Happy Stories From our customers

There’s something about “hair jewelry” that makes me cringe a little. Like “dusty ice cream” or “peanut butter and snails.” It just doesn’t seem right. But like many things in life, we have to look at the context, historically speaking.

Queen Victoria made hair jewelry popular by wearing a locket of her beloved Albert’s hair around her neck after he passed away.

The Victorian era ran with this morbid phenomenon and instead of just wearing a locket containing a snip of hair, began creating entire pieces of jewelry consisted of human hair…like, the whole piece (I’m not quite sure how they managed the clasp).

According to Nat Geo: 

It could be a brooch, or a pendant with hair woven in the middle, or even a bracelet of hair. In its heyday, hair jewelry was considered both sentimental and fashionable. It caught on in Europe sometime before the 19th century, and then fell into vogue in the United States around the Civil War.

While we do custom design, we’ve yet to encounter any requests for hair jewelry. But you never know, right?

Victorian Hair Mourning Jewelry

A historically famous jewelry lover, Marie Antoinette wasn’t known for her ability to rule fairly but certainly yielded power when it came to what she wore. Even 200 years later, her fashion choices reign supreme.

A pearl and diamond pendant belonging to the French Queen Marie Antoinette has been sold for $36m in what Sotheby’s auction house is declaring a world record for a pearl.

Says the BBC:

It was part of a major collection of jewellery sold by Italy’s royal Bourbon-Parma house.

Some of the jewels had not been seen in public for 200 years.

The pendant more than tripled the previous world auction record for a pearl, which was held by a necklace that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.

Additional auctioned items from this ill-fated Queen include a diamond necklace, a pair of pearl and diamond earrings as well as a monogram ring with a lock of her hair.

#1: 1.40ct F, VS1 GIA
#2: 1.50ct F, VS2 GIA
#3: 1.50ct G, VS2 GIA

The market is flooded with fake jewelry. And that’s not a bad thing: fake jewelry has its place and can be a fun and flamboyant form of adornment. But when you think you’re getting a particular metal or gem and its something else (like a cheaper grade metal or a fake stone) well, then you got yourself a problem.

This fairly in-depth video quickly and easily displays the ways you can detect fake jewelry so you don’t fall victim to a dupe.

Does your body type influence the kind of jewelry you choose? This recent Forbes piece spotlights a jeweler who believes embracing your body type and being bold about your jewelry choices is the best way to go.

“I used to be really afraid I would be taken less seriously in professional settings as a fat woman. And I think I tried to minimize my body size by wearing jewelry that was super tiny when I was meeting with new clients or going to a conference.”

We love the theme of this piece: embracing your true self and expressing as fully as possible. Its too easy for women to find themselves downplaying aspects of their bodies. This then reflects in choices (fashion or otherwise) that are small or less than they’d naturally choose to wear.

The message in this article remind us: we can dare to be the biggest, boldest and baddest self we can be!