Tagged with 'Pearl fashion'

Launching this Autumn at Winterson, our new collection of Pearl Rings celebrates the enchanting beauty and subtle luxury of the pearl.

One of the earliest forms of adornment by women, the ring has taken many forms since its ancient beginnings as a simple band of silver or gold. Today the ring is one of our most precious pieces of jewellery, with the symbolism of a wedding ring or the fashionable drama of an eye-catching cocktail ring.

Before diamonds became forever associated with engagement rings, rings made with natural freshwater and saltwater pearls were also the romantic and popular choice of gemstone for a new bride.

The inspiration for the designs of the first pieces in this collection of pearl rings was to celebrate this heritage with a simple classic, and contemporary design. Each ring is crafted in Britain from 18 carat white or yellow gold, with the band of the metal having a angular sharpness to its outside edge whilst being rounded on the inside for comfort.

Set into the beautifully proportioned shoulders of the gold ring are two types of saltwater pearls. The first is a round white Akoya pearl, a classic pearl that is much admired for the quality of its lustre and shine. The second type of pearl chosen for the collection is a Tahitian pearl, which has a naturally grey colour with overtones of light green and pink.

Set into yellow gold, with a sparkling trio of white round brilliant cut diamonds on either side, the Tahitian Pearl and Diamond Yellow Gold Ring is already a firm favourite at Winterson.

All the rings are now available for order in a standard UK size M, which is a standard 6¼ size in the United States. It is possible for each ring design to be be resized to accommodate most ring sizes. Please contact us for more details if you would like some more information about ring sizes.

With their shining, lustrous surface and pretty shapes, pearls have inspired ancient myths of gods, angels and mermaids and been revered as fallen teardrops. Loved today by women, royalty, brides and fashion icons, the beautiful styling of pearl drop earrings may echo these enchanting images.

THE PEARL

 

As the central element, pearls are a foremost consideration in any design of pearl drop earrings. Round, near-round, oval or drop shaped pearls are favoured by designers as their symmetrical shapes allow the jewellery to be admired from every angle. We would recommend selecting exceptional pearls with a high lustre and clean surface, as well as larger sizes of between 8 and 12 millimetres in diameter.

 

All types of pearls are suitable for pearl drop earrings and the design choice depends on the direction of the styling and budget. Freshwater pearls can be beautiful and offer excellent value, Akoya pearls are perfect for their high lustre and pink overtones, Tahitian pearls for their contemporary, cooler hues and South Sea pearls for their luxurious silvery white and golden colours. Whichever the pearl type, both the pearls used in pearl drops should be matched carefully for comparable grading.

THE DESIGN

 

The classic design of a pearl drop earring is that of a pearl attached to a stud or a hook, composed of silver or gold. The pearl may sit just below the stud or hook, or may hang below between two to four centimetres in length. Longer pearl drops today are fashionable, easy to wear and very popular.

 

The attachment of the pearl to the drop may be rigid or supple with a chain that creates a pleasing movement in the form of the jewellery. Designs may also include multiple pearls on each earring, amplifying the elegance of the movement.

 

Amongst our contemporary designs, Sophie Breitmeyer has created a collection of Akoya pearl drop earrings with sparkling and colourful gems of blue sapphires, green tsavorite garnets and pink rubies.

THE OCCASION

 

Pearl drop earrings are very versatile, suiting women of all complexions and hair styling. Completed with sparkling diamonds or gemstones, pearl drop earrings are a perfect choice of fine jewellery for smart evening wear.

Pearl stud earrings are perhaps the simplest, and yet prettiest, of all earrings and should be an essential item of any jewellery box. At quick glance, pearl earring studs may appear all the same. Before looking at our new collection of pearl stud earrings, here is our short guide to choosing and buying the perfect pearl studs.

THE LUSTRE OF A PEARL

 

The magic of a pearl lies hidden within its surface, where layers of a mother-of-pearl material called nacre gives this unique gem its characteristic shine or lustre. The stronger the lustre of a pearl, the more beautiful it will be. Above all else, choose a pearl stud earring that has excellent lustre.

THE SIZE OF THE PEARL

 

Pearls vary in size considerably and this does alter the style of the earring itself. The size of a round pearl is measured in millimetres across its diameter. Smaller pearls up to 8mm in diameter are easily worn every day and tend to be favoured by women with more petite features. Earring studs with pearls over 8mm in diameter can be ideal for evening wear and for special occasions.

 

If in doubt, we recommend choosing pearl earring studs around 7.5-9 mm in diameter, which are most likely to suit all styles and are sufficiently versatile to be able to dress up or down with.

PEARL SHAPE AND SURFACE

 

A pearl earring should have a clean surface, with very few visible marks, unless the pearl is asymmetrical or baroque shaped. The majority of pearls used for stud earrings are round or button shaped. Button shaped Freshwater pearls can give an attractive twist to the classic pearl earring stud as they can also easily be worn in larger sizes.

 

With our jewellery, we love the lustre, quality and round shape of the Akoya pearl as a perfect choice for pearl stud earrings. If you would like to learn more, read about Choosing and Wearing Pearl Earrings and Choosing Pearl Earring Backs in our Journal.

 

Discover our new collection of stud earrings for women here.

Looking ahead to what we will be seeing this later this year, pearls feature prominently in a number of the new Autumn fashion collections for Autumn-Winter 2012-13 (AW 2012).

Playing with the usual perception of pearls as purely classic gems, a number of this Autumn's collections came with a jewellery twist, most notably from leading New York-based designers Oscar de la Renta and Tory Burch. Rather than elegantly adorning the necklines and arms of the models on the catwalk, their designs were decorated and embellished with faux pearls and other gems.

Tory Burch revealed her AW 2012 ready-to-wear collection during February's New York Fashion Week. Evocative of a well-to-do girl who is “under the spell of the wrong kind of guy”, the collection is classical but a naughty sense of fun.

The designs are tailored and feminine with warming winter colours of beige, burgundy, blue and gold. The autumn fashion textures are beautifully varied with wool, tweed, lace, organza and leather. Pearls are prettily sewn onto the sleeves of a beige sweater or to outline the seams of a two piece jacket. Collars of wool and mesh are decorated with grosgrain ribbon and clusters of pearls.

Oscar de la Renta also approaches jewellery in a more unconventional manner. The new collection is lavished with ornamental jewels dangling from belts, buttons, ties, and shoes, and even being printed on fabric.

There is an abundance of pearls throughout, with round spherical pearls, dropped shaped pearls and mabe pearls featured on chandelier earrings, hairpins and brooches. These match beautifully with the colours of the collection, which are black, dark navy blues, pale pinks and light blues. The overall style is luxurious, even opulent.

The appeal of reworking the typical image of the pearl into these modern ready-to-wear collections is immediately successful and fits with some of the key autumn fashion trends.

With our own new jewellery collections underway, we can't wait to show you these designs later in the year.

A new exhibition of portraits of the Queen at the National Portrait Gallery, London is a charming retrospective look at the Queen's public life over the last 60 years. Opened to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, this collection of formal, press photographs and contemporary portraits explores the Queen's relationship with her image and the media.

The exhibition has been organised chronologically by the NPG, with one portrait representing each year of the Queen's reign. Formal portraits by artists including Dorothy Wilding, Lucian Freud and Annie Leibovitz are arranged next to more private observations of this very public figure. The visitor is encouraged to consider how these images have evolved.

Although pearls are a constant throughout the exhibition, there are a number of surprises. Cecil Beaton's iconic portrait of the Queen on her Coronation day in 1953 is still magnificent, but Pietro Annigoni's dramatic image of a monarch in her ceremonial robes (seen here for the first time in over 25 years) is oddly of another time.

Best of all is their contrast with some of the snapped photographs. Patrick Lichfield's joyful picture of the Queen aboard the Royal Yacht, Eve Arnold's glimpse of the Queen sheltering under an umbrella and the anguish caught by Dylan Martinez following the fire at Windsor Castle are as striking as the formal poses.

In comparison, moving through the gallery rooms, more contemporary portraits by Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol and Gilbert and George mainly offer a changing interpretation of this iconic image.

One of the highlights undoubtedly is Chris Levine's lightbox entitled 'Lightness of Being', catching the Queen in a meditative moment between exposures. It is a powerful and thoughtful piece.

The Queen: Art & Image exhibition is open at the National Portrait Gallery until 21st October 2012 and is highly recommended if you are visiting central London this summer.

There really was much for jewellery lovers to admire this week in London with London Jewellery Week underway, and a fabulous double opening of this year's Treasure and the Goldsmiths' Gold: Power and Allure exhibition at Somerset House. But our favourite show was at Central Saint Martins, where this year's graduating CSM students exhibited their work with 'Sorry for the Inconvenience, but We Are Trying to Change the World'.

This was the first year of degree shows since CSM moved to their new spectacular site at London's Kings Cross, a purpose built campus set around the frontage of an old Victorian goods interchange. The restored Granary building is quite stunning, with a historic brick frontage giving way to an industrial and modern interior space. All the college's disciplines have also been brought together under one roof for the first time and this week students from Fashion, Graphic, Ceramics, Textiles, Product Design and Jewellery showed off their work.

In the BA Jewellery 2012 show, we loved these pieces by Caroline Kernick. Inspired by 1920s French ballet and dance, a display of 5 highly intricate and elaborate necklaces, decorated with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, coral and pearls, immediately catches the eye. Look a little more closely and the surprising reality of the hand drawn designs and the material used becomes clear.

Each of the necklaces has been meticulously constructed from individual sheets of 270g dove-grey card, layered with gouache or fine drawing to recreate the impression of fine jewellery. Diamonds are presented with depth, dimension and light sources as if they were set. Even the seed pearls have been given a lacquered lustre and a characteristic flame effect has been added to the Melo melo and Conch pearls.

A Papier Gouaché DIAMOND AND MULTI-GEM PEARL NECKLACE

Designed as a necklace mimicking the scale and arrangements of the Ziegfeld Follies centralising three Melo paper-pearls and a Conch paper-pearl all surrounded by graduating impressions of coral beads, pink sapphires, zesty orange sapphires and South Sea paper-pearls. Finely rendered white diamonds suspend the central motif and lead to a multitude of paper-pearl strands. All gouache pigments individually applied with Kolinsky Sable brushes on 270g dove grey Maya-card, precisely 2012, 13 ½ ins

Amongst the other collections that impressed was a passionate collection, beautifully displayed with dripped blood-red wax, of yellow gold and red garnet jewellery by Qingqing (Sasha) Wu.

A set of luxury, handmade watches by Sophie E Ellis showed that some of the traditional skills are still respected. Impressively too, this was just the second time in the last 20 years that the intricacies of watch-making have (successfully) been attempted by a student.

The CSM degree shows are still open to the public until 21st June and, if you can visit, they are highly recommended and not inconvenient at all.

Black onyx is the most popular form of onyx today, with a dark silky lustre that contrasts beautifully with the creamy whiteness of classic pearls.

Onyx is a variety of the chalcedony gemstone, which is a species of microcrystalline quartz that also includes different coloured Agates and Jasper.  Found in bands that run parallel to each other, and mined mostly in the USA, Brazil, Madagascar, Uruguay and India, the colour of the chalcedony bands can range widely from reds, greens and blues to shades of white and grey. The red brown variety of onyx is known as sardonyx.

The onyx stone is slightly translucid, which perhaps inspired the Ancient Greeks to give it its name. Legend tells that Cupid cut the fingernails of Venus whilst she was sleeping and the discarded clippings were turned into stone by the gods. It is a relatively hard and durable stone, has a silky lustre and has been used and carved for centuries for setting in jewellery.

Black onyx itself is a deep rich black but, from ancient times and still today, this is mostly achieved through enhancement with heat and other colour treatments to achieve its stunning uniform dark colour.

Onyx jewellery can be very affordable and desirable, with an ability to match most colours or to highlight a sparkling white diamond and other brightly coloured gemstones such as a pink ruby. Black onyx can also work well with both yellow and white gold and is a favoured choice for elegant evening wear.

We love the contrast of how a lustrous white pearl can be flattered by the deep darkness of black onyx. The ‘black and white’ style created by the effect of combining onyx, pearls and diamonds has been widely used for jewellery design since the Art Deco 1920s and 1930s. Cartier, in particular, has worked with onyx since the 1910s and continues to choose this gem for its outstanding designs.

Onyx is a traditional gemstone for celebrating a 7th wedding anniversary.

In less than 6 weeks, Great Britain will celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II during the long holiday weekend of 2-5th June. Throughout the sixty years of her reign, the second longest by a British monarch in the last thousand years, Her Majesty the Queen has become one of the most photographed women of modern times. With an extensive archive of images available, it is a unique opportunity to retrace some of her signature styles and jewellery.

A beautiful retrospective of images by royal photographer Sir Cecil Beaton recently took place at the Victoria & Albert Museum celebrating the Queen’s family life and formal state role as monarch. If you were unlucky to miss this, another highly anticipated exhibition starts May 17th at the National Portrait Gallery in London and will bring together a collection of sixty portraits made of the Queen during the last sixty years.

The contrast between the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at her Coronation in 1953 and the equally iconic, everyday image above of the Queen today could not be more striking.

Embroidered with emblems of the British Commonwealth dominions in pale colored silk, with silver and gold threads and pearls, amethyst and opals, the coronation dress was commissioned for the state occasion by designer Norman Hartnell. The Queen is also wearing the Imperial State Crown, with the weight of its precious large stones and perhaps the nation’s legacy and duties. Garrard and Company originally designed the crown for George VI and altered it to fit the new Queen. The Queen wore the coronation necklace and earrings made for Queen Victoria and which was previously worn by four Queens at their own coronations. This necklace is made of 25 graduated cushion-shaped brilliant-cut diamonds with a drop shaped pendant and will be a centrepiece of a dazzling exhibition Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration this summer at Buckingham Palace.

Almost daily images of the Queen during the last sixty years have shown an unceasing dedication to her work and throughout her signature style has been elegant and confident. Bright block colour skirts and dresses in pale yellow or cheerful pink, for example, are often matched with a  jacket or coat, closed with a button, and finished with coordinated accessories.

A number of fashion designers have designed clothes for the Queen during her reign, including most recently Karl Ludwig Rehse, Stewart Parvin and Angela Kelly but her jewellery has been much more familiar. Signature strands of white pearls and white pearl earrings, which are likely to hold emotional value to her, grace both formal state occasions and royal visits and have been a constant amongst the spectacular royal collection of jewellery.

The Queen has several favourite white pearl necklaces. The Queen Anne and Queen Caroline pearl necklaces are two single strand necklaces made with large, graduated natural pearls. These historic necklaces are typically worn together and were given to Princess Elizabeth by her parents for her wedding in 1947.

The Queen is also often seen wearing a smaller triple strand pearl necklace, given as a gift in 1935 from King George V, her grandfather, for his Silver Jubilee. With smaller graduated pearls, this necklace is highly versatile and should be very comfortable to wear. The three strands of lustrous pearls reflect light, creating a flattering glow to the face. To complete the styling, the Queen often can be seen matching this necklace with a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings.

This year's Jubilee is another milestone in the Queen's reign that, despite decades of change in the world, has outlasted many political leaders, trends and celebrities. This June will be an opportunity to celebrate a lifetime's dedication and service. Long live our Queen of Pearls!

If you enjoyed the recent nostalgia of The Artist, the catwalk fashions for Spring/Summer 2012 look to continue the revival of the Roaring Twenties, with drop waist dresses, crisp whites, relaxed pastels and glamorous drapes of pearls.

The 1920s were prosperous years between two world wars that saw a wave of social, cultural and technology developments. Art Deco styling led the design world with clean geometrical lines and contrasting colours of black, white and gold, inspired by the Ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs. In New York, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building are still two of the most emblematic buildings of their time. Technology breakthroughs such as radio, cinema ‘talkies’ and the automobile brought a new and popular sense of freedom.

In the fashion world, young women cast aside decades of Victorian fashion and restraining corsets to express their independent and modern aspirations. Detail that was influenced by Art Deco, with zigzags and geometrical shapes, was also however about comfort. Knee-length skirts, drop waist dresses, low necklines with exposed arms and wrists by iconic designers such as Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli were characteristic of the time. Feathers, tassels and silk added a fluid and deliberately flirtatious appearance.

Cultured pearls were the gem of the decade. Long white pearl necklaces were wrapped and often layered around the neck, enhancing the low necklines. These chic pearl sautoirs would swing with movement and dancing. Earrings and drop earrings sat visibly below bobbed haircuts and pearl bracelets decorated bare arms and wrists.

Nearly a century on, the iconic Roaring Twenties that was depicted by F. Scott Fitgerald in The Great Gatsby is still inspiring designers today. In sharp contrast to today's mood of austerity, the Spring/Summer 2012 collections of Ralph Lauren and Gucci reference this seductive era of glamour with fluid lines, slim silhouettes, cloche hats, silk, feathers, drop earrings and of course swinging long white pearl rope necklaces.

With a Gatsby film adaptation also due later this year, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the 1920s again. There may not be the same rebellious energy of the flapper driving automobiles, listening to American jazz and attending glamorous parties but we love its look and confidence.

Another sunshine day in London and spring has truly arrived with daffodils and blossom filling the parks. The month of April also marks the start of the spring wedding season for most brides and groom, with about 7 in 10 of all marriages in the UK taking place annually between April and September. In the next hopefully sunny months, brides will be wearing all white, with a white dress, perhaps with a veil and a white pearl necklace matched with a set of pearl earrings.

The tradition of a white wedding is believed to have originated in Europe. Its popularity is often credited to Queen Victoria as she wed Prince Albert in 1840 wearing a white lace dress. At the time crisp white attire was a sign of wealth as well as purity. Today the modern bride in the UK, and many cultures across the world, continues to favour a white wedding dress.

This season the colour white is also in fashion on the catwalk as well as the wedding aisle. The Spring/Summer 2012 collections of Celine, Chloe, Jenny Packham, Jil Sander, Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney are abundant with thoroughly white designs that range from sharply cut, almost architectural cottons to silk embroidery and pretty feminine lace.

So how should a white dress qualify as a wedding dress? The presence of a long train on a white dress or a groom close by is usually a giveaway clue. But more traditionally a bride will also accessorise her wedding dress with a veil, a tiara or a bouquet of seasonal flowers to complete her attire elegantly. White pearls are traditionally the bride's gem of choice for the prettiest of wedding jewellery and matching pearl and diamond earrings.

Last year was quite exquisite for beautiful weddings of the rich, famous and royal. Most memorably, Prince William wed Kate Middleton as she was wearing a stunning white dress created by Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton. The design with its intricate white lace and sleeves was reminiscent of the dress of another iconic princess, Grace Kelly, as she married the Prince of Monaco, Ranier II, in 1956.

If you are getting married this year, we hope the spring wedding season of 2012 will bring many more beautiful and happy weddings and memories.