Saturday, March 7, 2009

Modern Jewelry: Prosperous Times for Luxury Designs

By Elvin Retinz

There have been many significant world events that have influenced jewelry designers to create jewelry pieces that reflect some of these unforgettable events. Dating back only a half a century with the dropping of the atom bomb, one will notice how this even led modern jewelry designers to use these times to influence their designs by some pieces being formed into the shape of starbursts or sprays of diamond. Additionally, jewelry design also revolves around when to wear certain pieces of jewelry with some best worn during the day and may include gold jewelry while others are mainly worn, like diamonds.

If gold jewelry interests you, you can find many designer jewelry pieces to be worn during the daytime such as Florentine finishes and foxtail chains, among others. A strand of pearls is another option for a classy daytime look that also represents the designer jewelry that was particularly popular in the fifties.

Jewelry design during the sixties shifted to women expanding to wear more silver, gemstones and geode crystals in place of the typical diamond, as well as platinum. Diamonds were not oblivious, though, as this colorful time period was embodied in diamonds but diamonds more uniquely cut which is also the time when jagged diamond shapes became more popular. Interestingly, a lot of modern designer jewelry during this time was also made from metals.

As any fashion guru knows, trends change often as was seen during the next decade, the seventies. This era bloomed in women's movements and feminism became an underlying force in fashion purchases including jewelry. Women wanted jewelry to be more of a personalized style and accessory, which is exactly what became the trend during the seventies. Materials even changed with ivory, wood, rock crystals and coral becoming popular looks in the designer jewelry attributed to this decade.

In the eighties and early nineties, people became increasingly affluent so the designer jewelry of this time shifted to a more glamour and glitz seen through a sparkling styled jewelry trend. With Princess Diana's wedding, there was an obvious shift toward luxury and elegance in designer jewelry of this time to depict the prosperous, affluence seen during the era.

Since this time, modern designer jewelry is now being made from non-precious metals and techniques are being used to make multi-colored pearls and diamonds for jewelry pieces. Precious Metal Clay (PMC) is also becoming popular along with synthetic gemstones so that designs today are even more unique than the jewelry world has ever seen.

We can now only look forward to what the next trend in modern designer jewelry will be. In the meantime, though, we can enjoy all of the designer jewelry pieces of both the past and present all providing a unique, designer look representing the era of its creation.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment