Are you suffering from Oscars jewellery envy? If Charlize Theron’s $3.7 million-worth of Harry Winston diamonds or Cate Blanchett’s Tiffany & Co drop earrings made your collection of sparkly stuff feel meagre by comparison, you’re not alone.
Women are no longer waiting for the men in their lives to do something about it. The jeweller to the Duchess of Cambridge, Robinson Pelham, reports that the early months of the year are the busiest time for women buying jewellery for themselves — and the number of us doing so has risen
by 32 per cent in the past two years.
The stylist Martha Ward agrees. “l like to buy myself semi-precious pieces,” she says. ‘The prerequisite is it must be able to be worn every day.”
So if you’re still waiting for that Cartier bracelet, we bring you the jewellery brands the fashion pack buy for themselves — on budgets more realistic than the red carpet’s.
Susan Caplan
The vintage expert Susan Caplan has long been the woman to call if you are in the market for a crystal Mitchel Maer necklace from the 1950s or a pair of heirloom Chanel pearl-drop earrings. Now, though, the jewellery magpie has launched her own line, inspired by her vintage collectables.
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Many come with interchangeable elements to make them versatile. The geometric Gila earrings (from £69) can be made new with bead drops in turquoise (£35) or freshwater pearls (£95). The Gila ring (from £225) works just as hard: its party piece is a central ball that can be removed and replaced with another in onyx,crystal or 18ct gold (£25, £25, £55, respectively). The gold vermeil Adira earrings, which drop like a shard from the lobe, are top of her well-priced range (£385, susancaplan.co.uk).
Maria Tash
Between shows at London Fashion Week, the front row jostled to get an appointment with the queen of piercings, New York’s Maria Tash, at her pop-up shop in Liberty. The jewellery designer’s delicate posts and hoops hang from the rooks, daiths and traguses (all parts of the ear) of everyone from Julianne Moore to Gywneth Paltrow and her daughter.
In Manhattan, it’s Tash’s weeny diamond loops that are most popular with stud-happy customers, but in London having your helix (upper ear) pierced with her spiked or triple-spiked hoop (from £136.25) is the look du jour. She says it’s to do with our “punk heritage”. Buy her designs online from venusbymariatash.com.
Jessie Harris
The current vogue for all things 1970s isn’t confined to your wardrobe — jewellery designers have also paid homage to the decade. The designer Jessie Harris, a graduate of the Chelsea College of Art, is one of
the best for her yellow-gold-plated solid-disc earrings (£260) and sterling silver bangles, more polished than a disco ball (from £180).
Her jewellery appeals because it is a departure from dainty: her chunky pieces have a raw, masculine quality that isn’t too try-hard but will jazz
up a dressed-down look. Her latest collection of asymmetric earrings and necklaces, inspired by 1970s architecture and art, launched online yesterday (jessieharris.co.uk).
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Miansai
If the cost of the four-grand Cartier Love cuff, as seen locked on the wrists of Pippa Middleton and Katie Holmes, feels a little out of reach, try Miansai’s screw cuffs (from £165). In a similar way, the unisex bangles are designed to fit snugly around your wrist and are secured by a straight metal bar, which comes in polished rose-gold plate or matte black (miansai.com).
The fashion pack is already on to them: Sarah Harris, the fashion features director of Vogue, wears on her wrist a pile of three (one each in matte black, silver and gold). The cuffs are popular at Modern Society, the new concept store responsible for bringing the US jewellery label to east London’s Redchurch Street.
Missoma
Layering jewellery is not just about stacking rings any more but about piling up bracelets and necklaces too. The designer Marisa Hordern is the brains (she read history at Oxford) behind the jewellery brand Missoma, and she has all three areas covered.
Her trinket pendant necklaces are so dinky you can wear a few together (the gold vermeil horn necklace, £129, has sold out nine times), while her rings and cuffs punched with sapphires, pearls and amethysts give your stack a distinct look (missoma.com).
“I don’t (and can’t) take them off, they live on my wrist,” says Ward of her angel-wing Missoma bangles. “This is the ethos behind purchases I make for myself. I love them because they are subtle and delicate and have become a part of me.”
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The new jewellery brand Maya Magal offers ready-stacked rings (from £64, mayamagal.co.uk), popular with the likes of Alexa Chung.
Alighieri
Love it or loathe it, the single-earring look has taken hold. If you’re unconvinced, the Odyssey earring by Alighieri (£240) will change your mind. The abstract gold-plated bronze earring curls near the cheek and looks like a shard of a broken golden egg.
The London-based designer casts her pieces from wax, so the surface appears battered and imperfect; she calls them modern heirlooms. They’re worn by the likes of the street-style star Camille Charrière. Rosh Mahtani also makes rings and bracelets set with freshwater pearls and oynx from £50 (reduced from £120). The earrings are so beautiful you might have to buy two (alighieri.co.uk).
Apples & Figs
For Oscars-worthy jewels without the price tag, try Apples & Figs. Founded by sisters Mine Arsay and Ezgi Turksoy Hamilton, the brand’s forte is semi-precious stones. Their designs all have a vintage lean, from the Elizabeth Taylor-esque Hermes feather earrings (£220) to the shoulder-grazing amethyst earrings (£116) that wouldn’t look amiss on the grand staircase on the Titanic (applesandfigs.com).
Gemporia
It’s the latest website everyone’s talking about, Gemporia sells diamond, sapphire and emerald jewels at very low prices. A 1.17ct emerald and 9ct gold ring is £129 — or how about a sapphire necklace for £68 (gemporia.com)? Warning: this is seriously addictive jewellery — and almost guilt-free.
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