Chains are among the most simple and ancient forms of jewelry. But designers are using them in elaborate and modern ways this season.
Designs run the gamut — from delicate dangling gold earrings to bold bib-style necklaces — composed of dozens of strands of chains. The newest necklaces are mixtures of gold and silver, shiny and matte metals, often dressed up with crystals, charms, stones and pearls.
The idea is to mix it up. And not worry about any rules your mother might have told you about how to wear jewelry.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Accessory trends parallel what’s happening in fashion, which is why chains are so popular now. The return of hard-edged 1980s styles made a focus on chains inevitable, says Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus in Denver.
“Many designers were looking for a way to give an urban and aggressive look to what they created this season,” Downing said. The 1980s influence was evident from such designers as Michael Kors, who showed industrial-strength chain-link chokers with clothing pieces like a black leather dress. Chains come as built-in embellishment on shirts and jackets from such designers as Tory Burch as well as for decorating belts, boots, shoes and handbags.
Matte-finished metals; mixtures of black, silver and hematite; and different chain textures are often combined in a single piece. The shades of gray that are so prevalent in fall clothing look good with silver and smoky or topaz-colored stones, Downing said.
“You tend to think of mixing cool colors with cool metals, but you can also mix them with a warm metal like gold in matte and shiny tones,” he says.
Casey Rosen, co-owner of Blush boutique in Denver’s Cherry Creek North, says she has been carrying fashion-forward chain jewelry from such designers as T.Cyia and Anna Bee for several seasons. T.Cyia mixes ropes of chains with crystals and ribbons, while Anna Bee remixes vintage jewelry in its one-of-a-kind pieces.
Women will pay US$200 to US$400 for a statement-making necklace, Rosen says, because “you can put it on with a T-shirt and look like you’re dressed. You get a lot of bang for your buck.”
Linda Christie-Horn was wearing a T.Cyia piece on a recent afternoon, using it to accessorize her chiffon blouse and jeans. “I like the mix of metals,” she said of the nine strands of silver, gold and brass combined in her necklace.
Such designer items might become collectibles, but women who want to spend less money and flirt with the trend won’t have any problem finding affordable options.
There’s a soft, feminine side to the chain trend as well, and observers of fashion history are quick to point to the late Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel as the reason.
First, she used chains as a tailoring device, sewing them into the hems of jackets to add weight so they’d hang properly. Then chains made their way to her handbag handles and jewelry.
Chanel loved costume jewelry as well as fine jewelry and saw nothing wrong with piling fake pearls and gold chains on top of real ones.
“Chanel believed in the elaborate and exuberant use of accessories,” Downing says. When Karl Lagerfeld took over designing ready-to-wear and accessories for the brand in the 1980s, he helped revive the focus on pearls and chain belts, long rope necklaces and chain-handle bags.
Despite having been around for a while, the chain trend isn’t likely to dissolve anytime soon. “For spring, we’re seeing it in Lucite, or mixed with chiffon and organza,” Downing said. Alber Elbaz designer for Lanvin used gold chains to accent shoes.
Costume jewelry continues to be important, Downing says, “especially in a challenged economy. It’s a way to affordably update something from the past you’ve already got in your closet.”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist