Passion for Pearls

Pearls in new formats are becoming a contemporary expression of the ever-elegant classic close-to-the-neck string.

Long, navel-grazing strings are a younger and fresher alternative, and oversized faux pearls are just as welcome as beautiful and unique baroque pearls.

Maximalist Overstatement

These are days to be courageously yourself. If you feel like wearing an extreme piece of jewellery, whether huge in scale or preposterous in idea, don’t let convention, trend or obligation of politeness stop you. There are no borders of jewellery you can’t cross if wearing it makes your heart sing. If you’re having fun, indulge and just do it.

Customised neckpiece

Jewellery is the perfect totem for the modern world. It can be a carrier of love, a reminder of hope, an announcement of strength, and even a statement of irreverence. More and more people are beginning to think of jewellery as an expression of their individuality, and looking for pieces that tell their stories. These include customised necklaces with names, monograms and anagrams of people they love, words they live by, and motifs of their beliefs and affiliations. This jewellery is special, personal and as unique as the person who wears them.

Healing Crystals

Precious and semi-precious stones have not only always been a celebrated part of jewellery but also used for their healing properties by almost every civilisation. They have been worn or carried as talismans, amulets and jewellery to promote physical, emotional and spiritual healing. They are thought to positively interact with our body’s energy field, the chakras, and bring a sense of balance in the body, mind and soul. Crystals are no longer just a bohemian concept; more people than ever before are actively building a collection of jewellery that carry these colourful stones.

Farah Khan Ali picks the top trends in wedding jewellery this season 

This past year, people were more adventurous in their jewellery, whether it was wedding jewellery or they were looking to wear it casually or on occasions, everyone was wanting to be more experimental... new necklines and new ways of working with jewellery. Even though people were wearing polkis for their wedding, they were trying to experiment with a new look and wear it in a different manner — whether it was wearing it on their heads or on their arms.

Colour code

People were also more into colour, not just diamonds, but bicolour… a lot of emeralds and tanzanite. Earlier people would only prefer red for their weddings, but this time there were a lot of greens and blues.

Mix and match

There has been a whole shift in the jewellery look because of the advent of fashion jewellery. It is so in right now! Even when people are buying real jewellery, they are veering away from the classic designs. They want something that would make heads turn… statement pieces that are one-of-a-kind and have taken a great deal of craftsmanship and workmanship to complete. A lot of people are mixing and matching real jewellery with fashion jewellery to balance the look.

The bold-but-sexy bride

Today’s bride is also a bold one. She wants to dress sexy yet look sophisticated on her wedding day. She knows what she wants and she is not apologetic about it. She doesn’t depend so much on her mother or her family, is well-exposed and has researched before deciding what she wants. They don’t want to blend in.

We are in the age of social media where we have access to so much information. We have stylists who are combining the old and the new. It is all about borrowing from our traditions and contemporising them into fashion statements. Fashion has become eclectic and individual and they are not shy to proclaim their identity.

Multipurpose

2018 is going to have more wearable jewellery because weddings are becoming destination weddings. People want to wear jewellery and not keep them in the lockers. They want to wear jewellery as a style statement… jewellery would then become multipurpose and fun… a necklace that could change into a bracelet, earrings that could change from chandeliers to tops. I see emeralds still dominating.

As told to Saionee Chakraborty