Wondering if your red carpet style is ready for primetime? Take some cues from the 60th annual Emmy Awards held Sept. 21 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. With the majority of celebrity awards ceremonies crammed in at the beginning of the year, the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ annual soiree for primetime actors and their shows brings a much-needed injection of glamour voyeurism at the onset of the fall-winter-holiday seasons. Read More
J-Walking in New York City
While she appreciates jewelry that’s edgy and chic, New York literary agent Molly Lyons prefers classic pieces with sentimental value. Taking the day off to check out her first fashion show, Molly told JFYI reporters that her Grandma started her jewelry collection with pieces she coveted as a little girl, like the delicate gold butterfly necklace she rarely takes off. Another favorite is a charm bracelet she that reminds her of family and friends.
JFYI’s roving reporters spotted Jessica Enichen during the spring ’09 shows in New York wearing a swimmingly cool enamel, gold-tone and crystal fish pendant necklace, and wish-we-had onyx and tiger’s eye ring that she picked up while boutiquing for jewelry treasures back home in Cary, North Carolina. Jessica, who is new to the textile industry as a rep for designer Cynthia Steffe, says she finds her best pieces when shopping off the beaten path.
Stopping her during a latte break under fashion’s three-ring tent at Bryant Park, JFYI asked about the arts and craft necklace Melissa Colgan was wearing. Associate lifestyle editor for Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine, she told us the designer was fellow Minnesotans Kim and Linda Renk of Sequin, who recently created costume jewelry for Badgley Mischka. Partial to neutral colored clothes, she likes to spice things up with at least one statement-making piece.
Jewelry Tips
One thing I learned early on was that jewelry could either be worn and enjoyed or reused and redesigned. There's no other product on the market that has this ability. And, when a challenging economy makes us pull in our purse strings, there's no better time to dust off that jewelry you don't wear anymore and make something new out of it. I had a customer with a pair of very dressy white gold, diamond, sapphire and pearl earrings that we took apart and made into four new pieces - diamond and sapphire stud earrings, pearl earrings, a pearl clasp, and a diamond pinky ring. Redesigning jewelry is creative and exciting for everyone involved. By redesigning an uncomfortable or out-of-style piece, you can bring a new piece to life. —By Susan Eisen
In the Loupe
Pearls Are PC
Rule No. 1 in dressing for the political arena: Don't distract. If you’ve ever wondered why women in politics favor pearls the answer lies in their innate ability to draw people in rather than avert their attention away from what the wearer is saying. While all eyes were glued to the TV during the intense presidential campaign,you may have noticed that the high level women in the limelight—from Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton—wear pearls. Today’s power pearls are typically Tahitian or South Sea cultured, usually a single strand of similar shade or multi-color. Soft, radiant and pure, pearls have a history as the gem of choice for women who wield their influence on the masses (think Queen Elizabeth I, aka the Pearl Queen). What makes them so useful to a woman who needs to make a point is that they don’t divert your attention from what she has to say while you’re trying to figure out what she has encircling her neck. A successful talking head can't afford to distract with hard-to-interpret details. Immediately recognizable as the archetypal necklace, pearls are camera ready, crowd-pleasing and politically correct.
Rule No. 1 in dressing for the political arena: Don't distract. If you’ve ever wondered why women in politics favor pearls the answer lies in their innate ability to draw people in rather than avert their attention away from what the wearer is saying. While all eyes were glued to the TV during the intense presidential campaign,you may have noticed that the high level women in the limelight—from Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton—wear pearls. Today’s power pearls are typically Tahitian or South Sea cultured, 
usually a single strand of similar shade or multi-color. Soft, radiant and pure, pearls have a history as the gem of choice for women who wield their influence on the masses (think Queen Elizabeth I, aka the Pearl Queen). What makes them so useful to a woman who needs to make a point is that they don’t divert your attention from what she has to say while you’re trying to figure out what she has encircling her neck. A successful talking head can't afford to distract with hard-to-interpret details. Immediately recognizable as the archetypal necklace, pearls are camera ready, crowd-pleasing and politically correct.