Pearls of Wisdom
“A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls,” said Coco Chanel, who was known to toss as many as seven around her neck for everything from heading to the office to hopping on a horse. Though hers were real, she teamed up with jeweler Fulco di Verdura to produce costume pieces featuring glass pearls, so women wouldn’t have to shell out to step out in style.
Real pearls are best worn next to the skin; the oils in the skin will improve and preserve the nacre.
Spray le parfum and allow to dry before putting your pearls on, and don’t let any alcohol-based sprays come in contact with your pearls.
Store pearls hanging.
Une femme owns only one small graduated strand of real pearls, inherited from her grand mere, and several costume strands of varying lengths. I borrow a page from Mademoiselle’s book, and layer multiple strands with or without other necklaces, but usually stop far short of seven.
March 12 was my grandmother’s birthday, so I think of her on this day. Some of her pearls of wisdom:
“There’s no point in having nice things if you don’t use them.”
“Life is too short to spend time with people you don’t like.”
Smart lady, and she could really rock the red lipstick.
Coco photo from here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License.
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Pearls, my gem of choice! And since some of us are d’un certain age, we can really pile on pearls. Size counts: IMO a strand of baby-teeth 5-6 mm is too ‘debutante’ even when layered. If they are sentimental for you, get them restyled, mixed in with other larger gem beads like tourmaline.
CFWPs: Almost always way thicker nacre than Akoyas (till recently all nacre), so you can get nice luster and orient which I prefer to the ‘shiny white bead’ Akoya look. If you buy CFWPs on eBay you will not get a nice clasp so get them restrung and invest in a real silver or gold clasp or toggle with some weight.
The CFWPs on eBay are generally a safer buy than the “Tahitians”, which are often muddy, inferior quailty or fake.
My dream strand: big baroques (10mm up)or keshis, which have more orient (sometimes wildly irridescent)than round.
The challenge is finding something beyond a classic strand, as you accumulate your pearls. I found a designer on the web, Zara Scoville, whose “Priceless Imperfection” designs speak to me, and I use a wondeful local jeweler with similar sensibility.
(A long reply, you have touched my passion.)
Welcome fellow Pearlistas! Great information, thanks.
I´ve never heard that you should store your pearls hanging.I store mine in the mahogany box I received when I got them.There they lay peacefully on a shaped necklace box.My pearls are great big Tahities of different shades,I´m aware that you should use them.
Lovely. Miss Coco really knew how to work the pearls.
I love the feel of pearls against the skin, A cheaper compromise comes by way of China, you can buy beautiful strings of farmed freshwater pearls on EBay and thread a necklace of your own design, not quite as exotic as a Hawaiian one, but lovely all the same.
Dejapseu: Good advice, thanks. A friend recently gave me her grandmother’s pearl studs. The pearls are original Basra pearls from the early 1900s, and the setting in gold was done by their family, who are jewellers. I do not get much chance to wear a string I have from Turler which I got as a birthday present some years ago. But the most interesting ‘pearls’ I have are sewn on using metallic thread on to a burgundy coloured chenille shawl that my mother owned when she was alive. Indian women can be quite fancy if they are into all this and she was. I am still trying to imagine how to use it though 🙂
For photos of internesing non-traditional pearl necklaces, see the New York Times, Friday March 18online edition:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/fashion/13POINTS.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin
What so you thnk of these!
By the way, we don’t hang up our pearls. We store them laying flat.
I stand corrected. 🙂
Deja,
Nothing evokes timeless elegance more than pearls. When doing research on antique jewelry, the once constant that I found was the use of pearls worn multistrand around the neck and wrist.
If you take a look at the Antique and Vintage Jewelry information on Beladora.com you will see pearls worn by some of the most elegant women from the Georgian Period through the Edwardian Period. And we all know how chic they were in the 1920’s-1930’s Art Deco Period and the Mid-Century 1950’s-1960’s of style icons like Grace Kelly.
Since I am a femme d’un certain age I prefer to wear South Sea and Tahitian pearls, but multiple strands of Akoyas with great luster are beautiful too when worn Coco Chanel style
I am particularly fond of gold South Sea pearls. They look great with almost every skin tone.
I have a HUGE selection of undyed Akoya, South Sea, Baroque and Tahitian pearls for wholesale prices that aren’t on my website. For example, Akoya strands for about $100 that Stuller is selling for $900. For South Sea’s we buy gem quality directly from the the source.
And I can custom make whatever you like. (Duchesse, if you are looking for great baroques, I’ve got them)
If anyone is interested feel free to contact me at [email protected] or call 800-680-9569. I will give any of DejaPseu’s blog friends an additional discount.
By the way, we don’t hang up our pearls. We store them laying flat.