Yvonne de Carlo and her taste in pearl jewellery
Yvonne de Carlo with a classic choker length pearl necklace (Pic 1)
Yvonne de Carlo (1922 – 207) was one of the most famous movie stars in 1940s and 1950s, although her career spanned over 5 decades. De Carlo is most famously known as Lily Munster in the 1964-1966 slapstick horror-movie spoof “The Munsters.” Her trademark was her long hair and her curvy figures, and she also had a very good taste for pearl jewellery. Like all female celebrities of her time, pearls were a favourite choice of adornment. Yvonne uses classic single strand pearl necklaces to add to her elegant, chic lady image, accompanied with luxurious designer outfit.
Yvonne De Carlo with classic princess pearl necklace (Pic 2)
To bring out a lady’s natural beauty, simplicity in her jewellery is key. The audience’s attention is framed to her face by the pearls, but does not focus on the jewellery and end up on her visage. The pearls are only an additional touch, not the essence of her look.
Using a simple classic design single strand pearl necklace requires attention to detail. There are two classic lengths that could easily be mixed up: ‘choker‘, which is 16 inches or 40 cm, and ‘princess‘, 18 inches or 46cm. Although only 2 inches different in length, the looks that they offer are quite different. In Pic 1, Yvonne had an outfit of rich design with a luxurious fur cape, so she chose to have the shorter of the two – a choker pearl necklace to balance out the overall style. In Pic 2, she had a wide low neck silk dress, showing her beautiful collar bones and chest, so she opted for a slightly longer option of the classic pearl necklace, a ‘princess’ length at 18 inches, matched with pearl earrings of simple design. The whole outfit stays simple and elegant.
Yvonne De Carlo with pearl rope necklace (Pic 3)
De Carlo however, did not always go for the classy look. She also gets very creative with her pearl jewelry at times. In Pic 3 she wore a long pearl rope necklace in an usually creative way, while still keeping the classic style through simplicity. It’s a jewelry style that offers a little bit of surprise, without breaking too many rules. Her creativity does not stop there though. In Pic 4, Yvonne posed in a movie with loaded diamond and gold jewelry, while intertwining a long pearl rope with her hair. Now this is a very surprising move – we’ve seen many creative uses of pearl necklaces but braiding one into the hair is still a first. Yvonne does get creative with her hair style quite a lot, especially in her role in ‘Munster’ TV series, dyeing a strand of her hair white while leaving the rest its original colour – now adding pearls to her hair shows her confidence at doing things differently as well as her pride for her trademark long hair.
Yvonne De Carlo pearls in hair (Pic 4)
Gentlemen: what better gifts can you think of for her than freshwater pearls?
Pearls are something that all girls appreciate, regardless of style, or age, or personality. They are adored and loved by women everywhere in the world throughout centuries. However, until the 20th century, pearls had always been way too expensive for ordinary people. Only the upper class could afford them, while normal families, if lucky enough to have one strand of pearls, would pass it on from grandma to grand daughter. Then came the Japanese Mikimoto. He held a simple belief that since natural irritation could cause oysters to grow pearls, then he should be able to manage to recreate these situations. He experimented with all sorts of methods over many years, and finally perfected the pearl culturing technique. The price of pearls has since fallen drastically, making pearls a possible treat almost anyone. Mikimoto as really gifted all the women in the world with the greatest possible present – making their favourite jewel affordable.
Nowadays, most girls have freshwater pearl jewelry in her collection. Pearls are such a magic fashion element – with its subtle yet outstanding natural lustre, they simply goes with anything: leisure, formal, glamour, anything at all. No matter what the style, pearls can always be that extra icing on the cake. Freshwater oysters is probably the sea animal that deserves the most ‘thank you’ from women, silently producing the most beautiful product, year after year.
For men who are struggling with a good idea of gift to offer to a loved one, a beautiful freshwater pearl necklace is probably the safest bet. No woman with a taste for elegance wouldn’t appreciate a gorgeous strand of pearls. Also, don’t forget to get matching freshwater pearl earrings! Good advice to keep in mind: always, always go for matching sets. A necklace without matching earrings are like a beautiful statue without eyes.
The ultimate statement of femininity: pearl necklace
Pearls, women’s favourite gemstone, the symbol of elegance and beauty. Any girl with a taste for fashion would have a strand of pearl necklace or two, or a pair of nice pearl ear studs. Pearl necklaces vary a lot in price – a Japanese mikimoto pearl necklace probably cost 2000 pounds or more, while you can also find a very good strand from online pearl jewellery retailers for less than 100 pounds. Mikimoto invented pearl culturing technique and brought pearls into the affordability of most people. In terms of fashion pearl necklace, Chanel is without doubt the upper-end market leader. Chanel pearl necklace are always accompanied with their signature double ‘C’ logo. Coco Chanel herself always wore pearl necklaces with very rich design, often four or five strands. In comparison to online pearl retailer shops, high street jewellers normally charges a premium due to higher operating cost, with a strand of pearls priced around 200 pounds or more, depending on the quality rating. ‘Freshwater pearl necklace’ is a term often heard but not always understood. It means that the pearls are grown in oysters that live in freshwater, rather than salt water. The quality of the pearls are determined by the culturing technique, not so much where the oysters live. There are more freshwater pearls on the market as most of the pearl farms are operated with freshwater pools.
Even with freshwater pearl necklace much more affordable than natural pearls, some girls still prefer to go for even cheaper alternatives, namely faux pearl necklaces. In fact there’s a subtle nuance between the terms ‘fake pearl necklace‘ and ‘faux pearl necklace’. Fake pearl necklace are usually made of pastic – beads coated with shiny paint. These pearls have slippery surface and are always much lighter . Faux pearls, or ‘stimulation pearls’, on the other hand, are actually made with oyster shell power. These pearls are kind of the middle point between fake pearls and real pearls, as they are made of the same substance as real pearls, but not formed naturally out of oysters.
Some ladies have pearl necklaces as their signature look, the Queen, of course, and the lovely late Princess Diana – she literally had an collection of hundreds beautiful pearl necklaces with all kinds of design. Sara Jessica Parker is another big pearl-lover. 1930′s Hollywood star Diana Dors also loved pearls and she is also creative – not just following the crowd. Her beautiful picture mixing black and white pearls of classic design is one such example.
Lengths of pearl necklaces
It could be a little confusing sometimes to hear words like “choker”, “princess” and “matinee” in descriptions of pearl necklaces. Unlike necklaces of other material/gemstones, pearl necklaces have special vocabulary dedicated to each range of lengths. While most other necklaces are simply referred to by their physical measurement, pearl necklaces are named by how low they hang when worn around the neck. Pearl Fairy would like to remind you in this post of these terms: