Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design Blog

Hello,

I was reading through a couple of magazines the other week and I had to share one of the articles I read with you all about the Oscars and all the stunning jewellery that the stars were wearing, I know it’s a little while ago now but I thought it would be great to share this with you anyway. I guess you have all seen the stunning dresses worn by the stars but did any of you notice the beautiful bold jewellery worn with them? I have been taking a look at the jewellery showcased at this event and picked out a few of my favorite pieces to share with you, these pieces certainly became one of the biggest talking points in the fashion magazines the next day, you may have read about Meryl Streep and the very different takes on her outfit and jewellery worn. My very favorite out of the list below was certainly these stunning black diamonds wing inspired earrings worn by Cat Balnchett, designed by Lorraine Schwartz, along with the beautiful diamond bracelets worth over 100cts worn by Ann Hathaway.

Take a look at the images and links below, I have picked out for you a wide variety of jewellery for you, see what you think?

Penelope Cruz wore a stunning floor length blush coloured gown by Atelier Versace and diamond earrings by Chopard complimented with a stunning evening clutch bag from Daniel Swarovski.

Ann Hathaway (Devil Wears Prada actress) wore a stunning valentine dress with 3 amazing diamond bracelets weighing over 100cts and some diamond and pearl earrings from Van Cleefs and Arpels.

Kate Winslet wore 54ct pear shaped yellow diamond earrings from Chopard, with a stunning gold clutch set from Bulgari.

Cameron Diaz wore a 9-carat cabochon emerald and 65-carat diamond earrings from Cartier to play off the green sparkle in her eyes, worth $1m from Cartier.

Helen Miren - this amazing marquise cut 55ct diamond bracelet from Chopard compliments her detailed lace gown perfectly (designed by Christian Lacroix), it’s almost like it could have been made to co-ordinate with the bodice of her gown, Helen also wore some stunning 16ct pear shaped pear shaped diamond cluster earrings and a 62ct oval cognac and white diamond brooch which featured on the back or her dress and a 55ct.

Jenifer Lopez wears a beautiful Marchesa gown with Jewellery from Lorraine Schwartz, which included 20ct grey and champagne diamond earrings with peach diamond drops.

Jadoa-Pinkett Smith wore 50ct canary yellow diamond earrings to match her shimmering Carolina Herrera gown dress (worth over $1m! from H Stern's collection).

Cate Blachett in Giorgio Armani Privé - a silver one-shoulder Swarovski crystal mesh gown with tulle overlay and jet black palette floral motif, which is reflected in her stunning wing inspired/shape black diamond earrings from Lorraine Schwartz.

Jessica Biel in a gown by Oscar de la Renta, and jewellery from Neil Lane. Jessica Biel wore diamond and platinum earrings with two onyx and diamond platinum bracelets and a diamond ring by Neil Lane.

Jodie Foster graces the red carpet in a halter gown by Vera Wang with twist-front bodice, complimented with small blue sapphire earrings from Boucheron.

Meryl Streep stacked up several 1960s Fred Leighton necklaces set with coral, onyx and a large carved scarab... although she was criticized by the fashion world for not being sufficiently "haute couture" she had a unique style and created a talking point in the next day's magazines! Her style was very simple yet still elegant however certainly more understated than the other stars seen at the event, but did the jewellery and dress really work together? As individual pieces they are both stunning however do not compliment each other at all. As the 1950’s necklaces are such bold pieces a more elegant dress will enhance the jewellery so much more bringing out the beauty of such an expensive piece, for example if this had been teamed with a off the shoulder/plunge line dress the jewellery could have been shown to it’s full potential. Although a lot of the comments received in the magazines the next day were very negative I think it is very admirable that she is able to create such an impact and is able to adapt her styles to take risks/statements with her outfits.

So what did you think? I think it's great to see this couture jewellery being shown off to its greatest potential and to see how this may influence fashion trends throughout the next couple of seasons. It’s great to see such a variety of jewellery appearing at such an event and how these fashion styles are adapted to each individual, looking at these and the trends appearing through on the catwalk there is definitely a statement to be made with your jewellery certainly next season carrying on through to the beginning of the spring and summer season in 2008, colour and the metallic’s will also play quite a big part within this new trend too, so watch this space!!!

Hi Jodie here. I have just finished freshening up the displays here in the Cambridge shop and all of the colour has put me in such a good mood.

Colour is back! This spring/summer is going to be all about colour, and the colour I will be mostly seen in this summer is blue. I think it's a fantastic fresh and clean colour and looks especially great with white for a classic summer look.

Electric blue has a dynamic edge and will really make you stand out from the crowd, but don't panic as you can still be in every shade of blue under sea and sky to keep up with this season's trend.

The spring/summer 2007 collections radiated energy and designers such as Anna Sui, Roberto Cavalli, Paul Smith, Julien McDonald, Kenzo, Balenciaga, Missoni and Matthew Williamson to name but a very small few all included blue in their statement pieces.

So what have the designers at Harriet Kelsall jewellery design done to keep up with the trend in their jewellery? Why not visit our blue page to find out.

This month you will find blues from across the spectrum in jewellery in our shop and showroom and I have tried to include as many of my favourite designs in the displays as I can:

The best place to look (and my personal bible!) for all of the latest trends and catwalk shows is www.vogue.com

Another great place to look is www.fashion-era.com/trends_2007a/2007_spring_colours_summer_fashion.htm as you can back track through all the past trends and see how they compare with today.

I hope you will find space for blue in your wardrobe this season and forgive me for mentioning the C word but the trend will definitely follow through to Christmas and winter so is certainly worth the investment!

I hope to see you all soon!

After many months of work and many late nights, I am very pleased to announce the launch of our new website www.purple-label.com!

The website showcases our new ready to wear collection of pendants, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, dress rings and cufflinks and you can buy them all online. I hope you agree that it looks fabulous and we will be adding new designs to the collection over the coming months so keep an eye on it! Also over the coming months we'll be adding new functions to the site including more help for people (I mean men!) who need extra guidance as to what to buy for their loved ones - so "style tips" and "seasonal colour" help will follow soon.

Hi - Just a quick entry to say that our new sister website www.purple-label.com is very nearly ready to go live! We have all been working flat out into the early hours to get it ready and are just finishing bug testing it.

Purple Label is our new collection of dress jewellery - pendants, earrings, necklaces, cufflinks and much more. The site will allow you to buy these items online and everything is photographed on one of our lovely models so you can really see what it looks like!

We are all really proud of the new site and I'll let you know when we launch it which will be very soon. In the meantime, here is a sneak preview of a couple of our new necklace designs.