Jewellery's web blog

Whether your passion for pretty pearl necklaces came from Wilma Flintstone or Coco Chanel, there’s a good chance that someone inspired your personal style. This month’s letters reveal that a fabulous muse is the best accessory.

“Marlene Dietrich. She wore a top hat and a tux and made it look like women’s wear. Fantastic.” Robin Maillett, Niantic, Connecticut | “Katharine Hepburn personified that wonderful tailored look of the 1940s.” Sandi LoConti, Mahwah, New Jersey | “The crazy color compositions of Andy Warhol inspire me most.” Sarah tiffany, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Growing up watching movies like Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Sabrina, I found my role model in Audrey Hepburn. Her clean, classic style reminded me to keep it simple. What could be more perfect than the little black dress?

ASHLEY ATKISSON

Vista, California

My mom and my grandma taught me that fashion is 50 percent what you wear and 50 percent how you wear it. You can make a potato sack look good if you combine it with confidence, a smile, and a really cute pair of shoes.

STEPHANIE GALLAGHER

Salem, Massachusetts

I try to follow Coco Chanel’s motto: “Before you walk out the door, valentines day jewelry one thing off.”

LESLEY MINTON

Willoughby, Ohio

Carrie Bradshaw, baby!

CHARLENE AVALOS

Littleton, Massachusetts

My toddler. The fearlessness with which she combines colors and patterns, never worrying about what’s in or what others might think, inspires me to do my own thing as well. We only live once. Why not shake things up a little?

RACHEL LORBER

Brooklyn, New York

I look up to Lauren Hutton for being true to herself. When she started modeling, she was told to get the gap between her two front teeth fixed, but she refused. That gap, along with her beauty and grace, made her the fashion icon she is today.

DEDE GERBER

El Segundo, California

Parisian women. I lived in France for two years, and they had a major impact on how I dress. Their simple valentines jewelry of style and use of accessories, like beautiful scarves, still influence me today.

NADINE LOMAKIN

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Katharine Ross as Elaine Robinson in The Graduate. Her skirts, boots, sweaters, and hairstyles were very basic but incredibly chic and timeless.

CHRISTINA CARR

Syracuse, New York

My unborn baby. Never in my life have I wanted to show off any rotund features, but the joy and excitement of carrying my first child makes me proud to have a giant watermelon belly. I care less about wearing designer pieces and more about embracing what this new roundness represents.

JENNIFER TOYOHARA

New York, New York

Edie Sedgwick, with her cropped hair and dramatic eye makeup, could turn the simplest dress into a fabulous, head-turning ensemble. And that, to me, is the definition of a true fashionista.

NATALIE REID

Simpsonville, South Carolina

My love for fashion was definitely influenced by my dad’s style. He wore gorgeous suits and was never afraid of color–think a gray flannel pin-striped suit with a lavender French-cuffed shirt and a deep purple paisley tie. He had the ability to be conservative, classic, and trendy all in one outfit, without ever being over-the-top.

LORELEI A. VARGAS

Yonkers, New York

Franco, an elderly gentleman from a small hilltop town in southern Italy. Every day, he wore the same frank gehry tailored, classic wool-tweed sport coat. He always looked attractive and appropriately dressed.

CATHERINE TIEMEYER

Venice, Florida

My grandmother Joyce. She loved mixing chunky cocktail rings with bohemian head scarves and flouncy dresses. She was beautiful because she didn’t care what others considered “fashionable.” She wore what made her feel good.

JESSIE COUBERLY

Santa Cruz, California

[BOX]

“Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. She proved that a woman could be feminine without frills, plunging necklines, or punishing shoes.”

JENNY VIGGIANO

Deltona, Florida

[BOX]

“Pippi Longstocking–pigtails, brightly colored tights, and big, paloma picasso shoes.”

WENDY PINIZZOTTO

North Attleboro, Massachusetts

The city of Mission Viejo issued the following news release:

The Planning and Transportation Commission on Monday gave the green light for demolition of a 5,663-square-foot vacant commercial building along Marguerite Parkway, clearing the way for construction of a 5,937-square-foot Jared tiffany jewelry building.

Jared Jewelry, which opened is first store in 1993, touts its superior customer service, selection of well-priced jewelry that is said to be five times the selection of competitors and overall shopping experience. Jared the Galleria of Jewelry necklaces, a division of Sterling Jewelers, Inc. with its parent company, Signet Jewelers Limited, is the largest specialty retail jeweler in the world.

The new building, which will be housed in the former Sid’s Steak House site, will feature green building methods that fall in line with proposed improvements for College Center along with architectural elements reminiscent of the City’s Civic Center. The proposed architectural style incorporates Coronado stone treatments and earth-tone colors along with a tower element, mahogany stain wood trim, eagle roof tile and burgundy awnings.

The building will have a maximum height of 35 feet to the top of the tower.

For more information about the project, contact Paul Wolenski of Sterling Jewelers at 330-668-5006 or project architect Ron Underwood of Bickel Underwood at 949-757- 0411. For more information about US Fed News contract awards please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, US Fed News frank gehry, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Chuck Wilson, 949/470-3024.

The luxury tax and the Persian Gulf War have spurred a boom in antique Tiffany and co jewelry.

Right now, antique jewelry — dating from the early 1800s through the 1940s — is perhaps the single strongest sector of the art market. Collectors are paying “incredibly strong prices for period jewelry,” said Diana D. Brooks, president of Sotheby’s Holdings Inc.’s North American auction operations.

In May, at Sotheby’s jewelry sale in Geneva, Switzerland, a matching set of Cartier yellow diamond-and-onyx tiger earrings, bracelet and brooch, once owned by heiress Barbara Hutton, sold for about $857,000, twice what Sotheby’s had expected.

And at the “lower” end of the market, several turn-of-the-century pieces recently sold at prices well above their pre-sale estimates at the Skinner Inc. auction house in Boston. They included a pearl and emerald 18-karat gold Tiffany & Co. brooch, circa 1900, at $7,250, and an Edwardian Marcus & Co. brooch with a three-carat diamond, at $7,000.

Antique jewelry is divided into several periods and styles, with the “hottest” currently being Victorian, Art Deco and “Retro,” which is oversized 1930s and ’40s jewelry generally featuring large colored stones and glass. People collect “by period or by motif like bugs or flowers, or because they have a love of a particular stone,” said Marcie Imberman, co-owner of Kentshire Galleries, which runs an antique jewelry shop in New York’s tony Bergdorf Goodman department store.

Ironically, one reason that antique jewelry sales are surging is the federal government’s new 10% necklaces luxury tax. The tax is tacked on to the price of luxury items such as furs, boats and jewelry that cost more than $10,000. But while the government levies the tax on most sales of contemporary jewelry, antique jewelry is exempt.

The Persian Gulf War gave the jewelry market a further shot in the arm. Middle Eastern and European buyers have embraced jewelry as an easily transportable — and saleable — investment that’s attractive during periods of political instability.

Middle Eastern buyers, already active jewelry buyers, have stepped up their purchases of both contemporary and antique jewelry, helping to bid prices up. Ahmed Fataihi, owner of a Saudi Arabian department store, bought more items at Sotheby’s June jewelry auction in New York than any other buyer, accounting for roughly 30% of the total sales.

The jewelry market began to take off at the April 1987 sale of late Duchess of Windsor’s jewels, which fetched $50.2 million, more than six times the expected total.

Since then, the most significant change among collectors has been that “the focus has shifted rather dramatically to signed pieces,” said Antoinette Matlins, co-author of “Jewelry and Gems: The Buying Guide.” According to John D. Block, Sotheby’s head of jewelry sales, “People have more security when a piece is signed by one of the great houses” — Cartier, Harry Winston, Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Also in demand are pieces produced by famous European jewelers of the Victorian era, most notably Fortunato Pio Castellani, whose style was a pastiche of Greek and Etruscan jewelry. A Victorian-era piece with a Castellani signature would sell for 25% or 30% more than a similar unsigned piece, Mr. Block said.

But the new hunger for “name” jewelry is being exploited by unscrupulous dealers, experts warn. Some dealers are buying “signed mountings discarded by people who wanted to change the setting,” Ms. Matlins said. These dealers then insert inferior gems. The buyer thinks “because it says Van Cleef & Arpels, it’s quality,” she said.

Cameos-carvings in relief of figures, usually women in profile — are also rising in value. But there is a problem with early 20th-century cameos being passed off as 19th-century pieces. One of the telltale signs of a newer cameo, according to “The Illustrated Guide to Jewelry Appraising,” is that the face is model-pretty, smiling, and the hair is loose. Older cameos copy classic Roman-era figures, with the nose slightly exaggerated, or fuller cheeks and a serious expression.

The most valuable cameos, which sell for several thousand dollars each, are finely detailed and carved on amethyst, agate or other hardstones. Of lesser value are machine-produced cameos or those carved on coral or on lava, many of which were bought as souvenirs by Victorian-era tourists on visits to the ruins of Pompeii.

Meanwhile, dealers are cashing in on the surging popularity of antique jewelry. At Chicago’s Johnson Antiques, which specializes in antique frank gehry jewelry, sales have risen steadily every year for the past five years and currently are running about 20% to 30% above 1989 levels, said co-owner Phyllis Johnson. The store sells jewelry at prices ranging from $1,500 to $30,000.

Who’s doing the buying? At Johnson Antiques and other dealers, the majority of sales are made to men buying jewelry as investment, or for their wives or girlfriends. But buying by women is on the increase, too. These days, wealthy career women are “buying jewelry for themselves as a fashion accessory,” said Mrs. Imberman of Kentshire Galleries.