Modern Jewelry Trends

The movie Bride Wars didn’t break any box-office records but it did set a new standard for jewelry promotion. The big-screen saga of feuding best-friend brides, starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson, featured jewelry by Tiffany & Co. Blue box in hand, Hudson’s character orchestrates the perfect engagement, complete with fiancé on bended knee and the box’s dazzling contents—a five-carat Tiffany Novo diamond engagement ring. Anne Hathaway wears a Tacori blue bridal hairpin created especially for the film with five faceted blue jade petals surrounding a white topaz in sterling silver. The hairpin, a clever “something blue,” is now available to any Tacori retailer by special order.

Alchemy: A Passion for Jewels is an exquisite look into the art of fine jewelry making, through the eyes of famed designer Temple St. Clair. Known for her signature colored gemstone and 18k gold jewelry, Temple St. Clair’s designs have attracted an international and star studded following, including Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman, Beyonce, and Heidi Klum.

In Alchemy, authored by the designer herself, Temple St. Clair reveals how her love of history, tradition, mythology, literature, nature, and adventure all led her into the jewelry world—from her early summer travels to her studies in Florence, Italy, and beyond.

One of the most interesting early stories is how St. Clair’s mother bought an ancient coin and asked her to commission a local goldsmith to make a piece of jewelry around it. Armed with the coin and a sketch, St. Clair entered the Palazzo dell’Orafo of Florentine goldsmiths, where she first discovered the centuries old art of fine Italian jewelry making. It’s a unique glimpse into St. Clair’s vision for her one-of-a-kind pieces that combine ancient influences, often with Italian inspired craftsmanship, gold work, natural gemstones, talismans, and charms.

The hardcover, 224 pages, was published by Harper Collins this past October. Priced at $49.95 with full color illustrations throughout, Alchemy is a perfect mix of designer inspiration, original creations, jewelry craftsmanship—and, of course, most importantly, a passion for jewels.

Although this may only a problem for you if your other pet peeve is too many photographer’s flashbulbs going off in your eyes, it is tricky to match fine jewelry to rhinestone-encrusted dresses. The rhinestones are so sparkly that they can have the unfortunate effect of making even expensive jewelry look a bit cheap. (For those of you who think rhinestones themselves always look a bit cheap, this may not be an issue, since they will match perfectly.) But Mariah Carey actually solved this problem at the recent 2008 American Music Awards. To up the difficulty factor, she matched that blingy dress with what appeared to be a rhinestone-encrusted microphone.

Mariah boldly offset all that sparkle with something even more eye-catching: a wide invisibly-set diamond and platinum cuff by Siera worth $250,000. The cuff’s almost seamless wall of diamonds effectively outshone the rhinestones and made diamonds look, well, brilliant. Mariah’s diamond pave hoops, with stones effectively covering the entire surface, worked well also. So are you wearing rhinestones on your dress? Go ahead and wear diamonds. Just make sure you are wearing a lot of diamonds.

The latest ring style has that “fresh picked in a diamond mine” look. Pave flower rings are sprouting up all over, with celebrities on both coasts sporting the big blossoms on the red carpet.

In one of the best recent examples of the look, Ali Larter (who according to the Heroes blogs may have flower related powers to boot) wore a dramatic Bochic jade and black diamond flower ring to the Alberta Ferretti flagship store opening hosted by Vogue in Los Angeles.

The style isn’t new: Roberto Coin’s enamel rose rings have been popular since 2007. Modern Jeweler has also featured interesting examples from La Reina, Sevan, Super Bell, and DiLuca. But the trend seems to be accelerating along with the sixties pop-art flavor of jewelry fashion today.

But does a rose-shaped ring smell as sweet? Maybe. John Hardy’s new couture collection includes a whole bouquet of flower-power “scent” rings that open to hold a drop of perfume.

As visions of Camelot dance in our heads, first-lady-in-waiting Michelle Obama’s wardrobe is getting a lot of attention. Could she be fashion’s new Jackie O? Her election night ensemble, a straight-from-the-runway red and black dress by Narcisco Rodriguez didn’t get unanimous approval from the fashion police. But can we all agree the diamond earrings were spectacular? Loree Rodkin designed the 18k white gold and diamond triple dangles with oval, marquee and pear shapes which retail for $10,275. The earrings combine the new medallion silhouette with flattering movement that really caught the light on stage at Grant Park in Chicago. Michelle wore an elegant stack of what appeared to be silver and diamond bangles too. Right on trend.

But so far, Michelle’s strongest impact on today’s jewelry trends is bringing back the brooch. It’s a recession-proof lesson on personalizing your style: she uses stylish large brooches to dress up simple affordable outfits from national chains like White House Black Market, which she wore on The View, and J. Crew, which she wore on The Tonight Show. (J. Crew’s web traffic increased 464 percent!) Many of her pins are from Erickson Beamon. If she keeps expressing her own style through accessorizing, she’ll become a true style icon and a boost for the jewelry business. Not to mention a sought-after customer! Unlike stars on the red carpet, Michelle owns the jewelry and clothing she wears, including those stylish Loree Rodkin earrings, seen close-up below, which would be perfect for an inaugural ball, don’t you think?

In its forecast of the “next big things in weddings” in the November/December 2008 issue, Brides magazine predicts that “white diamonds may delight but black is where it’s at this season.” The magazine says that the dark diamonds are most effective in a traditional setting. The spread features a rose-cut three-stone black diamond ring with a circle of white diamond pave around the center stone by Karen Karch.

If you trace all trends back to celebrities, you’ll have to blame this one on Carmen Electra, who sports a two-carat rose-cut black diamond and platinum engagement ring.

Will brides who haven’t appeared in Playboy really choose black to symbolize the marriage promise? In a market where every woman says she wants something unique but buys basic variations on a few classic themes, I doubt it.

Perhaps this should be filed under “reasons why you can’t depend on consumer magazines for trend advice.”

One of the most entertaining parts of the Oscars tradition is the variety of “winners” and “losers” lists that come out after the event. It’s gone beyond the awarding of best picture, best actress, and so on, to best and worst dressed, best and worst jewelry, best and worst hair, best and worst couple, and on and on. At Oscars 2008, perhaps no one exemplified winning and losing more than Damiani. The Italian jeweler dressed Tilda Swinton, and received lots of publicity for its jewelry on the best supporting actress Oscar winner. (Another story entirely is Swinton’s baggy black dress, which looked like a leftover costume/cloak from the “Chronicles of Narnia,” and received a lot of worst dressed honors, which of course is still plenty of priceless publicity.)

But straight out of a Hollywood film, Damiani then made headlines around the world when, almost simultaneously, its Milan, Italy showroom was robbed of millions in jewelry. The thieves pulled off the dramatic heist in part by digging a tunnel from a building next door. Trying to put the best spin on the situation, Damiani released a statement supporting its victimized employees, saying that at least most of their “Masterpiece” collection was in LA at the Oscars. Thankfully no one was hurt. Nonetheless, it was surely much more publicity, and drama, than Damiani ever bargained for this Oscar season. - Matthew Kramer

It wasn’t as strong as the tide of red dresses. But there was an undeniable trend of long necklaces at this year’s Academy Awards. After years dominated by important earrings and bold bracelets, the decision by style icons like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett, Best Actress Marion Cotillard, nominees Ellen Page and Laura Linney, and presenters Jennifer Garner and Keri Russell to choose an important necklace instead was a major shift in direction from years past.

Kidman wore the most important and prominent necklace of the night: an extraordinary rough and polished multistrand diamond sautoir designed by L’Wren Scott set with 7645 diamonds totaling almost 1400 carats. Russel’s multistrand necklace by H. Stern was also a very strong look.

Now that the threat of the writer’s strike is over, fashion is celebrating the resuscitation of Oscar’s red carpet. So this week’s Grammys are being studied for clues to the main event coming up soon on February 24. And if the Grammys are any indication of what we’ll see in a week, don’t look for important necklaces on the stars this year.

Once again at this year’s Grammy Awards, the focus was on the wrist. The look of the night was the important cuff: one large bracelet with dimension rather than a stack of bangles as we saw at the last few award ceremonies. Beyonce’s zig-zag cuff by Lorraine Schwartz epitomized the trend, as did Rihanna’s 27-carat cuff by Chopard.

Earrings, for the most part, remain long, although they are often more prominent at the hair-down Grammys than the hair-up Oscars. But the bare-neck bejeweled-wrist trend was so dominant once again that it is likely to reign at this year’s Oscars as well.

Yes, yes, chandeliers are “over” but you know few can resist those long dangly diamonds that make every woman feel really dressed up. Long earrings are here to stay. So, Oscar stylists, just resign yourself and avoid the big necklace/big earrings clash. You don’t want your clients to be mocked by the fashion police like Nelly Furtado at the Grammys, who tried but failed to carry off a thick gold choker and long silver earrings with a strapless dress. It was the jewelry faux pas of the night.

The ratings for the 2007 Emmys may have been the lowest in history but the jewelry on the red carpet this year deserved high marks. Dresses were glamorous and colorful but simple, with more than a touch of old Hollywood retro drama, letting the jewelry take center stage. Surprisingly, the strongest jewelry trend at the Emmys this year was long shoulder-dusting earrings. Debra Messing, television style icon, wore Cartier Art-Deco inspired diamond and platinum earrings easily four inches long. And who remembers Marcia Cross‘ dress? All attention was on those amazing five inch drop turquoise earrings by Lorraine Schwartz and matching turquoise-and-ruby snake bracelet. (There were several jeweled snakes on display, including the rhinestone snake halter biting Portia de Rossi’s Azzaro dress.) Other stars sporting the long earring look: Michelle Pfeiffer in Harry Winston, Queen Latifah in Diamond in the Rough, Heidi Klum in her own chandeliers, Ali Larter in Neil Lane, Rebecca Romijn in Neil Lane, Kate Walsh in Neil Lane, and Jenna Fischer in H. Stern. Several stars appeared in the height of jewelry fashion, rare for a red carpet event. Ellen Pompeo’s Fred Leighton suite of yellow gold jewelry with tasseled necklace, bracelets and ring, had a retro forties glamor. She loved the jewelry so much, she removed her engagement ring for the night because it clashed with the chunky feeling of the yellow gold ensemble. Minnie Driver had a neon yellowish-green dress fresh from the Spring runways last week in New York, accessorized with a chic black bakelite cuff with diamonds and rubies in 22k gold and diamond, ruby and pearl earrings by Bochic. Katherine Heigl’s stack of black gold bracelets, ring, and hoop earrings with dangles by Ryan Ryan Jewelry were fashionably up-to-the minute. Overall the winners of the placement sweepstakes, Emmy edition, are Chopard, Lorraine Schwartz, Neil Lane, H. Stern, and Bochic.