Gemstones And Jewelry

Last night’s event was, how shall I put this…eclectic? The color of the gowns ran in oppo­si­tions, from ethe­real whites and ivories to deep jewel tones. The bright, true red on Dianna Agron and Stacy Kiebler were acces­sorized suc­cinctly. Agron wore a mix of period pieces — nine­teenth cen­tury ear­rings and ring and bracelets from the 1920s — from Fred Leighton. Kiebler chose Chopard dia­monds. All of it worked but didn’t make state­ment — the dress was the main focus for both women and they looked quite lovely. The sur­prise of the evening, at least for me, was Angelina Jolie. She doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily fol­low trends, and why not? Mav­er­icks are known to buck them. At one point I read on Twit­ter that she was going to appear in a new white ver­sion of the amaz­ing Lor­raine Schwartz emer­ald ear­rings she wore only a cou­ple of years ago. I reported then that I thought those were a strate­gic choice at the time since she was in black and every­one else was fight­ing for atten­tion in color. Jolie showed up in a stun­ning Ate­lier Ver­sace of white satin with a slash of crim­son along the top. That dress cried out for sim­plic­ity in jew­els and the closely fit­ted dia­monds under­scored the state­ment. While I’m always a fan of dra­matic jew­els on the red car­pet, it has to suit the woman, the occa­sion, and the look.

I’m not sure you can call it a trend when only two women wore them, the jew­eled ban­deau that is, how­ever Char­l­ize Theron and Michelle Williams proved their charm. Even more inter­est­ingly, they were com­pletely dif­fer­ent ver­sions, one in white dia­monds and the other in black vel­vet with dia­mond accents. Not that long ago I pur­chased a lovely Swarovski ver­sion with a dark or antique dia­mond effect. With my boy-short hair there is a cer­tain glam­our to keep­ing things neat, sim­ple, and sparkly on top, rather than acces­soriz­ing every­where else. I like the look very much — as did my hus­band, which I didn’t expect.

Both Juliana Mar­gulies in Lor­raine Schwartz green jade and Julianne Moore in should dust­ing Fred Leighton dia­monds and emer­alds win my award for the best use of color in an ear­ring. The ever fashion-cool Heidi Klum wore a won­der­ful neu­tral col­umn dress with a bold turquoise neck­lace. She looked relaxed, ele­gant, and that sunny blue-green gave her a fab­u­lous glow. Never under­es­ti­mate the use of color in jew­elry — it is statement-making with­out being over­dra­matic. Find­ing the right color, and/or the right shade, makes all the difference.

Let’s talk about the long-earring-and-bracelet(s) look. It was all over the red car­pet and while this has been done to the point of dis­in­ter­est for me, I will say that I’m never, ever bored with Sofia Ver­gara. If she could put her long ear­ring appeal in a bot­tle and sell it she could quit Hol­ly­wood and retire. Very few women wear pen­dant ear­rings like she does. It’s as though she was born with them already affixed to her lobes. Harry Win­ston should hire her at their spokesper­son — she exudes the kind of cap­ti­vat­ing beauty and spir­ited exu­ber­ance the brand could use. She was, in total, a breath of fresh air.

Finally, my last two awards go to Emma Stone and Kate Beck­in­sale. Stone wins the best non-bling, bling award for her Lan­vin eagle belt — loved the detail with all the deep, mys­te­ri­ous shades of reds in her gown. Beck­in­sale was my absolute favorite last night — she was decked out in Lor­raine Schwartz dia­monds, head to toe and a GORGEOUS Roberto Cav­alli gown– the ear­rings alone were enough to keep us watch­ing (although one lit­tle aside that I might add is that they did remind of a pair that Bey­once wore to one of the award shows not that long ago). The entire look made me think of the Golden Age of Hol­ly­wood when cos­tume design­ers dressed stars and glam­our wasn’t just a look but an institution.