Category: Fashion Trends

The Fashion Statement: Woolly Mammoth Ivory is Huge

Woolly mammoth ivory jewelry is everywhere.
Luxury retailer Stanley Korshak in Dallas can’t keep it in stock. Michelle Obama has been photographed numerous times wearing it. For CFDA design darling Monique Péan and Ivory Jacks in Bothel, Washington, that create jewelry out of the material, business has been good.
The First Lady wore woolly mammoth jewelry by [...]

Julia Roberts’ Bangle Bracelets

Bare arms and bangle bracelets are a summer classic. Julia Roberts is on her “Eat Pray Love” media tour this month and she wore an armful of golden bangles to her appearance at the Regis and Kelly show this morning, Monday August 9th. Roberts was wearing a stack of bangles by Melinda Maria: a pair [...]

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WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Graff develops own watch movement | Professional Jeweller.com

Well, there you have it!  A world class jewelry designer and retailer moves into the ultra-expensive watch industry.

Professional Jeweler can exclusively reveal that Graff has developed its own watch movement for the first time and will be unveiling the movement, which it has dubbed Graff Calibre 1, in Basel this week.
The movement will be showcased [...]

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Colored Gemstones: Forever Fascinating

The universe of colored gemstones is endlessly fascinating, for centuries, nearly every culture has held the belief that colored gemstones possess magical powers or the ability to provide the wearer with certain attributes.
This way of thinking has motivated the world of fashion. Natural gemstone jewelry is mystical in all of its beauty. Women need to [...]

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New Jewelry Designs by Michelle Trachtenberg for Coach

New cutting edge jewelry line from Coach will have them all standing in line. We love these new jewelry designs!

News & Trends: Michelle Trachtenberg may be one of Hollywood’s hardest working actresses. The star of Gossip Girl and Mercy has teamed up with Poppy from Coach to create her first jewelry collection.

The Michelle Trachtenberg for Poppy collection is as multi-faceted as Michelle’s roles, combining pretty gemstones with chunky hardware. Poppy describes the look as “confident yet romantic, rockin’ yet refined.”

The collection is filled with colorful Swarovski crystals handset in Coach’s signature hardware.

Each item is a statement in itself including rings, earrings, chunky multi-strand necklaces and cuff-style bracelets.

Personally, I love the Jackie O pearls meets Mr. T, “Pearl and Chain Necklace” combo that perfectly reflects a hardcore girly-girl.

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Fun Ways to Wear Your Jewelry

As with everything else in life, sometimes we fall into habits in how we wear our jewelry. We put the brooch on out left shoulder, we wear the same necklace with the same dress and the same earrings.

This article will help stimulate your thinking about how you wear jewelry. It’s not exhaustive — if you have other ideas of better ways to use jewelry, let me know. Pins are perhaps the most versatile of jewelry. In addition to the usual shoulder or lapel, they are often worn with scarves. Try these other ways of wearing your pins to extend your jewelry vocabulary.

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Art Deco Jewelry

If you are a true lover of the periodic jewelry, the style and miniature art of art deco jewelry will definitely take your heart away. Originated in Paris, art deco jewelry is a rare combination of aristocratic preferences with a modern touch that enhances the individuality of its wearers.

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Titanium Jewelry Myths

To many people, titanium is a mysterious term. Titanium jewelry: General understanding of the public for this metal is that it is a very hard substance, and some may know that is very light as well, especially for folks who own any titanium jewelry or watches. We would like to clarify some common myths about this metal and give brief explanation for each one.

Titanium is a newly found metal
Titanium is new to many industries and recently applied to many new applications, but the metal was first discovered in 1791, in England. It was discovered by an amateur chemist in an impure form called rutile. It was not used widely until the last century because the technique for extracting titanium from its naturally occurred ore remained a failure until 1910. It was used in many applications after it was shown that its alloys can be produced commercially by reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium in 1940.

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Yellow Diamonds Are First Choice for the Fashion Savvy

Treasured, rare and always adding sparkle into our lives, diamonds will never fall out of fashion. Life’s most endearing moments – engagements, birthdays and anniversaries – are celebrated with diamonds. But most people believe that a diamond with color is an inferior jewel. Not so, according to many classic jewelry designers. On the contrary, colored diamonds are some of the most precious stones around.

Jennifer Lopez’s 6-carat fancy pink engagement ring and Paris Hilton’s 24-carat, $5 million fancy yellow engagement ring are credited with bringing colored diamonds back into the spotlight.

Like Hilton and Lopez, many women yearn to set themselves apart from everyone else. The rarity of fancy yellow diamonds – only 2 percent to 3 percent of diamonds mined in the world are considered “fancy yellow” – makes them popular among women who want to make a statement with their stones.

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Cultured Pearls From The Queen Conch: Scientists Unlock Mystery

(Nov. 5, 2009) — For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch (Strombus gigas) have been unsuccessful — until now. For the first time, novel and proprietary seeding techniques to produce beaded (nucleated) and non-beaded cultured pearls from the queen conch have been developed by scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI).

With less than two years of research and experimentation, Drs. Héctor Acosta-Salmón and Megan Davis, co-inventors, have produced more than 200 cultured pearls using the techniques they developed. Prior to this breakthrough, no high-quality queen conch pearl had been cultured. This discovery opens up a unique opportunity to introduce a new gem to the industry. This significant accomplishment is comparable to that of the Japanese in the 1920s when they commercially applied the original pearl culture techniques developed for pearl oysters.

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Are Gemstones a girl’s new best friend?

Colorful gemstones are just anybody’s dream to have. Their natural colors more than match your very fashionable dresses. Their sheer range could strike you spell bound. Gemstones are precious or semiprecious mineral stones which when cut and faceted can be used as jewels.

There is more to gemstones than just being jewelry items. They are regarded as lucky when worn specific to an individual’s birth month. Before we deal with this aspect in detail lets see the classification of gemstones.

Classification and Characteristics of Gemstones

There is a tri-level classification of gemstones namely, groups, species and varieties. Simply put, rubies which are red in color belong to conundrum species which in turn belong to hematite group. Others like emerald, aquamarine, goshenite, heliodor and morganite, all of them belong to that variety known as beryl. There are over 150 different species available.

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Ivanka Trump gets married in jewels from her own line

New York–It shouldn’t come as any surprise whose jewelry Ivanka Trump wore the other night when she walked down the aisle to marry newspaper owner and fellow real estate scion Jared Kushner. Why, her own, of course.

The Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry owner, who married Kushner in a private ceremony at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., wore a custom Vera Wang gown and $265,000 in jewels from Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, including a custom-designed, platinum and mixed-cut diamond hair piece, platinum and mixed-cut diamond cluster earrings and an art deco platinum and fancy-link diamond estate bracelet.

The hair piece, valued at $45,000, accented Trump’s veil and featured 6.38 carats of diamonds, while her $90,000 estate bracelet weighed in at 26 carats of diamonds. It was her hefty earrings, though, that carried the heaviest price tag: $130,000 for the 9.67-carat total-weight stunners.

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$3 Million Fantasy Bra By Victoria’s Secret

Everybody knows that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. And everybody knows that Victoria’s Secret is a guy’s best friend. So, it only makes sense to combine friends and make everyone happy. This season, Victoria’s Secret is unveiling a $3 million fantasy bra, and it features quite an impressive collection of diamonds.

The Fantasy Bra has nearly 2,500 diamonds of various colors, including a huge 16-carat heart-shaped diamond in the middle. The diamonds are colored white, cognac and champagne.

The bra, which boasts 150 carats, was designed exclusively for Victoria’s Secret by Italian jeweler Damiani and manufactured in Valenza, Italy. It can be worn five ways, including strapless, halter, crossback, one-strap or classic.

Every year Victoria’s Secret includes a novelty bra as part of its fall fashion. Last year’s model was worth $5 million. The 2003 model, which was worth $8 million, was famously worn and broken by Heidi Klum on the Jay Leno Show. However, because the recession, this year’s bra is worth a “mere” $3 million.

On December 1st you can all see Marisa Miller modeling the 2009 Fantasy Bra at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which will air on the CBS television network. Fergie and the Black-Eyed Peas will be performing at the event. Allegedly, front row tickets for the spectacular are going for $25,000.

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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 updating many ensembles in a wardrobe.

A necklace, more than any other item of jewelry, needs to be chosen with consideration of the garments with which it will be worn. Almost any necklace, long or short, complex or simple, can work with a simple sheath dress, a garment that lives for adornment. But with the cooler weather arrive styles of garments that are not as forgiving in their requirements.

One of the trickiest of such garments is the blouse. Created from a soft, even fluid, fabric such as silk, a blouse is too fragile to support the weight of a brooch, let alone recover from the puncture marks it would cause. Long (or long-ish) sleeves limit the number of bracelets that can be worn. And thus the necklace becomes the adornment of choice.

Jewel-neck blouses, like sheath dresses, love adornment. So long as the necklace(s) are visually dominant over the short neckline of such a blouse, any style necklace, long or short, works well. When a jewel-neck blouse is layered under a blazer or jacket, that third piece will guide the placement of a necklace.

Blouses with collars, ruffles and button fronts are much trickier to adorn with necklaces, and several recent items in the fashion magazines demonstrate this point.

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Horse Jewelry: Express Your Free Feelings

A popular motif in jewelry, even among city dwellers, is horses. Horse jewelry is enigmatic and evokes a sense of strength as well as of mystery. Now one would have to ask: why horses? Why care about an animal rarely seen in the city anyway?

Horses symbolize freedom, and pride in freedom. Wild horses come with the connotation of spiritual and emotional independence. Have you ever seen or read “The Horse Whisperer” or “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”? Perhaps the snow-white horse named Shadowfax in the “Lord of the Rings” movies has evoked a sense of unbridled freedom in you? And yet, Hollywood has not even begun to touch on the importance of horses in ancient cultures. Far from being mere beasts of burden, horses were also trusted friends. Native Americans paid great respect to the horses they have domesticated, for they were useful in hunting and traveling.

Wearing horse jewelry is a celebration of independence, a rallying cry to break free from the bonds of society and be graceful, proud and natural.

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Estate Silver Jewelry Is A Hot Fashion Pick!

Sterling silver is an excellent choice in estate jewelry. Long lasting, easy to care for, and so beautiful. Buying estate jewelry sterling silver can be a lot of fun but it can also be confusing. Whether you are looking at sterling silver for a gift for that special someone or looking to add to your own jewelry to make that fashion statement, it’s important you understand the terms that are used throughout the industry. Once you understand the terminology you will be better equipped to choose quality pieces of sterling silver jewelry and you’ll be able to complete your purchases with a lot more confidence.

It doesn’t matter whether you are buying on line or at your local store. It doesn’t matter if you are buying in the USA or Canada or in Europe or China. The terminology used to describe silver are the same around the world.

Sterling silver jewelry has always been popular and remains so today. Sterling silver estate jewelry has also shared it’s time in the limelight but in recent years its popularity has exploded. That’s because buyers are looking for something a little more unique than modern sterling silver can offer. Everyone knows how beautiful sterling silver is and how durable it is, that’s one of the reasons it’s such a popular choice. And of course let’s not forget how affordable it is!

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Largest Mass Wedding In A Decade

More than 40,000 people from around the world were recently involved in the biggest mass wedding in over a decade. Brides in white dresses and Japanese kimonos joined grooms in black suits and red ties to exchange wedding rings.

The mass wedding was the largest “blessing ceremony” held by the Unification Church since 1999. 89-year-old Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the church, oversaw the ceremony. His followers are known as Moonies.

Most of the couples receiving blessing were marrying for the first time, but many were renewing their vows. The reverend also blessed 10,000 couples from Sweden to Brazil, who were taking part in ceremonies around the world.

The massive world-wide ceremony was meant to celebrate two key anniversaries in the leader’s life: his 90th birthday and his 50th wedding anniversary. Sun Myung Moon is getting ready to hand everyday leadership of the church over to his children.

Dressed in a sharp black suit, Rev. Moon sprinkled holy water over the couple before they exchanged rings.

“It’s the realization of a dream I’ve had for so long. Taking part in a mass wedding only adds to the profoundness — I barely have the words to describe what I feel,” said Laudicea Corina de Padua in Brazil. “Marrying in this way, with so many other people around the world, will give more strength to our union, it feels like they are all a part of us,” her husband said.

Many opponents of the church claim that it engages in cult-like practices. They argue that the mass weddings prove that it brainwashes its followers, since most members let Moon pick their spouses, and that couples meet for the first time at the mass weddings.

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Mens Jewelry: Now a Classic and New Materials

In recent years, men’s jewelry has come into the spotlight. Years ago, Tiger Woods began wearing magnetic bracelets to apparently help his golf game. These bracelets were titanium, steel or sterling silver and were often in the cuff style. Well, I do not know if the bracelet improved his game but it may have helped start the ball rolling on the bracelet jewelry trend. Soon after, more and more professional golfers began to wear these bracelets and soon after that more and more golf enthusiasts. Not surprisingly, these enthusiasts were soon wearing their “golf” bracelets all the time. Perhaps they thought that the more they wore their bracelet, the greater benefit it would have. In hindsight, I wonder if there was something more to the increased popularity of these seemingly functional-only bracelets.

Years later, professional cyclist Lance Armstrong unveiled his now infamous yellow rubber “Live Strong” bracelet and launched his Lance Armstrong Foundation. These little yellow yet powerful bracelets were soon being worn by everybody from celebrities to your next door neighbor – men included. Lance’s choice of material – rubber – and color (very gender neutral) were probably key factors to their immediate and widespread popularity. This is, of course, not to mention that the bracelets were for a worthy cause and led by one of America’s favored sportsman at the time.

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Jewelry and the Darkside: Fashionable Gothic Jewelry

No, by jewelry and the darkside, we are not referring to Darth Vader’s dark side of the force. However, the idea of jewelry inspired by Anakin Skywalker, the Sith and his Emperor sure is tantalizing. Here, if you think more about the likes of Morticia Addams of the Addams family, then you’re on the right track. Gothic jewelry is the type of jewelry that the likes of her would wear: mysterious, brooding, yet elegant. Viewed this way, jewelry and the darkside certainly can go hand in hand.

Gothic jewelry, or darkside jewelry, as opposed to ‘light,’ evokes images of the macabre and the preternatural: vampires, the dead and undead, spirits, black magic and the black arts. As such, artisans craft items that would appeal to a person’s dark or gothic side. There is an abundance of e-commerce websites and specialty stores whose emphasis is on jewelry and the darkside. In these places, a person will be able to find gothic jewelry such as pentacle pendants, Gothic cross necklaces, spider-and-web piercings, and more.

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How Jewelry Hits The Red Carpet

When twice-nominated actress Chandra Wilson arrived at the 61st Prime time Emmy Awards, it might have seemed the star–known for her role as the no-nonsense director of interns on Grey’s Anatomy–simply traded her scrubs for haute couture and hit the red carpet.
Far from it.

The gown, the jewelry, everything that she wore on the evening of Sept. 20, was the product of months of intense planning.

“Once I found out she was nominated, I started literally, that day, making phone calls, and I already had an idea of who I wanted her to wear,” says Sharon Gary, Wilson’s stylist for the past five years.

Two months, one Pamela Rolland gown and a suite of Chopard jewelry later, Wilson appeared on television screens across the nation, glowing and carefree.

But this seemingly seamless and momentous red-carpet moment and others like it are the result of an intricate web of relationship building between the stylists, public relations reps and designers who help shape the Hollywood apparel and jewelry trends that often resurface, in some manner, on Main Street.

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Jewelry References

  • Jewelry Information Center (JIC) Jewelry Information Center (JIC) is the public relations arm of the fine jewelry and watch industries. Founded as a non-profit trade association in 1946 in New York City, JIC is funded by its members (nearly 1,000 manufacturers, designers, and retailers o Jewelry Information Center (JIC) is the public relations arm of the fine jewelry and watch industries. Founded as a non-profit trade association in 1946 in New York City, JIC is funded by its members (nearly 1,000 manufacturers, designers, and retailers o
  • Fashion Conversations
  • AGS Laboratories AGS Laboratories is the world’s premier diamond grading laboratory for diamond cut, the first diamond laboratory to offer a diamond cut grade based on proven science and the first laboratory to offer cut grading for fancy shapes including princess, emeral AGS Laboratories is the world’s premier diamond grading laboratory for diamond cut, the first diamond laboratory to offer a diamond cut grade based on proven science and the first laboratory to offer cut grading for fancy shapes including princess, emeral
  • Cultured Pearl Association of America The Cultured Pearl Association of America, Inc is a non profit group founded in 1957, comprised of the finest manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers and suppliers of Cultured Pearls in the United States.  Our intention is to “cultivate” awareness, interest, The Cultured Pearl Association of America, Inc is a non profit group founded in 1957, comprised of the finest manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers and suppliers of Cultured Pearls in the United States. Our intention is to “cultivate” awareness, interest,
  • American Gem Labs (AGL) American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) is an international gemstone testing facility specializing in comprehensive colored gemstone analysis. AGL provides identification reports, detailed enhancement reports, country-of-origin or provenance reports, as w American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) is an international gemstone testing facility specializing in comprehensive colored gemstone analysis. AGL provides identification reports, detailed enhancement reports, country-of-origin or provenance reports, as w
  • The World Jewellery Confederation CIBJO is an international confederation of national jewelery trade organizations. CIBJO’s purpose is to encourage harmonization, promote international cooperation in the jewelery industry, and to consider issues which concern the trade worldwide. CIBJO is an international confederation of national jewelery trade organizations. CIBJO’s purpose is to encourage harmonization, promote international cooperation in the jewelery industry, and to consider issues which concern the trade worldwide.
  • AGTA Gem Industry Guide The AGTA is recognized within the jewelry trade as the authoritative source on natural colored gemstones: “The voice of the natural colored gemstone, pearl and cultured pearl industries.” The AGTA is recognized within the jewelry trade as the authoritative source on natural colored gemstones: “The voice of the natural colored gemstone, pearl and cultured pearl industries.”
  • Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Established in 1931, GIA is the world’s largest and most respected nonprofit institute of gemological research and learning.  GIA discovers (through GIA Research), imparts (through GIA Education), and applies (through the GIA Laboratory and GIA Instrument Established in 1931, GIA is the world’s largest and most respected nonprofit institute of gemological research and learning. GIA discovers (through GIA Research), imparts (through GIA Education), and applies (through the GIA Laboratory and GIA Instrument
  • Platinum Guild International The Platinum Guild International is the official website for platinum jewelry; offering advice and information, design inspiration, and where to find a recommended platinum retailer in your area. The site is brought to you by Platinum Guild International, The Platinum Guild International is the official website for platinum jewelry; offering advice and information, design inspiration, and where to find a recommended platinum retailer in your area. The site is brought to you by Platinum Guild International,
  • The Silver Institute The Silver Institute is a nonprofit international association that draws its membership from across the breadth of the silver industry. This includes leading silver mining houses, refiners, bullion suppliers, manufacturers of silver products and wholesale The Silver Institute is a nonprofit international association that draws its membership from across the breadth of the silver industry. This includes leading silver mining houses, refiners, bullion suppliers, manufacturers of silver products and wholesale
  • World Gold Council Founded in 1987, the World Gold Council is an organization formed and funded by the world’s leading gold mining companies with the aim of stimulating and maximising the demand for, and holding of Gold. Founded in 1987, the World Gold Council is an organization formed and funded by the world’s leading gold mining companies with the aim of stimulating and maximising the demand for, and holding of Gold.

Jewelry Titans

  • Tiffany & Company The year was 1837. Charles Lewis Tiffany and his schoolmate John Young traveled from New England to New York City with an idea and a dream that were to become Tiffany & Co. While the first day of business brought a mere four dollars and 98 cents, the The year was 1837. Charles Lewis Tiffany and his schoolmate John Young traveled from New England to New York City with an idea and a dream that were to become Tiffany & Co. While the first day of business brought a mere four dollars and 98 cents, the
  • Harry Winston Harry Winston always possessed a gift; he had an eye for the best gemstones and a nose for what the customer wanted. Winston is still known for exquisite jewelry. His name is still linked to some of the most beautiful jewels and settings in the world. Harry Winston always possessed a gift; he had an eye for the best gemstones and a nose for what the customer wanted. Winston is still known for exquisite jewelry. His name is still linked to some of the most beautiful jewels and settings in the world.
  • Cartier Louis Francois Cartier the son of a powder horn maker, founded Cartier in 1847; the year his workshop master Adolphe Picard died. Cartier would take over Maitre Picard’s Jewelry shop located at 31 Rue Montorgueil, Paris. Louis Francois Cartier the son of a powder horn maker, founded Cartier in 1847; the year his workshop master Adolphe Picard died. Cartier would take over Maitre Picard’s Jewelry shop located at 31 Rue Montorgueil, Paris.

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