Wearing Fine Jewellery to Enhance your Personal Style While Wearing Fashion Stripes…

When it comes to the fine jewellery layer of styling your striped fashion you can really choose to either keep your jewellery simple, creating a wonderful touch of harmony or be a little more adventurous and make some bold choices for a creative look. If choosing the latter, think statement jewellery from earrings to oversized necklaces to rings on every finger and bracelets on repeat.

Simple harmony or creative statement…..Which way is more you?

Often when selecting jewellery to work with a great outfit it becomes about mixing the unexpected together, a little like a couple of fashion terms that we refer to often when styling a look, which are “High/Low” and “Day/Night”.  Styling a look with “High/Low” or “Day/Night” mixes, feels very satisfying and most of the time we don’t even realise that we are choosing to style that way. So let me just share these fashion terms with you. “High/low” refers to mixing something simple and every day with something dressy and more decadent. Making it easier to wear more luxurious items more often, elevating your everyday style. “Day/night” simply means mixing more casual day wear with something that’s usually reserved for evening wear. Think of wearing your favourite pair of jeans paired with an exquisite sequin evening jacket to lunch with the girls or perhaps reverse the scene, now picture the look on a date night. All this allows us to create unique stylish looks that make others curious.

Jewellery works the same way…let me tell you more.

If selecting jewellery with gemstones to wear with your stripes and harmony is your thing then this can be done effortlessly by selecting gemstones in hues that match the background colour of the stripe. This also applies to the metal colour. 

But if you prefer to sprinkle your striped style with jewellery that’s to be the main event then simply challenge the colour way.

This wonderful pattern of lines that work so well on repeat can be worn mixed together or even allowed to clash with opposing lines …vertical, horizontal and diagonal, the same is true when accessorising with jewellery.

When wearing vertical lines you can select jewellery that runs around the wrist or finger on repeat, creating horizontal lines or when wearing horizontal stripes wrap a short chain around your neck with multiply drops draping onto your décolletage creating a wonderful display of vertical lines. Both clashing in a magical way. Fine metal in its solid natural bright hue… can be worn on repeated to accessorise a striped ensemble. Select any one hue or perhaps wear all three together. Bangles are a great accessory choice for this. A bold necklace always makes an interestingly creative choice with stripes but delicate pendants are better left at home… unless worn on repeat.

When dropping those must-haves earrings with your stripes go bold for maximum impact.

A jewellery stylist tip here is… “The bolder the stripe the bolder the jewellery needs to be, especially the earrings”.

Let’s talk about a custom ring…

Recently a client dropped in a ring set with a baguette gemstone…a dark olive green tourmaline to be remodelled. The existing design was not allowing the stone to show it full potential. The gemstones dark hue that nestled in a setting of white gold was not presenting itself true, instead of its captivating moody shade of green it appeared almost black.

By the way for those who are a little curious about a baguette gemstone, let me clarify this for you… most people think emerald cut when they see a rectangle gemstone but there is a difference, simply an emerald cut has cut corners and a baguette cut has “right angled” corners, resulting in a rectangular shape.

So where were we?

The brief for the new design…a ring to showcase the complete stone, to bring out it’s true colour and that it be contemporary with simplicity and elegance.

The gemstone with its straight lines, right angled corners and moody shade of deep green presents itself naturally in a contemporary way and after the stone was removed by the jeweller from the existing setting it’s true colour became evident. To enhance the hue even more the new metal colour needs to add a rosy warmth to the stone rather than throwing yellow into it or drawing colour from it and making it super cool. Rose gold it is… decision made. 

As the stone consists of multiple straight lines, the concept of styling with fashion stripes is also conceived. They are contemporary, wearable when off-duty or confidently office appropriate, and if styled correctly they ooze elegance….

With the vision of the stones shape representing vertical lines, which elongates the finger beautifully its now time to add horizontal lines on repeat sitting at slightly different heights to create flow in the design while keeping it mod.

Fashion thoughts…style ideas and colours palettes… 

Over to the jeweller.

For every challenging brief there is an equally extraordinary journey into design as with the Law of Prägnanz from Gestalt, “closure seeks simplicity” It follows, this will be no ordinary four claw setting. We can see a white 
rectangle despite the fact, the image is comprised of a quartet of letter L shapes.
Bridging panels are slotted to allow maximum light penetration above the finger
and flush through from the moody depths. Bearing rails are lower than the gemstone crown to shout out to the girdle and tease with lateral light. The tilt of each claw is just enough for interest but not too much to intrude on the lower pavilion facets. We now invite nature to expose its green self. For a ring, where there is a setting there is a band, or two, with a space element between. On the upper west side, one band can be deep and the other shallow both “striping” parallel around the finger. On the mid-east side lets overlap
in a change of direction just as “stripes” play in the suppleness of fabric. All shoulders will unite at the bridge of the now themed setting and “stripes” converge on the resize block in the basement.

We now repeat in rose gold.

Thank you, always wonderful to hear the jewellers insight into the creation…

Light and dark…metal and stone… both symbols of contrast, telling the story of dramatic structure. Inspired by the opposing elements. Futuristic and minimal aesthetics, layered textural effects. The lines rotating around the finger creating flow with light between and a stone standing still for structure…delicate-hard juxtapositions. Duality is reflected through structure and flow enhanced by texture and pattern.

A completed look that demonstrates how a mix of approaches to styling stripes with jewellery can work beautifully together to create a cohesive and compelling look.

Now lets go back to the beginning and take a trip down ‘stripes’ past with Forge Chiffon, to discover how the line on repeat made its relentless mark in fashion…

The Remodelling Revolution

We are back with another intriguing interview with none-other than Rob UMUN Jewellery Studio’s master jeweller and Clarisse Forge Chiffon’s jewellery stylist.

Rob and Clarisse, there has been much discussion about UMUN sparking a REMODELLING REVOLUTION! Your innovative approach, the unique pieces you reimagine in collaboration with each other!

So as we are all filled with an acute case of curiosity we would love to gain an insight into all this excitement!

Could you firstly explain what exactly is a remodel?

In jewellery terms it is changing the structure or form of a piece but this could be as simple as inverting, adding a ring and threading onto a gemstone necklace...........”Voila!”

Which kind of jewellery are you able to remodel?

Only fine jewellery or can costume jewellery also be remodelled?

Costume jewellery is typically made of base metals and synthetic gemstones which do not withstand the processes of fine jewellery manufacture. Really best to stick with fine jewellery as there is usually a significant value in the materials, making it a worthwhile investment.

Are you only able to remodel one piece at a time?

We always like to see all the pieces in question so we can consider the whole design project. Often the most underrated pieces can surprisingly be the magical ingredients.

What about broken jewellery?

Yes, it’s a good idea to bring broken pieces. We can often use part of a chain or a solitary earring to create something wonderful.

Can I add new materials to the remodel?

Certainly, we encourage that. This is the perfect way to bring it into your aesthetic.

What if I were to remodel a piece of jewellery with a damaged gemstone but I would like to keep the gemstone in the piece?

In this case we have a couple of colleagues who are fantastic gem cutters. About the only skill we don’t have in house. We would ask for their advice on how best we can bring your stone back to its former glory.

Okay so now we have a jeweller’s insight into the key principles of jewellery remodelling, I would like to dive a little deeper and discuss your innovative approach to remodelling.

As you have mentioned anything is possible, with all fine jewellery having the ability to be remodelled...

What is your approach to remodelling loved jewellery that has great sentimental value, however is never worn as it does not fit the individual’s personal style?

Firstly we look at how we can adjust the jewellery to simply bring it into our clients aesthetic if possible, often this can be done by changing the chain or even the length of the chain for example. If this is not enough we would then consider using the material and making a completely new piece.

How do you retain the sentiment contained within a family heirloom?

If we are using the material to remake the piece completely we often take our inspiration from its past keepers as well as the design of the original piece.

If we are altering the piece our approach is the least invasive. We deconstruct only what is absolutely necessary and try to keep things together as much possible. For example, if we are changing a brooch into a pendant, we will only remove the rivet and pin but retain the hinge and catch so that one day in the future if the new keeper of this piece would like to wear it as a brooch it can be easily changed back.

How would you approach a remodel if the individual had a collection of jewels but couldn’t envisage how or when they would wear them or was unsure of their personal style?

Easy, lets make an appointment with Forge Chiffon and work through it. Just allow 30mins.

And lastly where would someone begin to have something remodelled?

Give us a call or send an email and let’s make an appointment.
To that appointment bring in your bag of jewels that you’re considering remodelling and any ideas you might have.

We will sort through them with you, giving you lots of advice along the way, talk about your personal aesthetic and share some new concepts with you.