How to Update Your Wardrobe for the Fall?

Here is our quick guide to updating your closet for this Fall. Pearls are finally having their moment, so don't forget to add a pair of earrings or a statement ring to your collection!

Wardrobe updates for Fall 2013 by lovemypearls featuring pearl jewelry

Ivy pearl ring with 3 pearls
US$ 114 - love-my-pearls.com

Salome black pearl earrings
US$ 58 - love-my-pearls.com

Bangle Triplets
US$ 61 - love-my-pearls.com

Versatile Pearl Earrings

Pearl earrings don't have to be white and they definitely don't have to come in the form of a classic (and, for many of us, slightly boring) spherical studs. Our newest addition to the loving pearl earrings' family is all about the Dark Side of Pearls. Single black pearl is adorned with a sparkle-studded earring that has been made of black, oxidized silver.

Although far from classic, these earrings are still very versatile and go well with relaxed and more polished, office looks, which makes them a great addition to this Fall's accessory list.

Dress up & down: black pearl earrings by lovemypearls featuring Salome pearl earrings

Salome pearl earrings
58 USD - love-my-pearls.com

How would you style these lovely sparklies?

Pearls of Wisdom: Jean de la Bruyère

Today's inspirational quote comes from the 17th century French philosopher and moralist, Jean de la Bruyère:

While diamonds and pearls became more available these days, sound judgement may still be among the the rarest things in today's World.

What do you think?

La Lollo's Pearls for Stem Cell Research

Gina Lollobrigida auctioned her magnificent jewelry collection to raise money for stem cell research. Once considered an iconic sex symbol and "the most beautiful woman in the world", she donated the nearly US$ 5 million from the sale to support the research.

"I bought this jewelry to make a gift to myself for my very successful career. These jewels made me feel independent. Now I have another desire, a bigger one. This jewelry will help a lot of children to have a normal life.” said Lollobrigida in the interview posted on Sotheby’s website.

Gina Lollobrigida wearing her gorgeous natural pearl earrings (Photos via dailymail.com.uk)

The noble cause attracted generous collectors. A pair of diamond and natural pearl earrings, which the actress wore on numerous landmark occasions in her career, sold for a record US$2.39 million!

Natural pearl earrings fetched a record-breaking price of US$ 2.39 million
(Photos via dailymail.com.uk)

The record-breaking earrings are adorned with silver white drop-shaped natural pearls measuring approximately 15.6 x 12.1 x 24.9mm and 15.9 x 13.8 x 23.3mm and clusters of diamond sparkles. Said to have belonged to the historic collection of the House of Habsburg, the jewel was pursued by no less than eight bidders before selling to a buyer in the room.

Battle of the Titans: Lollobrigida's pearls beat the record set in 2011 by earrings that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor
(Photos via: sothebys.com and christies.com)

The earrings beat a previous record set in 2011 from the sale of natural pearl and diamond earrings owned by Elizabeth Taylor. The other pair fetched a measly US$ 1.98 million…

Beautiful pearls with a beautiful purpose.

4 Most Common Problems With Earrings

I was recently browsing celebrity photos from this year’s Cannes festival in search for upcoming jewelry trends. What I found instead inspired or rather pushed me to write this post. I saw a picture of the gorgeous Sharon Stone wearing a stunning white gown with a golden snake detail across her back. Miss Stone matched her outfit with quite impressive pair of diamond earrings. So impressive, that Miss Stone’s earlobes almost doubled in length! I was shocked. Why would one suffer so much just to make an impression… with a pair of earrings?  Wasn't the dress enough?

Sharon Stone's excessive and regular earlobes

Then I started looking around me and saw that many girls do the same on a daily basis. Current jewelry trends impose chandelier or long dangling earrings on us and we happily comply, but how can we make this experience more bearable?

Here are the four biggest earring sins and how to deal with them.

Movie-inspired Pearl Comeback

The comeback of pearls has been announced many times over the past few years. Every now and then, we witness a short-lived fling between fashion designers and our beloved pearls. This time pearls might be staying with us for little longer because of two recent Hollywood productions, Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby.

While set in two different periods in history, with Anna Karenina living in 19^th century Russia and Gatsby partying in early 20^th century US, both movies emphasize pearls as the most feminine and sought-after jewel for the ladies of their times.

The pearl jewelry in Anna Karenina was designed by Chanel. Keira Nigthley’s beautiful pearl earrings and necklaces played an important role in the story. One of my favorite moments in the movie shows Anna Karenina frightened for life of her lover, Count Vronsky, when he falls off his horse during the race. In the scene, we hear horses’ hooves pounding against the ground and we see Anna’s fan beating and beautiful pearl earrings swinging in the same rhythm. Anna is observing the race from the dark and we can only see her frightened beautiful face and two gleaming and shivering droplets of pearl earrings that intensify the loaded emotions of the scene.

Keira Nigthley as pearl-loving Anna Karenina

In The Great Gatsby, pearls are associated with the wealth and opulence of the era. Carey Mulligan, playing Daisy Buchanan, reveals that she built her spotlight-hungry character based on her observations of the Kardashian family. Indeed, Daisy Buchanan is known for her weakness for beautiful things, so it’s no surprise that jewelry and clothes play an important part in building her character, just like in Kardashian’s ultra-material world.  Tiffany & Co, famed for their breath-taking Art Nouveau and Art Deco jewels, were a perfect match to design a special collection for this movie set in the Jazz Age. 

Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan

Thanks to both movies, more celebrities and designers have rediscovered pearls as their jewel of choice. Let’s hope it’s not just another short-lived romance…

Why do Fashion Designers Stray Away from Pearls?

Have you ever wondered why we see so little pearls on catwalks? Pearls are one of the most feminine and universally flattering gemstones and yet they often get a cold shoulder from the fashion designers of this world. Naturally there are notable exceptions, such as Chanel, but overall most fashion power houses will readily choose sparkly diamonds or bold-colored sapphires, rubies, or emeralds over delicate and shimmery pearls.  

I have given this a lot of thought, and I finally settled on red carpet events as at least one of the guilty parties. Why, you ask? Let me explain.

Izabel Goulart wearing emerald statement necklace and Dita Von Teese rocking pearl earrings at Cannes Film Festival
Photos via Harper's Bazaar

On one hand, we have flash-hungry celebrities that want to shine during such events. Figuratively, yes, but mostly they want to literally exude sparkle from every earlobe, finger, neckline, or toe. They want to be seen and admired. They work closely with fashion designers to put together head-turning outfits and accessories in the hope that they’ll help to maximize their media presence. On the other hand, outfits seen at the Oscars, Grammy’s, or MTV Awards, just to mention three, all set the tone for the current and upcoming fashion trends, so designers produce their trend-setting jewelry pieces to be shown off during such events. Again, this means most of them are more likely to create over-the-top, daring, and highly visible pieces (read: *Bling*Bling* ;o)

Emily Blunt wearing ruby earrings to Golden Globes and Zoe Saldana adorned with pearl earrings in Cannes
Photos via Harper's Bazaar and Trend911

Unfortunately, one of the easiest ways of attracting the general public’s attention – you and me! - or that of photographers to begin with, is to wear something bold and/or sparkly that screams big money. As often as not, the resulting jewelry pieces   are not feminine, maybe not even flattering - but definitely loud and audacious. As for the pearls, well… their delicate shine suffers and their beautiful colors tend to disappear when overpowered by the strong flashes of today’s cameras, so they are not as photo-attractive on the red carpet as their more sparkly and colorful alternatives. Also, from a designer’s point of view, pearls are more difficult to work with because their special sheen, voluptuous forms, and ethereal appeal require more creativity in marrying them with modern and daring styles. In consequence, the fashion scene has fallen in love with the fire of diamonds and the boldness of rubies. Don’t get me wrong, I love diamonds and colored gemstones too - but I would love to see more pearls on today’s catwalks.

So if you are a designer and reading this: Hi there! Please include pearls in your fashion repertoire. We love them dearly and they love us back even more. I dare you, show me one woman who doesn't look good in pearls!

PS. Luckily, I have noticed some changes in this bling-fever. Details in our next blog post :o)

How are Pearl Earrings made?

Have you ever wondered how pearl earrings are made? What happens before you wear a pair of well-matched pearl studs?

It is a long process! It all starts with a big bag filled with pearls that have already been sorted for their body color, size, shape, and surface quality by the pearl farm. The bag you see on the first photo is actually considered as a small one. Sometimes we have to go through four times as much to find the “pearlfect” fit!

We work in batches. We always go for the bag with the very best quality pearls. We divide them into several trays and search for the most lustrous and roundest of these pearly beauties. Sometimes we feel like a team of Cinderellas, separating the good grains from the bad!

Naturally, the more pearls we take out of the tray, the more we risk considering as good ones because some of the remaining pearls will suddenly look better if left with the less-lustrous ones. This is why once we have made our initial selection we inspect every single one of them to make sure you get the best, the roundest, and the prettiest of them all!  On this second pass, we take out quite a bunch of the ones we had initially selected.

The ultimate beauties get their spot on a sorting leaf. Then the pairing process can finally begin! It can be hours before we start pearl matching. Our skilled staff makes sure your pearls look as identical as each other as possible.  Absolutely perfect matches are very rare and a whole lot more expensive because, like snowflakes, each pearl is unique!  We carefully study the size, body overtones, and luster of each pearl that matches our quality requirements.  We look for pearls that reflect the light in similar ways and display similar color play on their surface.  It’s not an easy task! Just to give you an example, white pearls can have pink, silver, greenish, blue, ivory, or multicolored overtones.

This is why only a tiny fraction of each pearl bag ends up in our collection of pearl earrings. From this particular bag filled with thousands of pearls we only selected a few dozen pairs, or less than one percent of the cream of the crop, that were deemed worthy of your earlobes :o)

Not all pearl companies work in this way. Many cut corners and leave the matching process to pearl wholesalers. Such companies buy paired pearls in bulk and hope for the best, which is unfortunately far too often wishful thinking. This is yet another reason to only choose reputable pearl vendors who only carry only high quality pearls.

Let’s go back to our pair of earrings. We have already selected finest pearls.  Now we have to drill them before we can affix earring findings onto them. This is an optional step because oftentimes pearls are already drilled at pearl farms and ready for setting. Again, drilling pearls requires skills and attention. You don’t want to damage the pearl surface!

Once pearls are drilled, they are ready for setting… and voila! Your earrings are ready to adorn and be admired!

New Year's Greetings

Happy New Year to Everyone! May every great new day fill your happiness treasure chest! 
:o)