Nita Naldi and her madly creative relationship with pearls
Nita Naldi with long pearl strings (Pic 1)
As one of the most famous silent film actresses of 1920′s, seen in classic films such as ‘Blood and Sand’ with Rodolph Valentino, Nita Naldi defined the image of ‘femme fatale’ and pushed boundaries of femininity further than any other of her counterparts. She also had a special preference for pearls as her adornments. As the best gemstone to convoy elegance, sexiness and feminine power, pearls were used by Nita Naldi in many ‘unconventional’ ways. She doesn’t just wore pearl jewellery. She expressed herself, her characters, through her pearl jewellery.
Nita Naldi with full pearls adornments in 1922 film Anna Ascends (Pic 2)
Even if it is just a simple pearl rope, she would still be extremely creative in wearing it. Not just a simple pearl necklace, she would use it both as the necklace, and the bracelet. In the era of silent films, actors had to fully rely on the visual to capture audience attention and interpret their characters. The more Nita needed to express her character, the more pearls she would use. In her 1922 film Anna Ascends, she had the role of the Countess Rostolff. No one has ever used pearl adornments this daringly. She literally covered herself in pearls, large, black and white round pearl ropes tied to her arms, all over her arms, falling all the way to the floor, covering the full length of her long dress. She also had a complex head adornment fully embedded with pearls. There is something extremely passionate and emotional about her choice of the outfit for this film. A very powerful woman who is on top of the world, but perhaps a little bit lonely and finds it hard to form trusting relationships with people.
Nita Naldi with long pearl ropes in Blood and Sand with Valentino (Pic 3)
In her most famous film Blood and Sand (1922) with Valentino, pearls became her way to express sensuality, love and fragility. A few very long pearl ropes are used as necklace, bracelet, or simply wrapping around her shoulder. Her very low neck outfit was also extremely daring back then. As a leading Hollywood actress, she was as usual defiant to social conventions.
Nita Naldi with casual pearl rope (Pic 4)
Even just a simple classic rope pearl necklace, Nita would never wear them just like everyone else does. See how she casually wraps the pearl rope around her neck in a double strand, almost like a scarf! It is different, but not matter how different, it always happens to bring out the most charm out of her. She is simply, gorgeous.
All girls with pearl earrings
While choosing pearl jewellery for wedding, some girls would go for a full set of pearls: necklace, bracelet, earrings and hair decorations, while others prefer simplicity. However, regardless of your choice of style, a pair of earrings is a must. Earrings are the best representation of feminine beauty. They can off any kind of style: simple and sweet, or kinky and sexy; elegant white swan, or wild black swan. Pearl earrings are the eyes of pearl jewellery, all the representatives of feminine beauty and magic adorn themselves with pearl earrings. There is an enormous variety of pearl earrings styles to choose from. You can find antique pearl earrings that cost up to thousands of pounds, worn perhaps by a princess centuries ago; while you could also go for the mass market freshwater pearl earrings that everyone can afford.
Grace Kelly with classic pearl earrings and necklace
Pearls all come in different colour and overtone, and the nuances allow them to go with different metal fittings. Beige pearls with a cream overtone are usually chosen for gold pearl earrings, while the silver white pearls are to go with silver, white gold or diamond fittings. Black pearl earrings come with silver base more often, although occasionally for black pearls with a warm surface shine, gold base is also a good option.
In terms of form, pearl earrings vary even more. Pearl stud earrings – the most classic simple design being a single pearl on silver or gold post – are probably a ‘must-have’ for every girl. They are elegant and incredibly versatile in style – they go with perfectly any kind of outfit. If you don’t want to spend energy thinking about which earrings to wear for the day, just pick up the pearl ear studs and voila! The nicest look with the least hesitation. If you want to go for a big night out and look totally ravishing, a pair of pearl drop earrings with diamond base is probably the winner. They look gorgeous with either light coloured outfit, or black evening dress – the flexibility of pearls cannot be topped by any other gemstone!
Cleopatra and the Pearls
The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is one of the most fascinating women in our history. The inventor of make-up is also said to have an amazing number of pearl jewellery that worth absolute fortunes in her collection. Back in the days when cultured pearls did not exist, pearls needed to be discovered in the oysters – finding one is like winning a lottery, let alone an actually good one. That is why pearls were historically the most expensive gemstone among all kinds.
How to distinguish real pearls from faux pearls?
A good strand of real pearl jewellery always becomes something that the whole family (at least female members of the family!) adore and something that’s passed on from the mother to the daughter. Pearls are many girls’ best friend;-) Howadays with more and more imitation pearls merging on the market, it would be useful to have a few tricks to tell the real pearls from faux pearls.
A real pearl means a pearl that has either been naturally formed or cultured within an oyster shell, namely sea pearls/natural pearls or freshwater pearls/cultured pearls. A faux pearl is generally understood to mean any sort of pearl that is made of something other than true nacre, be it plastic, glass, or resin.
It is relatively easy to distinguish real pearls from faux pearls. Real pearls generally heavier than faux pearls. They are cold to the touch and quickly adapt to the body’s temperature when you wear them – this is a similar quality in all natural gemstones.
Pearl Fairy’s Tip: Rub a pearl against your teeth – a real one feels rough (as if there’s sand inside) whereas a faux pearl feels smooth. If you have a strand of pearls, you may also rub two of them against each other with a little force. Look carefully: on real pearls a trace of powder will appear on the surface. Wipe away the powder and the lustre is back to exactly the same as before. Faux pearls will feel completely smooth and will not create any trace of powder; and if you rub them too hard, the surface will be damaged and cannot be restored (so don’t!).
Faux pearls are usually completely regular and uniform in colour. Real pearls are always somewhat irregular: even AAA quality real pearls that look perfectly round and very smooth in lustre are not 100% immaculate if you examine them carefully enough – as these are creations of nature. Nowadays some faux pearls are also made to be irregular in order to seem more like real pearls, but they are still distinguishable through touching and rubbing.
Important question: how would I know if it is real pearls when I’m shopping online? Here are Pearl Fairy’s tips:
1. try and buy from established sellers like amazon (as they check their sellers seriously), bobijou, absolutepearls or Carla Pearls, etc. – big pearl suppliers are trust worthy and you know where to find them!
2. read the product specs: honest supplier always put down a lot of information on the pearls, whether they are natural, freshwater or shell pearls (we’ll discover what are shell pearls later).
3. the price always tells you something: a typical freshwater princess length single strand necklace with round pearls (i.e. the most classic and popular kind) typically costs between £40 – £100 or more, depending on the rating (and yes we’ll discover ratings in a later chapter). Anything less than £40 should be in irregular shapes on the photos (this means they are of a modest quality and the price could be for real pearls); if they look perfectly round and are sold for a price lower than £40, then they are very likely to be faux pearls.
4. make sure the seller offers good returns policies – if the seller offers good returns policy then it is probably an honest seller.
5. ask around: see if any of your friends have shopped for pearls online and are satisfied with the product. Reference is always an extra guarantee!
6. google for pearl sellers reviews – see what the internet folks say about a seller!