Bridgette Bardot dangling pearl earrings

Bridgette Barlot is a lovely long dangling pair of earrings with simple and chic design. With perfectly round 8mm hand-picked freshwater pearls fitted onto high quality rhodium plated sterling silver base (with one mosaic zirconia stone), Bridgette Bardot is elegant. Single pearl earrings must use very high quality pearls as the pearl must stand up to the ‘scrutiny’ alone, rather than being in a strand pearl necklace for example, where surface flaws can be hidden with stringing on both sides. For this reason all the dangling design pearl earrings from Carla Pearls use AAA rated pearls only to ensure the top quality. The pearls used in Bridgette Bardot earrings are of very thick nacre and stunning lustre: snow white freshwater pearls with a a gentle silver overtone.

Another fantastic new product in store is ‘Diana Dors’, gorgeous triple pearl dangling pearl earrings fitted onto delicate rhodium plated silver chain and zirconia base. ‘Diana Dors’ has a more fun and extravagant in style than ‘Bridgette Bardot’ while both are excellent soiree style jewellery.

Diana Dors dangling pearl earrings

Dangling pearl earrings are best worn without necklaces – if the style you are looking for is elegance without being over the top. A low neck evening dress of your favourite colour and a pair of white dangling pearl earrings, with hair either pulled back or down, would really make you stand out from the crowd. If you prefer to have a full pearl jewellery set, then consider pearl ear studs with matching pearl necklace or pearl pendant. If well chosen, short pearl earrings such as ‘Loretta Young‘ would work like a charm with a pearl pendant or pearl necklace as well.

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)

Nita Naldi with multi strand pearl adornments (Pic 1)

Let’s continue with our journey of exploration with Nita Naldi and her amazing creativity with pearl jewellery. The 1920′s sensation in silent films and the then ultimate representation of the image ‘femme’ fatale expresses herself madly and deeply through her way of wearing pearls. She is never conventional. Pearls as simple necklace or earrings seemed to be just too boring for her. She would wear pearls in ways like no one else would, and leaves with her audience and impression like no other actor would.

Nita Naldi poses with long pearl ropes (Pic 2)

In this classic photo of hers (Pic 1), she combines a multi strand rich pearl necklace with a multi strand head band, with her hair fully wrapped up so the full focus of the look is on pearls and her outstanding facial features. This look is unusual yet still discrete, breaking the rules just a little, leaving enough for one to pounder.

In the post card pose in Pic 2, Nita uses a kind of ‘free style’ creativity with her signature super long pearl ropes. She wraps herself around the neck, around the wrist, and in her hair all the way across, with a creative colourful dress so that the colours contrast with the pure white of the pearls, bringing out this expression of free spirit combined with a love for beauty. She looked like a lady ran away from her royal family roots who wants to create a life of her own, defiant of tradition yet fully aware of how to capture her suitors.

Nita Naldi 1925 Pose (Pic 3)

Moving on  to this probably her most famous picture, Nita uses gorgeous long pearl ropes as a free style necklace, but the most impressive is how she entangles a double strand pearl rope in her hair and around her throat. There’s a trace of desperate beauty in this creation. She doesn’t just ‘wear’ pearls, she entangles and struggles with them, almost choking herself with this beautiful pearl rope. Love and hate, possession and obsession, all seem to come into one pose, one frame, and become eternal, interblend with that unforgettable look of hers in this picture that was full of hope and despair, freeze in time.

Nita Naldi’s free style pearl creation certainly isn’t for everyone. It is not convention, not high street, not styles that others would happily follow. However her styles are those who make statement in her time, of breaking away from traditions and rules to fully express oneself, no matter how daring it might seem. Nita Naldi was a feminist who also happened to be a woman that countless men would dream to be with and her expressions of freedom has greatly influenced women of her time.

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.

Vilma with classic pearl necklace (Pic1)

Vilma with Classic Pearl Necklace (Pic2)

The beautiful Hungarian born Hollywood sensation Vilma Banky is extremely versatile with her styles. She would follow conventions. She would also break all the rules. As an actress for silent movies, she had to be very visually expressive to capture the audience, and one of her favourite choices of adornment was pearls. Pearls are a fantastic gemstone that defines both femininity, classiness, elegance, as well as sexiness and wildness. Pearl jewellery is a great choice for someone like Vilma who needs all of these traits for her characters.

She is often seen with a classic single strand pearl necklace of 8mm high quality pearls. This most classic design of pearl necklace is incredibly flexible in style, featured with Vilma wearing formal style outfit with a gorgeous jacket (right), or poses in the super sexy photo with practically nothing but the pearl necklace and a big lilly flower. She certainly knows how to capture the attention of all kinds of men!

Vilma with treble strand long pearl necklace (Pic 3)

Now let’s meet the ‘sassy’ Vilma.With a generous, daring long treble strand pearl necklace and large pearl earrings, she projects a mature, elegant and almost dominant ‘femme fatale’ image. The three strands of pearls around her neck are adjusted to be pricess (18 inch), matinee (25inch) and opera (36 inch), offering the rich and luxurious look.

Back then in 1920′s, most of the pearl jewellery designs were quite conventional, and not many people appreciate any other shape than round. However Vilma has chosen this creative design pearls necklace (Pic 4) with a combination of tiny round pearls and large coin pearls, and naughtily biting the necklace as she poses. Nowadays such a design might seem ‘easy’, but 90 years ago, it was very creative indeed.

Vilma and a creative pearl necklace design (Pic 4)

Vilma with pearl hat (Pic 5)

Now who says pearls must be worn as necklaces and earrings? Vilma pushes the boundary even further. Why not wear hundreds of pearls on a hat, with three strands hanging around her visage creating this odd but incredibly rich and sexy look? Who would be able to forget a look like that? She makes one think of a loyalty who has gone mad with genius creativity. Sometimes she looks vulnerable, sometimes mature, sometimes sexy and sometimes out of this world. This is Vilma, one of Hollywood’s real legend from the time of silent films.

Handmade wedding jewellery is another interesting option. Some girls want everything on the special day to be authentic, and prefer to have as many things hand-made as possible. Some even go as far as making their own wedding cakes! Indeed, the Big Day isn’t just a pleasure for the bride, she has to work really hard on preparation, in order to ensure that everything is perfect for her.
Back to pearl wedding jewellery, brides’ most popular choice for the Big Day. There are several key styles that you can choose from, and this is largely pre-set by the style of your wedding dress. If you’ve chosen a simple, classy design, with perhaps silk fabric and not much embroidery or lace, then a classic single, double, or treble strand pearl necklace would be best. For earrings, single ‘solitaire’ pearl earrings or ear studs. On the other hand, if your wedding dress is with lace and lots of adornments, perhaps you can tune down the jewellery to simpler designs for a nice balance – a pearl pendant with a good design, perhaps. There are countless styles possible  - in fact probably the headache comes from too many choices! Our advice is, as long as the whole outfit looks in harmony, it is good. If you are not too confident with your own picks, try and consult a style specialist for the Big Day.

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!

'Edith' black pearl necklace by carla pearls

We are very lucky to live in a time that so many resources are made available to everyone. Even the choice of affordable pearl jewellery – which are much cheaper than 100 years ago thanks to pearl culturing. In fact the price difference is astonishing. Pearls used to be an extreme form of luxury only for the upper class. Today most women can afford to treat herself with a few items of freshwater pearls. Better still, the birth of faux pearl jewellery introduced the ‘pearl look’ to even more people and occasions. Today a lot of fashion clothes are designed with rich adornment of faux pearls, offering a classy look without customers having to break their purses. Of course, real pearl lovers would still go for real pearls, and they are affordable anyway. It is easy to tell the difference between the two: fake pearl jewellery are much shinier than real pearls and the feel to the skin is also different – fake pearl jewellery do not have the natural warmth and tenderness that comes with real pearls. Teenagers and younger women with less financial means, are big buyers of fake pearl jewellery. In fact there’s a subtle different between ‘fake pearl jewellery’ and ‘faux pearl jewellery’. The nuance is that, fake pearl jewellery are made of pastic – beads that are coated with a shiny pearl like agent. These pearls usually have a slippery surface which feel marble like and much lighter. Faux pearls, or stimulation pearls, on the other hand, are actually made with ‘whipped up’ oyster shell powder. These pearl products are a middle point between fake pearls and real pearls, as they are made of the same material as real pearls, but not naturally grown out of living oysters. Faux pearls are a popular alternative to real pearls in large sizes – they stay similar prices in sizes up to 15mm while freshwater pearl prices increase double or even triple, for each increased millimetre in size.