It was the end of Season 4 of HBO’s “Sex and the City” when Carrie accidentally found the engagement ring Aidan had gotten her, and vomited.
And then this scene, at Carrie and her girlfriends’ favorite breakfast spot, afterward:
Carrie: “It had a pear-shaped diamond with a gold band.”
Samantha: “No wonder you threw up!”
Miranda: “But you wear gold jewelry.”
Carrie: “Yeah, like ghetto gold for fun. But this is my engagement ring!”
We find out later that Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, was more opposed to Aidan than she was to his ring. But, coming from Carrie Bradshaw – perhaps the singular style-setter of the late 1990s – the implication was clear: Gold was out. O-U-T.
Although you were likely still to find some gold pieces in every woman’s jewelry box, for the past 10 years or so, fashion dictated that – if you wore gold around your neck or wrist or on your ears – it had better be a “white” metal. That meant silver, white gold or, best of the best, platinum.
But jewelry insiders are proclaiming an end to that trend. Break out your bamboo hoops from the ’80s, ladies. Gold is coming back.
“We’re seeing a huge resurgence for fall and winter,” says Helena Krodel, a spokeswoman for the Jewelry Information Center, a trade association. “It started with the summer, with all of the bohemian trends and a lot of the ethnic looks. Yellow gold lends itself really well to a more ethnic look.”
Fashion’s warmer colors for the coming colder months – such as browns and yellows – just look better with matching, more opulent jewelry, Krodel says. “It’s a very luxurious look.”
In fashion magazines and on runways, gold jewelry has begun to take hold. Celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria and Jennifer Lopez have been photographed wearing head-to-toe yellow gold. On the September cover of Marie Claire magazine, actress Reese Witherspoon sports an armful of yellow-gold bangles and dainty gold hoop earrings.
Gold is decorating the hottest handbags and most stylish shoes, Krodel says. And warm metallic trims and embellishments are all the rage on sweaters, tunics and jackets.
Some jewelry experts, however, say the trend toward yellow gold was developing long before fashion designers dreamed up a color palette for fall. With prices of platinum soaring through the roof, consumers have long been looking for a more inexpensive way to accessorize.
“Platinum is sort of slowing down,” says Richard Swetz, chairman of the Board of the Independent Jewelers Organization. “The price of platinum is almost double the price of gold. And with the economy being what it is, and with gas prices being so high, the average American is feeling a little pinch here.”
“Twenty years ago, or thereabouts, platinum was almost a no-no for the average person, and yellow gold was by far the most popular metal,” says John Dickinson, who handles the custom department for online jeweler James Allen.
“Not only for engagement jewelry but for fashion jewelry. And it was interesting back then that platinum and white metals, to many young people, equated to something that their grandmother would have worn. But then it cycled, and gradually white metals became much more popular.”
Now, that cycle has come back around. Again.
But just as gold never really went totally out (no matter what Carrie Bradshaw said), white metals, such as silver, white gold and platinum, won’t disappear altogether either.
“The fashion center is expanding rather than replacing,” says Swetz.
And particularly in the bridal area, jewelry insiders say, white metals will never lose their luster.
White metals add to white diamonds an extra pop, jewelers say. And for many sentimental couples, the sheer strength of platinum acts as a metaphor for the (hopefully) enduring strength of love.
Because for fashion jewelry, experts say, we’re moving into a golden era.
And in real life, quiet as it’s kept, Sarah Jessica Parker does wear gold.
