageous styling adaptation, these colorful jewels add another layer o ...... Read More
Comments (0)What Jewelry to Wear with Brass Buttons & Military-Inspired Style
The military look has been big this past year in the music world, with Coldplay riffing on the style of the Beatles in their “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” look, and, of course, the world remembering Michael Jackson and his military-inspired jackets. The look translated into women’s high fashion in the spring 2009 collection of designer Balmain, where a highly ...... Read More
Comments (0)Wristwatch Wardrobing and the Power of the Third
In a businessperson’s wardrobe, as any image consultant will tell you, there is power in the “third piece,” typically consisting of a jacket or blazer that lends authority to an ensemble and reads “professional.” The November 2009 issue of Esquire magazine espouses a variation of this concept in its feature article “The Essential: The Third Watch.” ...... Read More
Comments (0)How Items of Clothing (and Jewelry) Define Us to the World – Inspiration from an Elle Magazine Essay Contest
If you have ever engaged the services of an image consultant to help you refine your personal or professional image, you may have been asked to describe not only your current favorite “go-to” outfit, but also your all-time favorite ensemble. As a follow-up question, the image professional will inquire why you chose those ensembles as your favorites. What feelings, emotions and memori ...... Read More
Comments (0)Trend Watch: Icy Silvery Drama for the Wrist
This display of beautiful icy silver-colored watches from the October 2009 issue of InStyle magazine can simultaneously seem to cause the temperature to drop in the room and the pulse to race. The effect is created by the bright silvery metallic leather straps on each of the watches, accenting a stainless steel case “iced with diamonds, flowers or mirrored extras,” as described by In ...... Read More
Comments (0)Trend Watch: Over or Under—Options for Necklace Placement with Bow Blouses and Tie-Neck Dresses
It can be fascinating to watch what consumer brands’ own stylists do with jewelry to style an ad, and to compare that approach with what celebrity stylists and costume designers do with the same styles of clothing and jewelry. Their approaches can be different, even diametrical, presenting interesting styling options. Perusing the October 2009 issue of InStyle magazine, I found an ad for DK ...... Read More
Comments (1)Trend Watch: Long Sleeves (sort of), with Bracelets
It is almost exactly one year ago to the day that I wrote a blog post entitled “Customer Watch: When Long Sleeves Are Not Right,” commenting upon an article by Plum Sykes in the October 2008 issue of Vogue. In the article, Sykes extolled what she deemed the perfect sleeve: long and close-fitting: “I am very specific about what kind of sleeve counts as chic,” she opined, ...... Read More
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