Costume Jewellery

[LuxuryWoman2018]

I have a thing about accessories and have a decent collection of bags and shoes and have a couple of nice watches but I need to start again with my costume jewellery this Winter as my current bits are just not me anymore. I dress in a fairly conservative way and I'm not keen on 'blingy' stuff, being tall I need quite big pendants and bangles as dainty stuff gets lost on me.

I like things similar to this uk.accessorize.com/view/product/uk_catalog/acc_2,acc_2.1/5857640300 and have just ordered this www.myexquisiteshop.com/products/wide-leather-cuff-bracelet-bangle-high-fashion-style-cuff
and I'd like some rings as I have nice nails and decent hands although my fingers are chunky, my ring finger is size 10.

I'd like a chunky bangle with black stones ideally too. Any ideas? I'll spend. I hate the kind of stuff M & S and Next do (on the whole, sometimes I find nice things) I guess I'm after grown up gothic really, a bit glamorous and a little different. I love Antique stuff but don't really have time to search around. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any Etsy sellers maybe?

I guess I want the kind of fantastic things that sometimes turn up in charity shops but without the hard search. I have a feeling I may need to go to some craft fairs but if anyone has any ideas I love them.

What is your UK ring size? You say 10 but don't say which country and there's a big difference between a US 10 and a Spanish 10. It sounds like you're in the UK (given the references to Next and M&S) so a UK ring size would make it easier to help you.

And more importantly, what's your budget?

I'm in the UK and I'll spend around £25 on a piece - maybe £50 if it is something fab

You could try having a look on Asos. They sometimes have some interesting statement pieces that work well on taller woman.

On Etsy, have a look at Otis Jaxon but they may be too modern for you. Or have a look at Jenleeluxe for gemstone jewellery. I'm afraid I'm not much help here as I don't tend to buy in that budget range.

Antique jewellery is much harder as sellers tend to be very well aware of the worth of their pieces (especially estate sales) so the majority will be well over your budget. If you want to find something unusual, you need to put the leg work in yourself. If you don't want to do the legwork, you'll pay a premium for a dealer/seller to have done the legwork already.

I suppose what I want is the kind of thing you’d buy in any clothes shop but a bit interesting, lots of high street costume jewellery has diamanté daisies or colourful beads which is fine but not me.

Perhaps I’ll take time round the charity shops, when I was young I used to love jumble sales and picked up some lovely things but they would have been quite old by then and the quality was better than mass produced. I like amber and dark stones so I’ll take a look on Etsy.

I’ve got some fine jewellery but just want to update my costume stuff, I’m a magpie and love choice (and jangly bracelets)

I like the below

www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women/jewellery.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiqz64vqW3gIVQrHtCh3YPwZNEAAYASAAEgKe0_D_BwE

My fave is Kenneth Jay Lane who has a huge range of styles. You can often find lots on the Outnet

www.theoutnet.com/en-gb/shop/designers/kenneth-jay-lane#{"ytosQuery":"true","linkdepartment":"INTL_Kenneth_Jay_Lane_DESIGNERS","linkdepartmentId":"3074457345616677521","department":"INTL_Kenneth_Jay_Lane_DESIGNERS","departmentId":"3074457345616677521","page":2,"productsPerPage":"96","suggestion":"false","facetsvalue":[],"virtualnavigation":"true","totalPages":"3","rsiUsed":"false","totalItems":"257","partialLoadedItems":"96","itemsToLoadOnNextPage":"96"}

I’ve never ordered from the outlet before and I’ll take a look on Cos, thanks.

I’m going to sort my old stuff out and give away the things that no longer suit me and spend a while replacing with things I really love. I think I want almost a capsule collection now, I used to just grab things as I saw them in clothes shops and ended up with a tangle of necklaces and beads.

QVC is amazing for jewellery - I've just done a bangle search and 674 turned up. I've sorted low to high and this lovely silver and black semi precious stone bracelet came up - in lots of colours
In the sale for under £7

And this one. That's a real agate stone for £8 - down from £28

And this one is super striking for a tenner

LaurieFairyCake good finds, the third one in particular is great.
Great prices too.

Just browsing Etsy and a ‘4 human teeth ‘ bracelet popped up 😮
There are some nice things apart from that, I imagine that bracelet biting my wrist, wonder where they got the teeth, the dentists side business maybe?

A 4 human teeth bracelet??? Urgh. You think dentist OP, I think serial killer.

There's usually a lot of Kenneth Jay Lane (and his diffusion line KJL) on Ebay, often much better priced than The Outnet.

I used to love The Outnet - and still do for bags / shoes - but I find the prices that "designer" jewellers charge to be outrageous for the quality of the item. I know you are paying for the style and the name but seriously???! There is an awful lot of 'gold tone' i.e. there's nothing actually gold about it. Quite often the prices for 'gold tone' factory made in China are higher (even at Outnet prices) than the prices to buy a handmade gold vermeil (gold-plated silver) piece direct from a UK based designer-maker. And these designer-makers are often well respected, award-winning, often used at London Fashion week etc. Sorry OP, that's me on my soapbox.

And just to prove that I'm not completely talking out of my arse, this a link to one of aforementioned designer-makers who has a semi-permanent sale page for some of her older pieces. Some of them just squeeze into your budget OP but I'm not sure if this will be to your taste or not. She's more art deco inspired than gothic but her work is beautiful:

www.caratonkin.com/sale/

Oliver Bones have some lovely jewellery

*Bonas

Good call with Oliver Bonas.
Serial killer 😀 I have such an innocent mind, can’t imagine wanting a human teeth bracelet and wonder who their target customer is.

Agree with your views on the Outnet HundredMilesAnHour & it’s defo better worth shopping around for KJL, it was more a link that showed lots of his styles if that makes sense.

Thanks for suggestions, I’ve seen some nice Oliver Bonas things and as it’s half term I’ll have a rummage around the charity shops. Tempted to order the human teeth bracelet out of curiosity.

I bookmarked Sahara last week after reading something else as I thought their costume jewellery was quite different.

I just took at look at Sahara, some of the stuff is way too big but I quite like this saharalondon.com/crystal-tassel-necklace-silver and saharalondon.com/circular-pendant-grey-silver

If anyone knows what the quality is like I'd be glad to know. Not a human tooth in sight either!

If it helps you to judge, I followed it up from a blog article about Prue Leith's style, so I'd guess it would be quite good quality but I've not touched it IRL. At the prices, I'd want it to be decent.

I think I’m going to go with the Sahara crystal necklace, thanks XingMing