At first, these gals made me cringe a little. Then they began to win me over with their bubbly attitude. Watch as these animated fashionistas review some cheap but jewelry for the summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHzYuiqQn9w
What a fun, enlightening article about men and jewelry I discovered in the Art of Manliness. He makes an essential point at the top of the article that a small piece of jewelry worn a certain way can make a huge statement. (He wears his wedding ring on a different finger because of the traditions of the country he was married in.) Read on men (and women):
4 Rules for Men When Wearing Jewelry
1. Keep It Simple
When in doubt, keep it simple. Start with a classic leather-strapped silver watch; if you regularly wear a watch and can afford it, consider a sportier diving watch with a stainless steel band as well. Next branch out to tie accessories and cufflinks.
Once you’re comfortable wearing these generally accepted pieces, then you can start to introduce other jewelry pieces like necklaces if you choose. For a quick visual guide, visit Joe’s awesome chart over at Dappered.
2. Match Metals
Most men’s jewelry is metallic. Gold and silver tones are the most common. Your outfits should only feature one metal tone at a time.
Titanium/14kt Diamond Bracelet
3. Understand Jewelry’s Symbolism
Jewelry has meaning.
You can’t get away from this. Despite it taking up only a tiny percent of your visual presentation, people zero in on jewelry thanks to its flash and uncommon usage by men.
To further complicate the matter, people can interpret the meaning of the same piece of jewelry very differently. To some, ornamental rings symbolize success and wealth; to others they signal organized crime affiliation. Here’s a great discussion about this in the Art of Manliness’ community forum.
That means a man has to be careful when wearing jewelry pieces outside the norm. It’s easy to appear flashy when you start including nondescript jewelry in your daily getup. However, jewelry can add a helpful bit of color and uniqueness to an outfit. So how does a well-dressed man balance it?
4. Jewelry and Dress Codes
In the business world, company dress codes can severely restrict male jewelry. Often phrased in a politically correct tone such as, “Men should only wear tasteful pieces of jewelry,” you’ll find in practice that this means not rocking the boat and conforming to the status quo. So if you’re hired at AT&T corporate, be careful about trying to wear as many necklaces as Mr. T.
Seriously–the burden of appropriateness is always on the man who chooses to wear jewelry. Know this and be restrained when you’re in any kind of professional setting. You can express yourself after work. Jewelry is, by its nature, small enough to slip into a jacket pocket after all.
Businesses that request “modest” or “tasteful” or “appropriate” jewelry, or other words along those lines, prefer things be limited to the traditional “masculine” styles of jewelry. This includes tie accents, watches, cuff-links, wedding bands, and lapel pins. Over the last decade most companies have expanded this to include bracelets, earrings, and ethnic jewelry as well.
If you’re going to be buying jewelry soon–make sure to first read my primer here on buying male jewelry where I explain metal and stone details in further depth.
To read more in-depth tips for men purchasing jewelry, continue here.
Madonna has worn fingerless gloves over the years. And throngs of Madonna-wannabes emulating this pop goddess followed in her footsteps (or handsteps?).
But this glove that Madonna donned for the premiere of her new ocumentary, takes the cake. Read on.
Madonna in a white gold and diamond Jacob & Co. glove at the premiere of Madonna: The MDNA Tour (Photo: WireImage/Kevin Mazur)
The dazzling glove was created by New York City–based luxury fine jewelry and watch brand Jacob & Co.
The one-of-a-kind Diamond Mesh Glove, which is part of a larger collection of one-off pieces called Rare Touch, was inspired by “a woman who is truly unique,” says designer Jacob Arabo of Jacob & Co. “Madonna certainly exemplifies this kind of woman—a woman with great style who isn’t afraid to take risks. I am thrilled to have her be the first person to wear [it].”
Source: JCK
When you visit our blog, you’re most likely to find advice about jewelry, jewelry trends, celebrity jewelry and the like. Rarely, if ever, do you find movie reviews. But when we heard about The Bling Ring, we decided to change our ways and just dish about Sophia Coppola’s latest movie.
According to Vanity Fair:
The film is based closely on actual events, reported in a 2010 Vanity Fair article that, in retrospect, reads like a shooting script. From October 2008 to August 2009, a group of high school students from Calabasas robbed a series of celebrities’ homes, using the Internet to find out when their victims would be out of town. They took mostly designer clothes, accessories, and jewelry, and the thrill lay as much in crashing the lifestyles of the rich and famous as in coming away with loot. Because they were young and stupid, they were eventually caught, but “The Bling Ring” is less concerned with comeuppance than in gazing at these kids and marveling at their hollowness. In a way, the film plays like a more tasteful and less bonkers version of the recent “Spring Breakers.” The comparison isn’t to Coppola’s benefit.
Well, it’s getting mixed reviews apparently. A little too chilly and distant. No empathy felt for the characters. Oh well. We have bling rings of our own…and not the kind that steal!
Here’s the official movie trailer:
Joe,
Hello, Joe i just want to thank you guys for everything that you did for me and all the effort that you put on it thank you for all of you my girlfriend was happy and it was perfect thank you soo much
It’s hard to remember to remove earrings, etc. before jumping in the pool or hot tub. And when we do, its often because we’re afraid of losing the jewelry…but the problem doesn’t lie there.
Read on:
Chlorine stress cracking is a chemical reaction between gold alloy jewelry and chlorine that causes breakdown of the metal causing broken prongs and ring shanks.
Chlorine is found with increasing use in household ‘non-abrasive’ cleaners and of course in laundry detergents and bleach. It is also used in pool and hot tub water treatment and in high concentrations in tap water. In some communities the chlorine in tap water is at levels normal for swimming pools. Where new construction is common local codes require chlorine level boosting each time a new home is connected to the water main.
At maximum concentration such as pure household bleach, chlorine is so reactive that 14k gold jewelry left in pure bleach solution for 24 hours will be destroyed beyond repair; in extreme cases the gold will be dissolved! DON’T EVER SOAK JEWELRY IN BLEACH!
Chlorine reacts specifically with the copper and nickel portions of gold jewelry alloys. Copper and silver are the primary alloys for yellow gold and nickel is the primary alloy for white gold. Chlorine dissolves the copper, or in the case of a white gold mounting for a diamond the nickel, and causes a perfectly good and often new piece of jewelry to break.
What to do?
Take off rings while cleaning with a chlorinated cleaner but don’t leave them near the sink where they may get knocked down the drain. Read labels – chlorine is in products where you least expect it – watch for the ‘Contains Bleach’ label.
Try to avoid wearing jewelry in the pool or hot tub. Rings set with stones, especially with prongs, are most subject to damage and hot tub water is five times more damaging due to heat and increased chlorine concentrations. Bromine based hot tub treatments are also damaging although not quite as corrosive as chlorine.
Demand a minimum of 14k gold for all jewelry. No matter what anyone tells you, 10k gold is a sub-standard alloy with a pure gold content of less than 50% and extremely reactive with chlorine. The higher the alloy, such as 18k, the less copper or nickel is present and the less reactive the alloy is with chlorine. Pure gold, or 24k, is impervious to almost EVERY chemical. The optimal metal for stone mounting is platinum, also impervious but three times as expensive as 14k gold. A more economical solution is Palladium (a platinum family metal) white gold which appears to be nearly impervious to chlorine with a cost about 30% higher than white gold. Ask your jeweler about Palladium white gold.
Avoid having rings ‘stretched’ to increase size. The usual procedure is to roll or hammer a ring shank (band) to increase the ring size which means that section of metal will be heavily stressed . Maximum chlorine reaction occurs to areas that have been stressed from rolling, hammering, or bending of prongs (unavoidable). Always insist that sizing up be accomplished by cutting the shank and adding new metal (size-up less than 1/2 size is usually okay to stretch).
When cleaning jewelry use only bottled or distilled water and a non-chlorinated laundry detergent or liquid dish soap. If your tap water contains a high concentration of chlorine and you leave you jewelry in the solution overnight you have done more harm than good. We still suggest cleaning jewelry frequently; it looks better, and you also remove chlorine residue from showering, washing hands, etc.
Thanks, Jewelry1.com – great advice!
