Get a brooch
There’s a good reason we used to associate brooches with older family members, and that’s because when they were 15 in the 1950’s or whenever, this was a popular item and they just kept wearing them. A simple way to tie in and vintage outfit based on the 1950s or older is to choose a chunky silver brooch with stones or enamel, or look for a piece of finely carved silver metal for added realistic detail. A simple metal rose is great for this, especially if the flower head is in red stone. This would look great against a classic black outfit and draw the eye whether you fix it on your coat or your dress.
P.S. This gives you a great excuse to wear a coat going out while there rest of your friends try to go without!
Stones In Your Ears And On Your Ringers
From the Victorian era up until the 1960’s adding colour to an outfit by wearing silver with coloured stones was very popular. If you can, try to match in the stones with your outfit. Say you’re wearing a cream dress and you want to add some heat, earrings containing amber stones such as the ones you can find at Henryka Amber and Silver Jewellery will add a nice burst of colour and draw attention to your face. If you’re using colour keep the cut and detail to a minimum to bring focus onto the stone. Pearl is also a very popular choice for a vintage outfit. A small pearl necklace is a great feminine piece and goes with any colour or style of classical outfit. Rings are also an easy choice for accessorisation as most designs have stayed the same. You can do no wrong with plain silver bands but animal carvings and inset stones work with most vintage styles. Look for rich warm colours and amber, deep blues or milky pieces for the best effect.
Cuts and Shapes
We can carve silver in a variety of ways these days, but authentic pieces are a lot more basic. Keep away from wiring effects, abstract curved pieces and detail on small surfaces. The safest choices are classic cuts with stones/enamel/pearl such as pear, tear-drop, oval etc. silver animal carvings of butterflies are great on earrings or necklaces, while snakes wrapping around the arm or ringer will fit in with your outfit too. Of course the heart shape and flowers are timeless. Pure silver pendants and heart stones on bracelets are great small details to add to your whole outfit, and if the carving’s uniform you could get away with a modern clasp pendant like the oval metal ones also popular at the time. Floral designs can be worn anywhere as long as you keep them in one colour, which is great for girls who like flowers as most of your jewellery can be worn with any outfit!
I haven’t said much on dangling jewellery, but if you know what to look for from your favourite era these work very well with vintage outfits too. For both earrings and necklaces look for pure silver. A mix of small squares and circles help together by round silver clasps 1920’s style is great on the neck or as earrings; these can have carved surfaces or patterns but it’s usually best to avoid colour, or use tidy circular stones sparingly. You can also get away with a bit of detail on your wrist. Plain metal bangles and simple bracelets look good, but you can also wear a silver bracelet with coloured falling beads in a deep or milky colour for the best effect.
Hope these helped the vintage lovers out there! It can be hard to find vintage looking pieces that aren’t actually vintage but are still high quality, but it’s worth the wait to get a small collection you can wear with any vintage outfit.
