Crystal - Jewelry: Why Is Crystal Jewelry This Season's Most Magical Fashion Trend?

Why Is Crystal Jewelry the Season's Most Magical Fashion Trend?

When it comes to jewelry, the world has gone crazy for crystal jewelry, from Balenciaga to Lady Gaga. CAROL WOOLTON, a jewelry expert, delves into the powerful allure of these ancient rocks – as well as the fashionable fascination that has crystal jewelry taking over the runways.

From the apocalyptic backdrop of Balenciaga's flooded floors to Thom Browne's Noah's Ark-themed show, where the models came out two by two, the need for protection loomed large on the fall 2020 runways. Anyone would think the designers had looked into a crystal ball to see what was coming up. In any case, the trends predicted a difficult period, with dramatic black serving as a recurring theme. Paco Rabanne featured ‘Saintly' Joan of Arc silhouettes, as well as sacred-looking styles with chains and crystal necklaces fused into dresses. Large pendants and totemic forms swinging on leather above chests like protective breastplates, and metallic frames housing crystals chosen for their symbolic meanings, emphasized the clear message of salvation and safeguarding. Jewels are now more than just accessories, as they are part of a new chic in crystals and stones with spiritual properties.

I refer to this as the "new stone age" because colorful crystals and stones are being stylishly incorporated into wardrobes, homes, beauty regimes, and other areas. The fashion world was the first to embrace the look: Victoria Beckham was open about using them to calm nerves backstage before a show, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen gave them out after the show at The Row. And now the look is popular. Collectors are looking for large natural sculptures to display on plinths or old-style mahogany kunstkammers of mantlepiece minerals. Others, such as novelist Santa Montefiore, are 'prescribed' amethysts for the home by crystal 'cleaners' – to improve energy flow – in a sophisticated marriage of feng shui and a house doctor. Lady Gaga is a fan of Marina Abramovic's work, which explores the influence of crystal on the mind and body, which may have influenced her rumored plans for a rock-crystal-studded entrance hallway in her Los Angeles home.

On a recent Vogue shoot, makeup artist Val Garland took a small linen bag from her pocket, clacking with tumbled rose quartz, agate, tourmaline, and rhodochrosite, before beginning work on model Duckie Thot's face. “As a makeup artist, when you walk into a room for the first time and meet a celebrity, you have to go right up to them and make them feel safe and comfortable in your hands.” She went on to say, "It's a big ask." For a first meeting, it can feel invasive and too intimate, so these stones can help.” Rose quartz and jade rollers, like early rose-quartz face masks discovered in Egyptian tombs, stimulate fibroblasts to improve sluggish skin.

Wearing Quartz Crystal Rock Jewelry Would It Make You Feel Better?

Rock crystal, long believed to have defensive and curing properties, could be the stone to wear right now.

I don't want to be the Gus Portokalos of the jewelry world, but the term "crystal" is derived from the Greek word "crystalos," which means "cold." And the ancient Greeks thought rock crystal, also known as clear quartz, was water that had been frozen for eternity. Isn't there something soothing about the resilience that implies?

The Greeks were not the first to use the stone in jewelry—though an impressive collection of rock crystal and gold bangles on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art shows they did—and they were not the only ones to assign immense strength and value to the materials.

The Greeks thought the rock crystal came directly from Mount Olympus—eternal water that had poured down the peak. However, rock crystal has been held to have calming and healing abilities, as well as the ability to enlighten, stabilize, and extend one's energy, since ancient times and through ancient civilizations,” explains Fred Leighton Creative Director Rebecca Selva.

Rock crystal was carved into beads, chains, and amulets by the Egyptians. Rock crystal was used in Ancient India for its healing abilities to cleanse, change, and stabilize force.

Archaeological finds from the Sumerian and Mesopotamian cultures show evidence of the use of rock crystal in jewelry. The allure of transparent quartz has persisted for centuries (see Victorian intaglios in particular), but its use in the Art Deco era (a artistic flowering of bold, minimalist architecture free of flourishes between the wars) is perhaps the most well-known and celebrated.

Rock stone, along with black onyx, silver, and diamonds, became a hallmark palette for jewelers such as Cartier, Van Cleef, and Boivin and Belperron. Gloria Swanson's iconic Cartier Deco cuffs are an excellent example, as is the Belperron for Boivin rock crystal and hematite bracelet that sold at Christies a few months ago. (If you track me on Instagram, you'll recognize it.) For months, it was the focus of my fascination (along with another Cartier rock crystal cuff that sold in the same sale).

The material's hold on the imaginations of jewelers remains powerful. “I'm fascinated with rock quartz,” Hanut Singh says. “They are scattered around my home as totems and objets, and it is a delight to incorporate them into my jewelry designs as well. I'm overjoyed to be working with them.”

Quartz Jewelry crystal necklace pendant

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Is the attraction to this stone purely aesthetic or spiritual? “We are both aware of how spiritually they have been used for centuries in healing "Singh explains. "The clear rock quartz, which makes us attune to our higher self, assists intuition and concentration, and soothes and heals, has also been used to create Idols in our Hindu culture. Our most powerful deities, of which there are many, are made of crystal and adorned with jewels. Our prayer beads, in which we 'jap,' or pray and meditate, are also made of quartz. The many and various applications are talismanic. The pleasure of seeing them as bijoux, on the other hand, is electric. The glitz and glam of it all. All is so clear and dramatic! In the 1920s and 1930s, big houses used it as objet d'art and jewels. Cartier was a natural at it. Belperron worked her magic with crystals until the late 1950s. Fluting, frosting, swirling, stacking...all kinds of forms, sizes, and patterns were created with this magical quartz.”

The Best Crystal Rock Jewelry, Necklace, plated

Singh is not alone in his fascination with quartz, as shown by his work. Monica Rich Kosann also makes extensive use of the stone, designing an entire cobblestone-patterned bracelet around it. The material's clarity provides designers with limitless options, but as Kosann points out, "rock crystal often wards off negativity."

As Gus Portokalos would say, "there you go."