Men's Trends - Should Guys Accessorize?

Men's Trends - Should Guys Accessorize?

Men's trends in fashion can be just as exciting and daring as women's but why aren't there more fashionable men around? Designers both international and local have tried to revolutionize men's fashion in recent years. Unlike women though who have ages ago adapted the long-sleeved shirt and pants and labeled it androgyny, men can't wear skirts and call it the same - unless they are Scottish in their kilts... which is really more cultural than sartorial.

In the local scene specially, men are stuck in a certain look: jeans, t-shirt and sneakers. Plain as bare can be, comfortable at best. The biggest, most recent of men's trends that many local guys welcomed with open arms are slim pants and the Muslim shamag scarf. When comfort is the biggest argument you can come up with in defense of the jeans/t-shirt/sneakers dressing trinity, particularly in all-year-round warm Manila, then why don't more men wear loose linen pants instead of the denim slim pants that cling to the legs so tight it practically prevents air circulation? In the same way, why has the shamag scarf become the poor man's fashion statement? Forget that our country is not blessed with winter (or is blessed with no winter depending on how you see it). Guys from call centers - with more valid reason in their high A/C offices in the graveyard shift - to street vendors happily threw the scarf around their necks despite contradictory religious persuasions.

It is a good development, come to think of it, that men have started getting out of the box to look more stylish. Women sacrifice for fashion so why can't men? Is it a prelude then to men taking up another rather feminine staple, namely, jewelry?

When you look around you will see a lot of guys do accessorize. The leather cord necklace with a single pendant (mostly looking like some tribal talisman) and the Buddha bead bracelet are the most common accessories guys have taken a liking to. For the younger, edgier set, there's the chain dangling from their jeans' pocket. However, these are rather nondescript not unlike, say, a girl's pair of stud earrings. What if there is some other piece of accessory that trendsetters are proclaming as the new in thing for men? Do I dare say what it is? Alright then, it's men's brooch. Yes, you read that right.

Starting from Gucci's Fall/Winter '08 collection to Lou Dalton's '09/10, men's brooches are slowly making a comeback. We here in the Philippines dont' even know they were ever a part of men's trends before. Not if you count the smiley or peace sign badge pin as serious accessory anyway. As part of the Cool Britannia revival, these brooches borrow from traditional British elements. They are very vintage Anglo-Saxon with old world motifs like stag heads which match well with another men's trend, the military jacket.

How do you best interpret this trend? By wearing it on a jacket, one piece or, on more daring days, a group of maybe three in various sizes makes a discreet but strong impact. Once you pin it on your jacket, you can hardly feel you are actually wearing it so you feel less conscious about it. Keep the rest of your accessories in line with this focal motif or better yet, dont wear any other at all. Below are a few inspirations that you can look at to guide you.

It might take sometime before the local fashion scene catches up on this trend. If it does make it to Philippine shore, it still has to transcend local men's aversion to accessorizing. Given the inherent masculinity of the design of these brooches and coupled by its historical influence, though, you can be certain you will not be labeled as belonging to a sub-culture you do not wish to be identified with. Who says only they can be fearless when it comes to being stylish? A true man is someone who is brave enough to take on, chest first, men's trends.

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 3: Landing on the Fashion Page

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 3: Landing on the Fashion Page

Beaded jewelry design has taken many accessory designers to different paths of success. Although the recognition pales in comparison to that lavished on fashion designers, the role that accessory designers play in the the fashion field has become, in many memorable cases, indispensable.

In general, fashion accessory includes bags, shoes, belts and jewelry. Through the years, the focus has shifted from one to the next. Every new season there seems to be a new "It" item, a fresh "must-have." Fashion jewelry has lately taken the distinction. The birth of the statement necklace and the piled-on bangles breathes new life to designer collections. Imagine Lanvin flowy and voluminous satins without the massive baubles hanging from ribbon straps. Or bejeweled bib necklaces and earrings absent over at Prada. Would Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer '09 be the same without the African-inspired, modernist neckpieces? These inspired creations have helped bring, if not outright defined, the looks that would go down fashion history and the holy archive.

There is no reason then for you aspiring fashion jewelry designers to doubt the importance of your craft to the fashion equation. More and more ladies are opening their options to accessorize. Indeed when one's personal style of dressing puts priority to simplicity and comfort, it is the necklace here and the bracelet there that elevate the look from drab to fab!

Now that you have your product and ideas on how to sell it as dicsussed in previous blogs, you can start working on getting your design featured in a fashion magazine. This in itself may be your most effective selling tool. While it is true that not everyone can have their fifteen minutes of printed fame, the possibility is always present when you open yourself to the possibility. The key is to believe in your art, give it as much exposure as you possibly can and wait until things start to shape up.

It was a case of one-thing-led-to-another for me. A friend introduced me to a shop owner who was looking for accessory suppliers for her new boutique in a high-end mall. As it turned out, she was also an editor of a home magazine and had for friends fashion editors. She was floored by the outcome of the collaboration we made enough to have it featured worn by an actress on the cover and a few inside pages of a men's magazine! Although the irony of it didn't translate into inquiries, it was a thrill to see my work featured on a magazine.

Much later on I got a text message from a lady who introduced herself as a fashion assistant for another fashion magazine geared towards the college market. When asked about how she learned about me, she said she must have gotten my business card in a bazaar I had joined. Again, when you give your product exposure, it leads to more exposure. It all came very easy. She only needed to e-mail me the questions about my business and products to which I dutifully replied, of course, along with a few product shots and presto! My company appeared as one of the featured online sellers on a regular segment the magazine has. The capsule article read like I was actually interviewed when in reality, we didn't even meet in person! We only got to finally see each other when she borrowed my actual samples for a photo shoot, this time for an editorial and other segments for the following month's issue (my fashion jewelry and bags spread throughout eight pages!) . Since then I have noticed a considerable amount of traffic in my Multiply site, more inquiries, added sales and my very first utilization of a courier service for an order "door-to-doored" to Pangasinan!

Being featured in a magazine is also a great way to test the acceptability of your design. It became apparent to me that a couple of designs got almost a unanimous inquiry. Since the magazine is targetted to a particular market, the reader response ultimately becomes a pretty accurate radar of design-market match. To see the magazine feature, you may visit http://cerashop.multiply.com.

So go and create! Be passionate about your craft and watch where it takes you from where you started with your beaded jewelry design.

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 2: The Art of Selling

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 2: The Art of Selling

Beaded jewelry design, like I wrote in a previous blog, is a popular choice for novices who want to go into the crowded but exciting field of fashion accessories, either for trade or personal creative pursuit. Creating beautiful pieces, if you want your new-found passion to be lucrative, is only half of the work.

With this article, I will be sharing my personal experiences about selling. There are people who can intrinsically sell anything even with eyes closed. I am not one of them. It is a cup of tea that comes bland in my taste buds. In the same way, there is a kind of fashion accessories that can practically sell itself. Mine get almost automatic complement... but not instant sales. I have long accepted the fact that the fashion jewelries I design don't fall under the mainstream category. Along the way though there have been surprises.

Look within the Circle

The first selling lesson is to look at your friends and identify who among them emit sales talk from their mouths like fire from a dragon's. I am certain that your good friends will be more than willing to help given two primary motivations: 1. friendship (what's in it for you) and/or 2. mark-up (what's in it for them). The first two fire-spitters with tremendous convincing power (a.k.a. "imposition") for me were real close friends of mine. One of them showed my first collection to a group of ladies who lunch, got a good small quantity of order and eventually clinched for me a consignment deal with a very popular boutique with branches in Glorietta and Trinoma. The other one dangled the necklaces to his agents at a call center along with regularization or perfectly timed the selling mission during agent evaluation. He sold to other team leaders and even his bosses. He created a devoted following like a small cult of addicts hungry and shivering for the next batch of desirable fashion jewelries.

Never Underestimate Bank Employees

My sister had been aware of my fashion jewelries for a long time before she decided to bring and show them to her officemates in a top bank. She didn't think they had either taste or budget for my fashion-forward and rather high-priced pieces... or so we both thought... but who can blame us? Just try to go in a bank and look at, say, the tellers behind the counter. Most of them either wear simple, almost inconspicuous fine jewelry or their closest version to fashion jewelry: faux pearl-beaded ID holders.

I was in for a big shock when my sister came home with quite a long, certainly unexpected list of orders. Not one of them asked for a discount, only installment payments which was to be expected. Whether you sell fashion jewelry or longanisa to any workplace, the payments come in on the 15th and end of the month.

I once went to that bank myself when my sister was too busy to entertain the regular buyers. Upon entering the room I heard three girls shrieked like movie fans seeing a movie star. I didn't realize how much excitement my creations stirred in these ladies! As I unloaded my sample cases one by one on the table inside a cubicle, the girls slowly started arriving from lunch break. One by one they came and before I knew it they were flocking like bees to honey. It was a telling sign of buying behavior. Girls like to compare and have fun and tell each other which one looks best on each other and laugh and have fun. Did I say they like to have fun?

Keep the selling style personalized as buyers really want a sense of ownership to what they buy. They ask how to wear the necklace or what sort of clothes it matches. They request you to lenghten or shorten it. Do you have it in another color? Filipina girls are huge devotees of the everything-should-match mindset. When you solve their problem for them - not just sell them your wares - they will keep on coming back. Being customer-friendly assures you of friendly customers.

The Value of Meet-ups

For sellers who don't have their own showroom or shop, meet-ups are one easy way to sell. You agree with the buyer on a place and time convenient to you both. Buyers like this set-up because it affords them a private viewing (yes, ironically even in a public place) of your collection. They feel a sense of exclusivity and privelege. For you, it can open more doors.

I once met up with a buyer in a coffee shop. Typically, I brought out my sample cases and laid them out on the table. It was evening and there was not much light. When you bring out accessories in a public place and your buyer tries them on, you will almost always get attention. True enough, the lady at the next table noticed, came over, asked if she could look at the samples, begged to buy one (prototypes were not for sale at that time), thought of introducing me to her friend who was a fashion accessory fanatic. That led me to sell to a very popular evening newscaster of a major network who wore my necklaces throughout the latter part of her pregnancy. After she gave birth and shed off the added pounds, I noticed she opted for simpler fine jewelry on the evening newscast. Maybe pregnant women tend to feel less attractive and fashion jewelry restores their confidence. Just a theory, of course.

The conventional methods of selling, needless to say, should by all means be taken advantage of. Where would all of us be without the proliferation of bazaars (not just during the holiday season but all-year-round now) and the easy access to the wonderful world wide web? Bazaars are organized left and right. For first-timers it is advisable to join tried-and-tested bazaars that you yourself frequent as a buyer. Make sure to register early to secure a good spot. Front rows just after the entrance are not necessarily where buyers go to first. From experience I have discovered that traffic is usually heavy in the middle part of the venue.

There are several sites where you can let people know about your product and sell to them - http://www.multiply.com/ is a very popular selling site for many local small-scale designers, manufacturers and traders. Make sure you choose an attractive default design format the site offers to represent your company or the theme of your collection. You can also create your own webpage design. The photos of your products must be well lighted, clear and artistically-shot as they are a major basis of your buyer's decision to buy. Also write a good text which your reader can enjoy and give the impression that you care for and take seriously what you do. Check out my own site http://cerashop.multiply.com/ and take a look at the creations I have made throughout my company's short existense thus far.

With this bunch of tips, I hope I have given you ideas on how to sell your fashion accessories in this series on beaded jewelry design.

Vintage Fashion Accessories

Vintage Fashion Accessories

Vintage fashion accessories have recently resurrected in a major way. Fashion enthusiasts welcomed the return of pre-loved items from decades ago and embraced its rarity.

Come to think of it, we in this country have always had vintage in our midst. Long before the word "vintage" became a style keyword, Bambang and Eloy's were default destinations for lovers of fashion of the bygone years. While it is also true that "thrift" is an operative word in the equation, it is primarily the fascination with the history that goes into these vintage fashion accessories and garments that serves as the main driving force of hunters.

Vintage connotes anything that is at least 20 years old. Yes, Michael Jackson's (may he rest in peace) Thriller looks qualify as vintage. Perhaps the most popular decades that are easily associated with vintage are the late 60's and into the 70's. Picture flared, low-waisted jeans and bell-sleeved embroidered blouses and you get transported immediately to the hippie movement. This look has resurfaced as a key trend over and over again in the many years that followed.

When it comes to vintage fashion accessories though, specially jewelry, the years go as far back as many centuries ago starting with the Georgian period (1714 -1837). Jewelry at that time was stictly handmade and featured nature-inspired motifs like leaves and birds. Early Victorian (1837 - 1850) is similar to Georgian in its nature-inspired designs etched in gold with such intricacy and delicateness. This was the romantic era. The most distinctive design elements were the locket and brooches which were used during the daytime. Colored gemstones and diamonds were favored for evening.

The death of Queen Victoria's husband during the Mid-Victorian era (1860 - 1880) significantly influenced jewelry design. It was characteristically grand and solemn that it came to be known as "mourning jewelry." Materials such as jet, onyx, amethyst and garnet were frequently used. Despite this seeming gloom, it was also a very creative period as more colorful designs executed in shells, mosaics and gemstones flourished. Late Victorian (1885 - 1900) gave way to the Aesthetic period as design became more feminine, using bright gemstones like sapphire and peridot.

While the Industrial Revolution raged in the succeeding period (1894 - 1923), jewelry designers had their own form of rebellion via the Arts and crafts movement. There was a return to simplicity in pattern yet the pieces were intricately designed with careful attention to handmade craftmaship.

The Art Nouveu period (1895 - 1915) saw the return to natural designs such as flowers and butterfiles and the French led this design movement, most notably Rene Jules Lalique.

Edward, son of Queen Victoria succeded his mother upon her death and during this period known as Edwardian (1901 - 1910), expensive gemstones like diamonds, emeralds and rubies in elaborate design became in fashion. By the 1920's to mid 30's African, Egyptian and Japanese themes influenced the Art Deco period. Geometric patterns, sharp lines and bright contrasting colors are its trademarks. More modest materials like bakelite, celluloid and enamel took over their extravagant counterparts of earlier eras. Necklaces were characteristically long and bracelets were piled up.

The 1940's paved the way for the Hollywood-inspired Retro. True to form, jewelry during this time was bold, elaborate and colorful. Large cocktail rings and charm bracelets were the new trend.

Needless to say, jewelry from these very old periods are very rare, belonging only to private collections and museums. The good thing is that anyone can still live their fantasy with the many new versions of these period pieces. One does not need to be transported back in time to wear a cameo. Nowadays, cameos and lockets are quite common and inexpensive, too. Check out the photos below for vintage-inspired fashion jewelry, all taken from http://cerashop.multiply.com/.

If you fear looking like a character from a period drama, or even a hippie from Woodstock, avoid picking up the complete vintage ensembles. Instead select an accessory, be it a precious little bag or necklace that can easily match your very modern wardrobe. It is a styling statement that can take little effort. That is the value of vintage fashion accessories.

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 1: How to Start

Beaded Jewelry Design - Part 1: How to Start

Beaded jewelry design ranks as the most common entry point for people who want to embark on creating fashion accessories, either as a hobby or a business. It is not surprising given the relative ease with which one can start a beginner's project employing a technique that is simple and using materials that are readily available in the market.

I started designing fashion jewelry quite accidentally. I have been a bag designer for the longest time. Once, when fabricating a chain strap for a bag, I realized it looked like a necklace. All it needed was the inclusion of beads. So I asked a friend who knew where I could buy them. I remember walking into a raw material shop for the first time. There was a dizzying amount of material supply in that little shop. Row upon row of strand upon strand of beads. The variety was overwhelming. It was not the only shop. It was a whole street with several stores! I genuinely felt I found my new heaven. I knew I found a budding love in beaded jewelry design.

The first rule in beaded jewelry design then comes to this: don't be overwhelmed by the variety of materials that can be used... which can be very difficult because there is always a-child-in-a-candy-store in all of us. A creative person has an intrinsic eye and preference. Even when presented a plethora of all desirable wares, he/she gravitates toward something that occupies a distinct place in his/her personal taste memory bank. For me at that time, it was Tiger's Eye 10 millimiter-round beads that caught my own eyes. It was a perfect match to the antique-finish metal rings and chain I was going to use.

Before even sitting down to make your very first piece, I'm sure you already have an idea how you want it to look like. This should guide you in choosing your material. That you have been led to this point means that you have seen many jewelry designs that inspired you to make one yourself. For your debut project, keep it simple. Remember that you are just learning a new technique. Reading
how-to materials should teach you a simple, basic way to make a necklace or a bracelet. The most common way is stringing together beads - one kind or a few, depending on the look you want - and inserting metal pieces called "spacers" to break the monotony and give the piece a more polished look.

Once you get past this initial stage, you can start thinking up themes that will determine what specific materials, color and silhouette to use - or you can just let your design intuition lead you. I relied on this creating my first designs. There was a lot of trial and error involved. Oftentimes, certain ideas don't translate. If you insist on arriving at the result you want, one of two things can happen: you eventually find out the correct way or you discover another way that gives a different, but surprisingly pleasing outcome. What is certain is the fun and fulfillment you experience during the initial stages. There may be frustrations, it's true, but ultimately if you put your heart to it, it bears fruits. An error can only lead to knowledge of what doesn't work and a persistence to learn what does.

It is important for a jewelry designer to always get exposed to fashion trends and see what other designers are doing. Also look at other design disciplines as these may just give you an unexpected inspiration. Constantly source materials. When you see something that immediately catches your attention, buy it even when you don't know at that moment how you will use it. I have done this a lot, the material goes into slumber and at the right time, gets picked to become just what a new design needs.

Keep an archive of your work as fashion trends tend to resurface. A good design has a way of being reinvented - either simplified or made more elaborate. You will find, as you go along creating many designs, that certain materials, techniques and looks are timeless and you will always go back to them like comfort food. Beads - be it semi-precious stones, acrylic, wood, metal - will always be a fast choice for a fashion accessory. As you mature creatively, you realize that you can always rely on beaded jewelry design.

Men's Gold Jewelry

Men's Gold Jewelry

Men's gold jewelry, especially (or perhaps only) in the Philippines, connotes the fruit of years of hard labor in a foreign land. My beloved, flawed country's strong export industry of human labor contributes to its ever-evolving pop culture.

The early 80's saw an unprecedented rise in Filipinos taking the first chance to go abroad as overseas Filipino workers (OFW). The Middle East, most notably Saudi Arabia, opened its doors to tens of thousands of recruits who saw the desert region, ironically, as a place where the grass is greener. Poverty, low compensation and unemployment even left them with no better option and drove them away from their families, friends and homeland. True enough, over there the grass is indeed greener or more appropriately, the sand is hotter or the oil is thicker.

There is a fascinating way things become trends in this country. You can argue that trends start the same way wherever in the world you are. What makes it significant though is when trends become a way of life. If you look at the most recent objects of craze that took the country by storm, you will see that many of them have stayed, not as statistics but as a staple. Shawarma gave Filipinos a taste of exotic food from a land faraway and still does. Lechong manok (roasted chicken) nestled in every corner and today has become a comfort food for many. Zagu (flavored shake) led a bandwagon and transcended the summer. Marimar (Tagalog-dubbed Mexican telenovela) compelled even Ayala Avenue employees to clock out at exactly five in the afternoon to make it at home in time for the telecast. Since then Mexican has spawned Chinese and then Korean telenovelas and legions of adoring fans from afternoon to prime time. Now, you may ask, what has all this got to do with men's gold jewelry?

Men who labored and toiled with blood, sweat and tears and suffered sadness and longing for loved ones left at home ultimately afforded these very people what they went away for in the first place: life improvement. Houses were built, kids sent to school, wives smelled nicer, Betamax machines (do you remember them?) became status symbol. It created a whole new way of life.

The men didn't forget their own needs of course. They made sure they kept part of the money for themselves to buy men's gold jewelry. That to them was life improvement. Progress. Fashion statement? Maybe. Certainly and proudly, "Katas ng Saudi" (fruit of Saudi).

In those days, whenever a guy is seen wearing men's gold jewelry - thick, heavy chains around the neck, unbuttoned shirt to better flaunt them - you can almost be sure he is in town for a month-long vacation from digging oil or driving a crane. To him, it is perhaps a reward and what better way to reward himself than by buying what may be the most obvious symbol of weatlh? Never mind that it is quite "baduy" (tacky). For him, it is a reminder, maybe even an assurance that he made the right choice by going abroad and pursuing that path (or maybe just for the plain reason that there is a lot of gold in Saudi and that is what is there to buy). Warriors have their scars, scholars their diplomas, Valentinos their lovechildren. OFW's have their gold jewelry.

That this penchance for gold took a turn unlike other local trends and eventually disappeared is a testament to the OFW's sense of priority. Even poverty has progressed. For people who, in effect cut ties and end up struggling to make both ends meet there is nothing more than necessity. This is why they are hailed as the new hero. They don't carry their families' burden because it's in vogue. They take it upon themselves because it is simply what they are made of. If only for that, let's bring back the trend and give them back their men's gold jewelry.

Handmade Gemstone Jewelry

Handmade Gemstone Jewelry

Handmade gemstone jewelry is a very popular alternative to fine jewelry. There are women who invest ridiculous amounts of money on expensive jewelry. If money were no object, perhaps more women would. Fortunately, for those who don't have money to burn there's gemstone, also called precious or semi-precious stone. When used sparingly, a gemstone can be something of value but not unattainable.

A gemstone comes from an attractive mineral. It is the cut and polished version that is used for jewelry and other types of adornment. Not all that is considered a gemstone, however, is a mineral. Lapis lazuli, for instance, is a rock and amber is an organic material but they are among the most widely-used for handmade gemstone jewelry. A gemstone is characterized by its hardness, lustre and its rarity gives it value. Natural flaws make it more interesting and are therefore usually not tampered with or corrected.

What differentiates a precious from a semi-precious stone? It largely depends on culture and may change over time. Generally speaking, diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald and opal are considered precious. Pearl, although not a gemstone, is also valuable as most people already know. The famed Coco Chanel made it iconic in the 20's. Amethyst, which goes as far back as Ancient Greece is also considered a precious stone until the discovery of bulk quantity in Brazil in the 19th century. Others such as aquamarine, peridot and cat's eye due to its popularity have also been regarded as precious.

The distinction between precious and semi-precious gemstones are no longer made these days as even the most expensive jewelry use most of them. Depending on brand (most designers have a bijoux line), fashion trends (statement costume jewelry), treatment (gemstones set in gold or sterling silver) and other factors, the bounderies blur. Still, there are types that are regarded more valuable than others like diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

There are basically two classifications of cuts: cabochons, cut as smooth and dome-shaped and faceted, polished small falt windows cut at fegualr intervals and at exact angles. Although there are gemstones that are used in its original found form - maybe for organic or avant garde looks - most employ the two mentioned types.

Opaque stones such as opal and turquoise are commonly cut as cabochons to show color and surface qualities. On the other hand, transparent stones are faceted to highlight their optical properties. When cut in the proper angle depending on the optical quality, this gemstone maximizes reflected light which comes off to the naked eye as sparkle. This light will just pass through if the angles are too shallow or too deep.

Perhaps the most attractive and obvious quality of a gemstone is its color. White light or daylight is actually a mixture of different colors of light. The color of any materials really depends on the nature of light itself. This simply means that when light touches a material, some of it is absorbed and the rest just passes through. That which is not absorbed reaches the eye as light. Take for instance, a ruby. It absorbs blue, green, yellow and all the other colors of white light except red, thus, it is perceived by the eye as red as it is the only color that reaches the eye. Come to think of it, it's strange that something is red because it is the only color that is not "present" in that object. Strange and awesome how nature works!

How come the same gemstone can exhibit different colors? A stone has the same chemical composition but its color is based on its atomic structure which is not always exactly the same. Sometimes - very rarely actually as it occurs one in a million - an atom is replaced by a different atom. This causes the absorption of certain or additional colors, leaving all the other colors unaffected and lending the stone the variation in the color. This is what is called an an impurity. Beryl, for example, colorless in its pure mineral form when added with manganese turns pink, with iron becomes aquamarine and with manganese chameleons to emerald.

So many are gemstones that there are enough for each month of the year. Birthstones have become common knowledge for people specially those who are fond of jewelries. Here is a list of birthstones for each month:

January- Garnet
February- Amethyst
March- Aquamarine
April- Diamond
May- Emerald
June- Pearl
July- Ruby
August- Peridot
September- Sapphire
October- Opal
November- Topaz
December- Turquoise

It becomes easier to choose a birthday gift for a loved one knowing his/her birthstone. For fashion jewelry using some of these gemstones, visit http://cerashop.multiply.com/. Each piece is handmade and made-to-order. There is a wide array from which to select a handmade gemstone jewelry.

Spring Summer Trends - Fashion Jewelry '09

Spring Summer Trends - Fashion Jewelry '09

Spring summer trends for fashion jewelry in 2009 are a spin-off from last year's big, bold accessories. Statement pieces continued to reverberate in the runways loud and clear.

In recent fashion seasons, jewelry has really come on its own, even becoming the focal point of many looks. Designers are having a field day in creating pieces not for the faint of heart. Let us look at some of spring summer trends of '09.

Key Trends

Ethnic - Hot designer labels like Louis Vuitton, Etro and Anna Sui took inspiration from the exotic and tribal. Animal prints and wood beads were a surprising contrast to sleek sartorial pieces and a charming complement for bold prints. Here are some of the designs from http://cerashop.multiply.com that follow this theme:




Bejeweled - All the sparkle can never be blinding when they look this precious. You don't have to be rich to own your treasures, you only need to be
bold to flaunt what you have.









Metallic - Miuccia Prada sent her models down the runway in crumpled metallic frocks. Being one of the most influential names in the industry today, Prada has started a trend for what used to be fall/winter territory.






Geometric - Part avant garde, part playful this theme was a strong element in the collections of Cavalli and Lacroix, among others.








These are some of the season's key trends. For more exciting statement pieces, visit http://cerashop.multiply.com where all designs shown here were taken.

When last year's statement pieces were paired down with a simple outfit, you can be wilder this time around by wearing them with flashy colors and wild print. Of course, there's always the reliable little black dress and jeans and a t-shirt for more subdued occasions. However you want to wear it, fashion has never been so much fun as shown in 2009's spring summer trends.

Designer Costume Jewelry - How To Wear It

Designer Costume Jewelry - How To Wear It



Designer costume jewelry creates an impression that it is too ornamental to be worn by just anyone or in any occasion. This is the reason why girls tend to shy away from it. What they don't realize is that costume jewelry can be a very versatile piece of fashion accessory that can add instant drama to an outfit.



In previous blogs, I briefly touched on the history of costume jewelry and how any girl can learn to discover her own personal style. Today I will try to discuss how designer costume jewelry can be matched with most outfits to achieve different looks.

We will take a bib necklace called "CLEO" designed by Cree (http://cerashop.multiply.com//) for today's illustration. It is an ethnic/Egyptian-inspired neckpiece made out of dyed wooden beads. At first glance, CLEO may seem too, well, "costumey." It's like Cleopatra went to the Masai tribe in Africa, fell in love with the culture, drooled over the neckpiece and decided to name it after her. However, when properly matched with the right top, this piece of designer costume jewelry can take you from day to night and on to the beach for the weekend.




Wear it to Work

As a fashion rule, it is a must for any girl to have a white long-sleeved shirt in her closet. It is a staple piece of clothing that is best to wear to work or a luncheon meeting. Simple enough to match with anything from pencil skirt (for job functions) to jeans or even shorts (for daywear), it is the perfect foil for a colorful necklace. Hiding it under the collar gives a subdued effect. You dont want it to steal the show from your well-prepared presentation but you want your client to notice your vibrant personality.











Wear it for a Lunch-out with Friends

Dress CLEO down with a white singlet and make your friends green with envy. You want to look relaxed but not under-dressed and the easy solution is flaunting your designer costume jewelry. Everything looks fresh with white so even this in-your-face accessory does not come on too strong. It is a guaranteed statement piece.

Wear it on a Night-out

Although solid colors - neutrals such as black and white - bring out CLEO's bright colors all the more, it can also be worn with a printed top for a Boho vibe. Experiment with print but keep it tonal: pick one color from the necklace and play around it. For maximum effect, wear a strapless blouse or dress to highlight the statement neckpiece.

Wear it to the Beach


Perhaps the last place you'd think of wearing any jewelry is the beach. But resorts have long ceased to mean only swimming and sunbathing. It is party place for many girls. Although it does not call for a LBD moment, it sure does summon you to look as much fun as your newly-gotten tan can muster. There are two ways to wear CLEO: one is with a tank top for a stroll along the shore in the morning and with a bandau for dancing and partying the night away. Again, pick one color from the neckpiece and use that as your theme. If you are more adventurous though, pick a bandau or a tube blouse with the same exact colors as your neckpiece and channel your inner hippie chick.


There you have it. These are just some of the ways you can wear what otherwise you wouldn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. A costume jewelry should not come off threatening. It's very nature is fun and should always be worn in that light. All you need is a few basic garment pieces and a little imagination and it will take you a long way. With these illustrations that I have showed you today, you are well on your way to grab your designer costume jewelry.