Stick With What Works



When it comes to jewelry, girls are creatures of habit. The variety they apply to their necks, earlobes and wrists rarely goes beyond a double- versus single- chain earring, or a square pendant versus a round one. This makes your task (should you choose to accept it) quite easy. All you have to do is pay attention. If she wears a pair of plain silver hoop earrings almost every day, get her another pair of silver hoop earrings that have a slightly different look ?hammered to provide some texture, or only a partial circle. If she adorns herself with large gemstone necklaces or bracelets, keep in mind that chunky and fun, not fine and delicate, is her style.

Along that same vein, unless she has specifically mentioned that she wants to shake things up in the metals category, it is safe to assume that what she has is what she prefers in terms of gold versus sterling silver. She will not likely want to wear the new gold bracelet you have given her if she has no other jewelry to match it.

Pick Colors Methodically

Ever heard someone tell your girl, "that color really brings out your eyes?" Well, we bet she has, and she's not likely to forget it. There are a couple of hard and fast rules to finding a color that complements skin tone, eye and hair color. The first is that when two colors are near each other, opposites enhance, but similar tones clash. That means that if your girl's locks are a beautiful red, a big green necklace will make both colors much more striking, whereas an orange necklace would probably dull both down to an unattractive, orangey mess.

The second rule is, the farther you go from the source, the more likely that similar colors will catch and improve each other. In other words, any jewelry that is meant to bring out the green in her eyes should also be green, since eyes are small and far away from most jewelry. If, however, you are trying to draw attention to her fabulous tan, we recommend that her bracelet, necklace or earrings be white to ensure contrast up-close.

Buy Something With Meaning

When it comes down to it, we know she wouldn't ever give away that necklace you bought her no matter how awful it was, because she is way too sentimental for that. But wouldn't it be nice to find her something she can form both an aesthetic and an emotional attachment to? The easiest way to do that is to buy jewelry that features her birthstone (yes, someone assigned a stone to every month of the year!) or an anniversary stone, if appropriate. For an extra-special touch that won't take much effort on your part, do some quick web research (we recommend http://www.dashaboutique.com/gemstonechart.html) and print out a history of the stone, including the origin of its name and its mythical powers.

This may be the one exception to our first piece of advice ? if she has none of this stone in her collection currently, we are confident that after she learns that it is meant to guarantee wealth (Citrine), she will quickly make it a regular part of her wardrobe.