Fashion Brief
Magpies – and I am one – tend to be apologetic about their weakness for shiny things. Guilt about the buying of new clothes can be assuaged by arguing the need, but who ever needed a tawdry trinket? Or rather, in the case of we magpies, another tawdry trinket? Diamonds and gold, of course, are known to satisfy several psychological needs – for status, security, proof of high regard. But I am not talking about diamonds and gold or anything anywhere near their class. I am talking about wonderful junk of varying degrees of good taste, quality and craftsmanship.
It was only two and a half years ago when I started writing about fashion that I discovered that my passion for bangles and beads was not wholly folly. It wasn’t the writing that taught me this but the styling of the photographs. After an arduous day in the studio dressing a stunning model girl in attractive clothes, I would receive a pile of prints. It was hard to fault them, but something was missing. I eventually spotted the gaps and gaps they were. On necks, ears, wrists, and fingers. No flash, no dash, no baubles.
Some periods in fashion demand more of the latter than others and this is one of them. The simply styled sportswear look is still with us and that needs spicing with costume jewellery to stop it looking boring; and the new highly decorated Romantic look, which is just starting and will overwhelm us in the winter, just doesn’t work without chains and chokers to add bravura to the frills, furbelows and knickerbockers.
Some of the nicest trinkets are those you buy in flea markets in towns like Athens, Marrakesh or Jaffa; they last longer and take up less room in your luggage than ethnic earthenware or local handwoven mats. But if it’s Brightlingsea again for you this year, you can find a lot of foreign-made jewellery, and British-made but foreign-inspired jewellery in the shops.
West Africa is a strong influence at the moment (particularly in Artwork) and so is American Indian silver and lapis work (best at Butler and Wilson) and Arab-type coin necklaces and drop earrings and North African filigree work.
Barbaric-looking beaten bronze collars, chokers, and enormous earrings summon memories of ancient Egypt and Crete, while shells, coral and mother-of-pearl brings a balmy breeze from South Sea Islands.
The Maui Gold Collection is one of the most interesting new ranges of jewellery. Kulani Mahikoa, a descendent of the Hawaiian Kalakaua dynasty, collects shells, leaves, flowers, and even deceased sea horses from the forests, reefs, and sea shore of the island and a goldsmith first dips them into a sealing solution then an electroforming bath, where they get a coating of copper.
After they have been cleaned and polished the pieces are coated in 24 carat gold. Because, says Kulani, nature never makes a duplicate, no two pieces of the collection are the same. The trouble is, of course, that until you are told the background to the Maui Gold jewellery you assume they are mass-produced replicas designed by an artist with a limited imagination. Once you know the truth, you see their charm.
Kate Kemp and Sally McQueen got their early experience in jewellery-making working with precious metals and stones, but when they decided to abandon their jobs and start their own small company, Brass Roots, they opted to keep their materials as cheap as possible.
The chief influence on their style is African jewellery and they use brass or anodised aluminium or thick coloured cord to produce a range of simple shapes enriched with interesting texture and stunning colours. “We decided,” says Kate,” that it had to be fresh looking, in the new ethnic mood of the eighties and within the reach of pockets hit hard by the Iron Lady’s fist.
Which is another reason why magpie tendencies are not as bird brained as they may seem. We glitterbugs get as much pleasure from a string of shiny beads as our sober-hued sisters do from a new frock – at a fraction of the price and with the knowledge that most of the clothes in our wardrobes will borrow new glamour from them.
