Am I the only woman who doesn't 'get' jewellery crazes?

heretolearn_2

I don't wear a lot of jewellery. It tends to be cheap and cheerful. I do sometimes see items I really like that are expensive, so I don't own any (lol) but they at least have good quality materials and are an interesting/unusual design. Maybe one day I'd invest a bit of dosh in something like that, but it's not exactly top priority.

so I struggle to see the appeal of what I can only see as cheapo items made expensive through clever marketing creating a demand.
Swarovski crystals, for example, you are paying WHAT for artificial gemstones? Why? Pandora bracelets - £45 just for a bit of braided leather with a 'silver' clasp before you even get any beads? Are you mental? Someone at work showed me her 'shamballa' bracelet the other day her kids bought her for about £60, blimey, bit of braid with a few fake stones woven in. !!!!!!?

Is it just me?

faerie~spangles

I feel the same.

I love the style of the Pandora bracelets, but please! look at the price of each charm :eek:

Becles

I don't get them either. I don't really get jewellery at all and usually wear none!

Sagz_2

I only wear jewellery that means something to me - 4 rings and a necklace with 3 hearts on. I don't like gold as it always looks cheap and nasty to me so I only wear silver (which is cheap but not nasty!)

I don't 'do' handbags or shoes either.

jjj1980

Nope, I don't really get it either. I wear the same white gold pendant that I got for my 21st birthday and the odd bit of silver (watch). Occasionally put a costume-jewellery type mix on if I'm going out it matches the clothes.

I have looked at the Links of London bracelets a few times but could never justify that amount of money!

Although, I have found a local jeweller that is going to replace the two stones in another pendant for my Daughter's and my own birth stones. That will then become the one I wear all the time!

creeping_jesus

I don't get it either! I've only a few bits of silver to my name, I love the little jewellery shops down in Brighton, you get some fantastic pieces for a fraction of the price.

paddyrg

heretolearn wrote: »

Is it just me?

Nope, there's six of you!

I don't count in your figures by virtue of being male, but I think you'll find most men can't fathom it either! They're fashion items much like the also impossible-to-fathom handbags, shoes, etc. Not driven by rationality or material value, just buying into a bit of social conditioning and a sense of 'belonging', I guess?

Lip_Stick

I don't mind cheap jewellery, costume style, for days out. I've sensitive skin so can't wear cheap rubbish for long. I really don't get the appeal of Pandora bracelets. I thought charm bracelets where meant to mean something other than being a fad and buying one just because the woman next door has one. Someone bought me what looks like a 2nd hand fake one (the charms I know are fake) for Christmas 2010. Haven't worn it and never will.

pulliptears

Personally I buy what I like and to hell what anyone else thinks, if I can afford it then why not? Personal taste is just that, personal.

I do get the appeal of Pandora. I have one my OH bought for me years ago and on special occasions he buys me a charm, birthdays, my graduation etc are all charted on there and one day I shall pass that to my own daughter to add her own memories.

**edited to add**
If Pandora is a craze then its a long lasting one as they have been selling charm bracelets and charms for the last 15 years. Charm bracelets themselves actually date back to the ancients where Neolithic, and later Egyptians, would wear small pieces of rock, precious metals and wood etc to ward off evil.

Twiglet0309

I love silver jewelry and tend to by (or if Im lucky "get bought") a piece of jewelry from anywhere I go on holiday. Each piece is a momento.

If people can afford whatever is en vogue then let them go for it. Personally, I will stick to the pieces that mean something to me.

Hermia

I love jewellery, but I don't really go for fads. I just buy what I like. I do make jewellery and it is amazing how much some of these faddy items are sold for, especially when you know how much the components cost. I have seen instructions for making those shambala bracelets in jewellery-making magazines and they don't have to be expensive at all.