The variety of desirable jewelry can seem overwhelming at times, and choosing among competing designs, a daunting task. Maybe that’s part of the reason that, every so often, a style guide brings out this solution: Don’t choose. Up the volume.
Back in July 2008, for example, I noted in my July 27 blog post that the trend of piling on jewelry “has migrated from wrists to necks”: “Don’t Wear Just One!” admonishes People magazine in its July 28, 2008 issue. If you’ve got “tons of necklaces just sitting in a jewelry box,” “[g]ive them all a night out by accessorizing a simple dress with lots of strands.”
In June 2009, the volume of brooches went over the top as Marie Claire magazine styled a look with ten brooches, as I described in my June 10, 2009 blog.
Perhaps it has something to do with the relative free-spiritedness of summer style, but once again extreme volumes of jewelry have made the pages of Marie Claire. In its June 2010 issue, the magazine depicts extreme volume in necklaces, bracelets, and in particular, rings – vast numbers of rings. The introductory text comments:
“When left alone with a treasure trove of baubles, a girl can become unhinged. Overload on diamante rings, silver finger cuffs, punk-rock bracelets, and layers of chains—it’s not crazy, it’s crazy-chic.”
In the first illustration, the model wears a total of 14 (yes, fourteen) rings from designers Fenton, Vita Fede, Noir, Mehem and Isharya. She also wears three bracelets, two from Eddie Borgo and one from Tory Burch, as well as a “shoulder chain” from Falconiere.
The next illustration has the model wearing a total of four necklaces from designers Eddie Borgo, Swarovski and Pamela Love and two bracelets from Emilio Pucci and Eddie Borgo respectively, along with a total of (only) nine rings, although note that at least one of them extends over two fingers (from A Peace Treaty) and one is a “finger ring” that covers the tip of her index finger (from Cornelia Webb). The other rings are from Melissa Joy Manning, Swarovski, Lanvin, Matina Amanita, Mehem and Eddie Borgo.
The key to wearing this look is that each piece of jewelry is distinctive and large enough to hold its own against everything going on around it. When diamond jewelry is thrown into the mix, those pieces too are substantial.
There are several other illustrations worth seeing if you are interested in duplicating this style of jewelry wear. And then, surprisingly, there is the following illustration, which seems to show the model sitting in the bathroom (it’s not clear on what), with a pile of jewelry at her feet. That’s not exactly the care one who loves jewelry would be taking of her baubles.
(Necklace by Patricia von Musulin; bracelets by Sequin, R.J. Graziano, Patricia von Musulin, Fenton, Tory Burch, Noir and Mawl; knuckle rings by Surface to Air; other rings by Robert Lee Morris, Noir, Mehem, Vita Fede, Tous, Disaya, Surface to Air, Made Her Think, and Swarovski. The $3,725 shoes are by Louboutin.)
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