The British Occasion Hats

All over the world hats are worn for several reasons. One is to protect the face from the bad effect of sun rays. Another reason is connected to the dress code for a certain social class. Most of the times in upper classes both men and women hats have more to do with fashion than with any practical aspect. On the other hand in simpler environments men and women wear hats to be protected by the sun when working in the open air.

The British occasion hats are representative for the first category. They are very famous throughout the world as well as the subject of many controversies. Women wear special hats in Britain because of religious requirements, because of the tradition, to flash their fortune and to have fun. Their interesting shapes have emerged from a combination of all these social factors.

For religious considerations, women have to keep their heads covered in church, unlike men. On the other hand when attending a daytime event, like horse races or even weddings, the traditional dress code is morning suits for the gentlemen and hats for the ladies. It became part of every British wedding to watch a real parade of hats, amazing by their style, color and size. There is always an unspoken competition between the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom regarding the entire outfit.

Even if women from other countries find it difficult to understand how could anyone wear a hat which looks as if it weighs ten kilos, or one which looks like a bush or like a bunch of gigantic feathers, for the British ladies this tradition is more than normal. Moreover, they are aware that their outrageous mad hats are spicing up the social events where they appear. They are actually having fun in wearing these hats and always try to display something memorable.

If you have a wedding in the future days and you have already chosen the most beautiful or the funniest hat of all, all you need now are the jewels. You can buy wholesale jewellery from many shops or even from the Internet. You will have the opportunity to match your hat and outfit with the jewels you like best.

Guide for the Perfect Wedding Jewelry

You must wear your jewelry and not have the jewelry wear you, at least on your wedding day this should be the case. But what happens with most weddings is that the bride is so excited and pumped up to look the best she's ever looked, jewelry and make up seems to take up importance over everything else and your jewelry might just outshine you which is not the ideal situation on your own wedding.

The rings, for example are very important pieces of jewelry on your wedding. The wedding ring is obviously coming and you need to remember its importance when you are dressing up for the wedding day. The wedding ring should be the centerpiece jewelry of the day and in order to keep it that way you should also make sure that your hand and fingers aren't already covered with jewelry. Either wear some things very elegant and simple or nothing at all and those should be enough for your hands.

When you are choosing the other pieces of jewelry for the wedding make sure that they all go well with your wedding dress. If you are wearing a white dress, pink stones on your necklace would just be a suicide on your part. So you need to make sure that the dress you are wearing goes well with the jewelry you select and most of all your dress should not be overpowered by your jewelry. There is nothing as beautiful as keeping it simple.
Your skin tone and your hair should also be maintained in a way that will go well with the jewelry you are wearing. Try and keep everything as simple as possible. Avoid any kind of jewelry on your feet, for instance diamonds on your shoes etc would only take attention away from the wedding band and your dress itself which is not your ultimate goal.

What's So Exciting About Copper Jewelry?

What's with the newest trend in copper jewelry? Copper Jewelry bracelets, copper pendants, absolutely everything made in silver is being made with copper now days. Why, because of the economy. It's simple yet true. Because of the economy we can't afford gold jewelry. The price of gold and silver have sky rocketed!  

Years ago I wore nothing but gold jewelry. When prices of gold climbed beyond reasonable, I started to love silver. I found jewelry designers weren't scared of experimenting with exciting designs using silver, it was much more affordable than gold. The designers let their inhibitions run wild and created some of the most beautiful pieces in silver. 

Jewelry made with silver became affordable and we grew to love it. Even those who were induced by gold, made some kind of switch to silver. Silver became and remains popular.   So where did copper come into play? 

Economy plays a big role in where fashion goes. As an example look at how many fashion trendy chain stores went out of business in the past 2 years.   Any major store who still survives has reduced their prices making them compatible with stores whose prices have always been reasonable. 

One of my favorite stores has reduced its prices in order to compete with others. In a good economy I was willing to pay $75 for a sweater that somehow is now a regular price of $50.00. How did they do that? They reduced their markup. The same goes for jewelry.

The price of silver has more than doubled in the past 24 months. Jewelry designers are losing money. We've already reduced our markups, we've tried different ways of reducing our overhead, and we've tried absolutely everything to reduce our costs. What happens? The price of silver hasn't come down. Working with silver these days is similar to working with gold years ago. It's become too expensive and consumers aren't spending as much as they were. What's the solution?

Copper.  Copper Jewelry bracelets and pendants are beautiful in color, they aren't  expensive and we can continue to be creative with copper as we are or were in silver.   In today's economy people can afford copper. That's not to say the general public likes copper.....yet. 

So do your favorite Artisan Jeweler a favor, buy some copper jewelry and give it a try!