New jewelry: Update and explore!
Much as we hope for eternal wear when we drop big bucks, we can't cheat the current of innovation.
Just like a jacket, a piece of jewelry will flash its edge for a year or two, achieve acceptability for a good while longer, and then saunter out of style. When? Usually within ten to fifteen years for contemporary pieces, a decade or less for very fashiony items. A fine antique piece earns its keep into succeeding generations, but only if exemplary from the start.
1. A bracelet of new and daring materials
A strand of semiprecious beads is my #1 choice for longevity, but the material must be lively. Ideally, I'd like a rope of tumbled emerald beads, but I'd also be happy (okay, not as happy, but happy) with this F Frank sea glass bead necklace ($125.)
Many women rely on tubular gold hoops, the Ry-Vita of the earring world, lovable but safe. Jane Diaz small (7/8 inch) hoops are gold vermeil; price, $77. Note the small gold balls on the bottom curve; that's the detail we want.
4. A big ring
For semi-precious pieces, how about donating or gifting? Spring's church bazaars or other good-cause sales are both sources for donation and good places to browse as long as you don't end up with someone else's out of date baubles.
Precious jewelry
See the difference?
Just like a jacket, a piece of jewelry will flash its edge for a year or two, achieve acceptability for a good while longer, and then saunter out of style. When? Usually within ten to fifteen years for contemporary pieces, a decade or less for very fashiony items. A fine antique piece earns its keep into succeeding generations, but only if exemplary from the start.
Flat-link gold chains, doorknocker earrings, most diamond ERs older than 20 years, all that Tiffany gra-doo (hugs and kisses, Return to Tiffany, dogtags, beans) and pretty much anything with a logo you can read without a loupe have seen their best moments.
If interested in updating, research what's current, then save for one perfect piece.
Some choices I'd consider:
Monique Péan makes starkly beautiful peices with unconventional materials. This bracelet is made from wooly mammoth beads, opalina, pearls and pietersite. See the tiny diamond set in the hook clasp? Price, $2,575.
I'm reading your mind: perhaps something more affordable? Consider Jane Diaz' silver, copper and brass Tri-color metal loop bracelet, which could mix with your bangles or live on its own. 7-inch length, price, $102.
2. Striking beads
Modernity with pearl: Gabrille Sanchez' necklace of dégradé pink tourmaline and sunstone beads with a big Tahitian pearl and 18k clasp. Makes you realize how dated 97% of the pearl pendants out there are. (And an idea not all that hard to adapt if you have one to reno.) Price, $1,155.
3. Modern hoops
Annette Ferdinandsen coral stick hoops are a welcome change from stolid circles, organic and graceful in matte silver. Diameter, 1 1/2 inches; price, $275.
4. A big ring
I mean, sister, a ring that says you're livin' it up.
Even if you have short fingers, ditch the small stuff–bitsy rings won't lend length. Try on designs where the stone goes south, not just north toward the nail. You'll see this really makes a difference.
Deszo coral ring with polki (Indian-stye uncut) diamond on 18k rose gold band, $968.
The chalcedony ring by Jamie Joseph shows a luscious big (and semiprecious) stone with an inset small diamond. Price, $726. Shown as example; currently out of stock but may be reordered.
This is a brilliant way to use a small diamond that was lost on its own. If embarking on a reno project, note that the reno should look absolutely current; this does. (Some jewelers create a new piece with a passé look because their design skills got stuck some years ago.)
What to do with the dated stuff?
For semi-precious pieces, how about donating or gifting? Spring's church bazaars or other good-cause sales are both sources for donation and good places to browse as long as you don't end up with someone else's out of date baubles.
Precious jewelry
You could hang on and wait for it to become stylish again, but I can guarantee that you'll no longer be charmed. You might eventually bequeath it to someone, and hope by then it will be a desirable antique, an iffy strategy unless someone has expressed interest.
Renos are my preferred route for serious but out-of-date pieces; a modest investment can result in something sublime. Make something that makes you swoon, like Ann Sportun's Diamond Verve cocktail ring! (Ann redesigned a piece for me; she's a wonderful jeweler.)
When the design is undesirable, dealers or auction houses are not interested, and private buyers, unless you find someone with specific (and stale) taste, won't want it either. You can sell it for scrap value, but shop around for the best price.
Renos are my preferred route for serious but out-of-date pieces; a modest investment can result in something sublime. Make something that makes you swoon, like Ann Sportun's Diamond Verve cocktail ring! (Ann redesigned a piece for me; she's a wonderful jeweler.)
When the design is undesirable, dealers or auction houses are not interested, and private buyers, unless you find someone with specific (and stale) taste, won't want it either. You can sell it for scrap value, but shop around for the best price.
Meet Becky, who's wearing a white shirt and slim navy pants. She's also wearing this gold curb-link necklace with pavé diamond accent, bought in 1983 with a year-end bonus when she was a corporate lawyer wearing skirted suits. She loved it till sometime in the 1990s. Then inertia set in, so she wears it anyway.
Flash forward six months: Becky sold it after asking us what we thought. She's semi-retired, and doesn't want that "power look" anymore, either. She chose this Roseanne Pugliese 38-inch Modern Link necklace of silver and 22k gold, which she can wear long or doubled. (There are three gold link sections.) She did something noble with the leftover cash, don't press me.
Flash forward six months: Becky sold it after asking us what we thought. She's semi-retired, and doesn't want that "power look" anymore, either. She chose this Roseanne Pugliese 38-inch Modern Link necklace of silver and 22k gold, which she can wear long or doubled. (There are three gold link sections.) She did something noble with the leftover cash, don't press me.
See the difference?
Comments
Francie
Pseu: Like art, jewelry is a risky investment. An exceptional piece by an acclaimed house, a piece with historic provenance or jewelry made of superb quality (usually large) gems holds its value or may even appreciate, but most of our moms didn't have that.
So, that leaves some faceless group of people who want to wear dated jewelery, perhaps ironically. When i moved, I donated shopping bags of that stuff to a church sale.
I too have seen fleas and eBay sites glutted with the stuff. Sometimes designers will troll such places for necklaces etc. they can pull apart and restyle, but they want to pay very, very little for it.
Chicatanyage: That is an option, but I see the dated stuff remain unsold there. Auction is good for current or vintage, though.
However, I wear little contemporary costume, as dislike fake gold, imitation pearls, etc. Vintage costume can be stunning- the quality and materials were so much better, and bakelite is one of my favourite things on earth!
Since you are a new commenter, you might have missed one of my constant mottoes: "After 50, your jewelry should be real". I don't mean precious, just real, even if a string of shells or a beach wood pendant.
Any excuse to get together with women friends and drink wine sounds good to me!
By the way, as luck would have it, I went out for a coffee an hour ago and saw one of the Park Avenue dowagers attempting to hail a cab on Madison (good luck with that at 4:30). She was probably in her eighties, full Chanel, heavy matching necklace, earrings, multiple rings and bracelets. And you know what? Even though she looked dated, she still looked fabulous. I wanted to hug the old girl!
But my plain gold hoops I wear several times a week, and I have them in three different sizes! I do love the hoops pictured, though, and also have a pair of twisted gold ones my husband brought me from Italy a few years ago. Some styles are just so classic to me, I don't think I'll ever consider them dated. I also have some angst about selling pieces to be melted down....somehow that just seems wrong to me, unless they're broken. I might feel that way because I love antique & vintage, and I hate to see things "disappear". Unfortunately for me, neither my mom nor her mom had any real jewelry other than their wedding rings...I would have inherited it all, as the only daughter of an only daughter. What I do have, though, is a largeish collection of vintage costume jewelry, mainly pins, and many of those are sparkly! Love them, and I try to wear them when they can be worked into an outfit.
Having said all that, I think I probably should take a look at my jewelry and figure out if I want to shed any of it, or give it to my teenage girls ( who don't wear much jewelry anyway).
SusanNYC: I much prefer women in current, real jewelry or fine antique or vintage; if the old dowager look is what one aspires to, that is a brilliant description of how to do it. Costume, unless exceptionally well-designed (and therefore usually vintage), is soulless to me.
Jill Ann: Antique and vintage is one thing, but why hang onto "power" gold that is now only passé? Better to sell because recyled gold is a far better environmental choice than new, mined gold.
Many women wear "classic" because they are comfortable in it, and I see the appeal- so perhaps they might mix in a more current piece like the one of those rings along with those plain hoops. But since it's my blog: if I see another woman in one-inch tubular gold hoops I am going to fall asleep.
While the gems themselves may not date, it is the *styling* that usually gives the era away. So, I've updated the clasps on my pearls.
Eventually most pearls show their age thanks to exposure to air pollution, body oil, cosmetics and the fact that nacre on many varieties is thinner now. But like us, some hold up better than others :)
C.
P.S. to SusanNYC: Your silver strands and Roman coin necklace sounds pretty wonderful to me!
I will instead wear my larger, twisted Italian gold hoops, much less snoozeworthy!
c.: It is the soulless quality of so much costume that makes me pause. Too-shiny metal, glass pearls without the depth of nacre, stamped instead of hand-cast settings. I've liked some costume (Marni most recently) but the price is so high for that level, realize I could buy a vintage piece of silver or an armful of bright straw bangles handmade in Africa for less. Am not a woman who will only wear "important" jewelry, it is just as you say, the costume often does not wear well.
I do have some "unreal" things and will post them fairly soon.
http://www.laurenwolfjewelry.com/
While shopping the store i noticed that the silver sharkskin signet ring would make a brilliant cuff/small hoop earring for everyday wear. As it happened, i was mentioning this to Ms. Wolf herself!
i felt a wee bit awkward, but Ms. Wolf was keen on the idea and when i returned later that afternoon (after checking out the rest of the temescal alley goods) she was able to show me the start she had made on my idea. It looked even better than i envisioned!
Now i need to save some scratch....hope you enjoy Ms. Wolf's designs! steph
www.shopesqueleto.com