A Casual Place To Talk About Our Favorite Shiny and Sparkly Objects
This is something that has been baffling me for some time.
Someone is given a piece of jewelry, say, a strand of pearls. They are beautiful and of high quality. They are screaming to be worn, the perfect classic adornment of fashions new and old, the item that ‘completes’ the outfit, the piece whose beauty is MEANT to be seen.
Now what happens to that beautiful necklace? It gets gently placed in the box from which it came and is then either placed in a safety deposit box or hidden in a secret place somewhere in the house. The owner then goes out and purchases a strand of pearls, a strand as visually similar to the original necklace as possible, yet they are only a fraction of the quality and the price. As time passes by, it is THIS strand that gets worn, the low grade copy of a fantastic original. Why is this? Is this what people mean when they talk of jewelry as an ‘investment?’ If you wear the original piece, it decreases in value?
Have you ever watched the movie “The Joy Luck Club?” Towards the end, the father is looking for items to send with his daughter who is about to sail to China to meet her two half-twin sisters. The mother had recently passed away. He says something to the effect of ‘Your mother hid everything, even the fake stuff,’ and he, too, is baffled that she chose to hide BOTH real and fake items.
People will say they don’t want to lose or damage the original piece. Even when insured, the real necklace will remain tucked away for fear of theft. If worn, there’s always the possibility of getting mugged, right?
Still, this makes no sense to me. Why purchase the first (expensive) piece in the first place? Why try to make a feeble attempt at replicating them? Overall, what is the point if you’re not going to wear it? To have a valuable piece of jewelry to pass down to a daughter or granddaughter so they can hide it away in a safety deposit box? To be happy in the knowledge that though you may be wearing a cheap imitation, you DO have ‘the real thing’ back home? Because you’re so disorganized that if you kept it in your house, it would get buried under a pile of paper, so at least you know it’s somewhere safe?
Personally, I can even admit that I fall under that last category. I’m a pretty disorganized person, yes, but if given a piece of jewelry, I feel that the intent of the giver was not for me to WEAR IT, not hide it away, nor buy a knock-off and wear those in their place.
There are a million things one can do to damage ANYTHING, not just jewelry. Is this the reason? Our own self doubt? If the original is going to live an unused life, why not just buy the knockoff as a present?
What do YOU think? Is this something YOU practice? Why? In no way am I saying that this is a bad or a good thing, but it IS something that I don’t understand. Let me know what your thoughts on this practice are.
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2 Responses for "When you have the ‘real’ thing, but you only wear a fake copy?"
I love strands of pearls but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to wear anything but genuine pearls. I imagine that people purchase lesser grade pearl strands because they are afraid the will lose or damage the high grade pearl necklace, I say phooey on that. Quoting my favorite online pearl store ( http://www.tahitianpearljewels.com ): “A Tahitian pearl necklace is one of the most unique pieces of jewelry you can wear, especially if you’re wearing Tahitian circle strands”. My practice is to go for the gusto and wear the real pearl strands, knock offs just don’t cut it when you’re a princess.
I definitely understand, especially when you’re talking about something as unique as Tahitian black pearls. But what about other forms of jewelry?
If you’ll take a look around our little site here, one of our biggest conversations was about Diamond Nexus Labs-a place that spent a lot of time talking about synthetic (man made, but still technically a diamond) diamonds, but what they sold were ‘simulated diamonds.’ After reading ALL of their fine print, it was discovered that what they sold was very high grade zirconia.
Now, say you have a diamond necklace, and Diamond Nexus Labs sells a very close looking replica of it. Would you wear the real one, or would you purchase the copy? Very often, people will get a piece of jewelry, and then they will purchase a cheaper version that appears similar in every way, except is a fraction of the price, and THAT will be the piece that gets worn more often. In a case like that, what’s the purpose of getting the original expensive piece ? THAT, really, is the question. Can pearls be replicated in the same way, so they REALLY look ‘real?’ (I’m not talking about freshwater vs. pearl farms-they both produce authentic pearls) If so, is there a similar draw to buy and wear the ‘fakes’ while the real ones stay home?
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