Actress Nicole Kidman dons a pair of semi-precious earrings at the BAFTA awards. AFP Photo

Nicole Kidman sported these shoulder-length baubles at the Golden Globe Awards recently, cementing the position of chandelier earrings high on the reigning trend hierarchy.

Our Bollywood beauties have been seizing every opportunity to don them over the past few months. Danglers are clearly not going anywhere in a hurry.

Calcutta?s big jewellery houses and designers have now woken up to the demand, and have done their best to deliver. From sparkling diamonds to colourful stones, the best has just begun to hit the show windows.

Trend talk

Kriplani & Sons in Vaibhav Plaza on Lee Road has kick-started a chandelier festival last week. Around 100 different designs have been launched to welcome the international rage.

?This is just the beginning of the trend in Calcutta and soon you will see more designs and longer earrings not just in our store but across the city,? says Naresh Kriplani.

Chandelier earrings aren?t stylish enough unless they caress the shoulders and tickle the collarbones. Varda Goenka, the owner of the three-year-old jewellery brand Diagold echoes Naresh?s verdict about the advent of this international style in the city.

?It?s already doing very well among Calcutta?s well-travelled customers and soon it?ll grow into a rage here too,? feels Varda.

Young jewellery designers are also creating designs that are a take-off on the chandelier style. Says Vasundhara Mantri: ?My new collection has a lot of long earrings with droplets and tiers which aren?t strictly the chandelier type, but is somewhat like it.?

Style check

In the West, chandelier earrings usually have a structure similar to the Indian jhumka. In India, however, the styles are distinctly different. The jhumka style isn?t in favour; the look here is sleek. ?Though the droplets, long streams of stones and two or three tiers are there in almost all the earrings, the style is largely different from those abroad,? feels Varda.

The Kriplani store boasts a wide array of designs ranging from the diamond honeycomb, kundan on turquoise droplets and long streams of rubies, along with droplets dangling from a chain of diamonds.

?Large pieces of jewellery are back in fashion and the outcome of all this are chandelier earrings and cocktail rings which are doing good business,? observe both Naresh and Varda.

Coloured stones have made their way into the accessories range ? clothes shoes, bags and, of course, jewellery. The brighter the better is the new mantra at the jewellery stores as designers work overtime to get the colour scheme just right.

Turquoise is the colour of the year in the international fashion circuit and is the right colour to pick even for chandeliers. Ruby, sapphire, tourmaline, peridot and coral are the other stones on the hit list of hot hues.

Price pick

The prices depend on the quality and type of stones used. While the tag starts around Rs 10,000 for a pair, there is no discernible upper bracket. Though the large variety of styles available over the counter does leave one with a lot of choice, personalised pieces can also be designed by stores, to suit your tastes perfectly.

Pictures by Rashbehari Das
Model: Priyanka Kohli