Pearls: The cool and the current

Welcome back; I'm delighted to see you again. We roll open the shutters with the traditional rentrée pearl post, but of non-traditional pearls.

The summer stunner

Actors Zoë Kravitz and Karl Glusman married last summer in Paris, during record-breaking heat, at her father Lenny's home. At the wedding rehearsal dinner, the pearls nearly outshone the bride-to-be.

Her stepfather Jason Momoa arrived in a long strand of tiny Tahitian keshi pearls, and dig the pink pants!


(When I hosted six women for an August dinner, Momoa's name came up and every one of them paused speechless within her Jason haze.)

Zoë wore a hand-crocheted Danielle Frankel dress that incorporated hundreds of baroque pearls, over bike shorts and a satin bra:



A few days after her wedding at her father's Paris home (no photo available of that dress), Lenny Kravitz posted a shot of himself with his daughter, in glorious pearl earrings from Marco Bicego's "Unico" collection. Though Kravitz is a petite woman, she is not wearing bitsy jewellery.



Interested in Zoë-sized drops of your own? Wear these with something simple, and don't save them for an occasion.



Left: Detail, baroque 15mm x 20mm petal pearl and sapphire earrings by Sofia Zakia from Twist Online; price, $1, 276. An advantage of petals is that they're lighter.

Top right: Freshwater white (9mm) and pink (19.5mm) pearl Venus earrings by Sophie Bille Brahe from Twist Online; price, $1, 095. (If you have your own 9mm whites, you could add large freshwaters as a reno.)

Bottom right: Dancing Bride pearl earrings from Kojima Company; price, $270. See also the light rainbow metallic 18mm pair in a similar style; price, $360—but there is a sale that ends today! (18% off all selections, the code is SETTINGSALE2019.)

Jacquie sent me this photo from The Sartorialist: back-to-school pearls worn with a winsome retro ensemble:

Photo: The Sartorialist

We, however, graduated some time ago. There's a place for petite pearls, but the modest mid-size is like middle school, okay for a short time, but you're eager to move on.

One of my absolute favourites is the South Sea ombré strand, which need not be huge, because they have such presence.
Pearl Paradise's 37-inch necklace flows from silver to light champagne to rich gold; the size is a versatile 9.7mm-9.9mm. Price, $3, 650. And if you have the budget, there are bigger sizes available.

And you don't need deep pockets to wear womanly pearls. I'd be thrilled to slip on the airily chic 19-inch necklace of 15mm Chinese keshi petals; there is nothing like the all-nacre glow of keshis. From Kojima Company; price, $504, and that sale really helps here.


The design reminds me of a scattering of late-summer roses, captured for year-round wear.

It's a pleasure to be back in the Passage, where we'll share the joys of autumn, my favourite season.

Comments

Eve said…
Welcome back Duchesse, I hope you had a great summer. I have missed you !

Thank you for the eye candy... I adore the "petal pearls". If only I had an occasion to wear such a beautiful piece...

Eve in Montreal
Susan B said…
Welcome back, Duchesse, and gorgeous choices! One of your earlier posts this year sent me over to Kojima, where I succumbed to a gorgeous Keshi strand... ;-)
Champycorn said…
Welcome back, Duchesse! Lovely pearls..
Leslie M said…
I am so glad you are back. The dress that Zoe is wearing would be difficult for sitting, but oh, the reno possibilities!
I bought a couple of peach rosebud earrings during the Kojima sale; one for me and one for a friend. I’m glad the sale ends today, because I’ve been bad this year.
Duchesse said…
Eve: One could wear the keshi petal pearls with clothes as simple as a simple tee or shirt (the kind of style Everlane or ça va de soie sell(, and jeans; they are not formal. But you could wear them with a dress, too. That is the beauty of keshis! I posted on wearing pearls very casually: https://passagedesperles.blogspot.com/2019/06/pearls-t-shirt-treasures.html

Susan B.: Oh would I like to see that! Keshis are probably my favourites.

Leslie M.: What a generous friend! I expect there will be another sale, perhaps after the holidays ;)
LauraH said…
All the pearls you chose to feature are absolutely gorgeous. What a lovely way to start the fall:-)
Love the keshis; still have other wardrobe priorities. At the St-Laurent street sale, I bought something fun and "relaxed real", dangly silver-based earrings, bunches of grapes - the grapes are garnets. As always, there is a lot of junk, but there were some real craftspersons.

Saluted Le Duc as our paths crossed on the cyclepath. (Not psychopath!)
Duchesse said…
Leslie M: Kravitz said that she had originally planned to wear the dress over tailored trousers, which would have provided more of a buffer for the pearls, at least on the bottom— but the rehearsal dinner was during that record heatwave, so she wore the bike shorts.

lagatta: Garnets make wonderful jewellery, especially when the colour and cut are very good. A good-quality find is a thrill at a street fair.
Leslie M said…
I can’t imagine looking at wedding photos 30 years later and seeing myself in bike shorts. But, I can’t image wearing bike shorts in any photo, ever. She looks beautiful.
Leslie, in my case it would be an unwelcome accident, if I were cycling long and fast enough to be wearing bike shorts without a skirt over them. I often do wear gym shorts (bike shorts with no chamois) if cycling at all far, but they are always covered, though I do have pretty colours if I flash them a bit inadvertently. I scarcely know who those celebrities are; have heard of Lenny Kravitz but not my style of music.

That is a show-biz outfit. She is very pretty, and doubtless takes after her parents, but otherwise that outfit is a bit ridiculous, despite the splendid pearls.

Yes, I love these silver and garnet "grapes", and the tiny silver posts attaching them.
Duchesse said…
Leslie M: Nor will she.

Zoë Kravitz did not wear this to her wedding (but you would be surprised at the number of news outlets who said she did. No one knows what she wore for the wedding the next day, in her father's home; she has not published any photos. (The couple in fact married in legal ceremony in the US a month before, as French law requires of non-citizens.)

That rehearsal dinner was at hip Paris restaurant, Laperrousse, which has quite a history, besides three Michelin stars:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/fashion/restaurant-laperouse-paris-france.html

lagatta: Well... keep your skirt down and your earrings on!

Duchesse said…
Correction: Lapérouse.
Mardel said…
Welcome back! And a fabulous pearl post, which is not at all surprising.
Laura J said…
Nice to have you back!
shar said…
That such a 'manly' man is wearing pearls and pink pants is encouraging. But, of course, he is a celebrity and usually they can do anything they want. It's hard enough these days to get little boys to wear pink tshirts on anti-bullying day! How little things have changed, and yet how far we've come....
Duchesse said…
shar: Perhaps pink clothing on men is less common in some countries or regions? Here it would not be remarkable but the strand of keshis would be.

Momoa wears pearls often, mostly Tahitians. And he has a pink scrunchie on his wrist in this shot. Yes, performing artists can push the envelope.

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