A couple weeks ago I was having a conversation with my friend about some women's personalized jewelry we recently picked up. It was a typical female conversation filed with gossip and scandal, our husbands and kids, hopes and fears. While everything was pretty much status quo, one point of the conversation did pique my interest.
On the topic of jewelry she just bought, she brought up the question of what people actually want from their jewelry anymore. In other words, while jewelry used to be about elegance and special occasions, it now seems to be more about one-upsmanship and "blinging" someone to death.
Now don't get me wrong: this is not about "Oh, things were so much better back then". I don't do that, I'm not a fan of that. What I'm talking about is how parts of an industry has flipped and wants and needs have changed. It used to be that when it came to jewelry it was the size of the "rock" that mattered, not the number of them.
Now, in my opinion, I'm more for style over substance, but it seems like recently substance has been making a big push as rings now seem to feature a hundred small stones instead of one medium sized one. If these pieces catch the right angle in the sunlight they could blind you. I saw this woman the other day wear a necklace that looked like the eye of the fly. Heck, she should have just been wearing a sign that said "I'm rich, follow and mug me". And it's not just women. When did men start wearing multiple stone jewelry? I'm personally not a fan of a man in jewels, so I'm probably not the one to make judgment.
But still: geez. I kind of understood blinged out jewelry in the rap culture but I've seen people in business suits wear watches with diamonds on them. It's weird because most men that I know would rather carry a parasol then wear diamonds, so I'm not getting where this is coming from.
So look, I know, I know, I know: I don't sound cool. This is not a judgment thing. I'm not sitting here going "I don't understand these things so they scare me". I understand why people wear the jewels; I just don't understand the styles they choose to wear. I was always taught to wear jewelry with elegance; that jewelry was a privilege, not a right.
In that mind set I guess I could never understand these styles, no matter how hard I try. Anyways, I guess someone could judge me on my love of owl figurines. They are just so darn cute…
On the topic of jewelry she just bought, she brought up the question of what people actually want from their jewelry anymore. In other words, while jewelry used to be about elegance and special occasions, it now seems to be more about one-upsmanship and "blinging" someone to death.
Now don't get me wrong: this is not about "Oh, things were so much better back then". I don't do that, I'm not a fan of that. What I'm talking about is how parts of an industry has flipped and wants and needs have changed. It used to be that when it came to jewelry it was the size of the "rock" that mattered, not the number of them.
Now, in my opinion, I'm more for style over substance, but it seems like recently substance has been making a big push as rings now seem to feature a hundred small stones instead of one medium sized one. If these pieces catch the right angle in the sunlight they could blind you. I saw this woman the other day wear a necklace that looked like the eye of the fly. Heck, she should have just been wearing a sign that said "I'm rich, follow and mug me". And it's not just women. When did men start wearing multiple stone jewelry? I'm personally not a fan of a man in jewels, so I'm probably not the one to make judgment.
But still: geez. I kind of understood blinged out jewelry in the rap culture but I've seen people in business suits wear watches with diamonds on them. It's weird because most men that I know would rather carry a parasol then wear diamonds, so I'm not getting where this is coming from.
So look, I know, I know, I know: I don't sound cool. This is not a judgment thing. I'm not sitting here going "I don't understand these things so they scare me". I understand why people wear the jewels; I just don't understand the styles they choose to wear. I was always taught to wear jewelry with elegance; that jewelry was a privilege, not a right.
In that mind set I guess I could never understand these styles, no matter how hard I try. Anyways, I guess someone could judge me on my love of owl figurines. They are just so darn cute…