filed in Fashion Forward
Is It Satisfying to Buy Your Own Jewelry?
During the Christmas season, my friend who manages an upscale women’s boutique, attends to customers’ husbands who shop for gifts. She steers them to the jewelry case, and since she knows her clientele well, is able to offer this expert advice: “Buy your wife something she already wants.” On a few occasions, boyfriends have surprised me with jewelry, and though I was moved by the sentiment, those pieces sit in the box. The jewelry I wear the most are the bracelets, necklaces and earrings that I admired, dreamed about, agonized over, decided I couldn’t live without, and purchased for myself. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?
Image: Today is the 175th anniversary of Tiffany’s. This box of jewels is from a recent ad campaign.
Discussion
26 comments for “Is It Satisfying to Buy Your Own Jewelry?”
Leave a Reply
About this Site
FIRST PERSON SINGULAR is a guide to surviving, thriving and sometimes just getting through a single day. Created by Wendy Braitman (more…)
Follow First Person Singular
Greatest Hits
I have a thick gold ring inset with my birthstone(peridot).It was a gift from my ex husband. I got rid of all other gifts from him but kept this one. It always represented me, and still does. He is not part of it.
Tell me, Mary – when your ex bought this ring – did you pick it out first, or was it a surprise?
Funny enough, I bought myself a piece of Tiffany’s jewelry after a great accomplishment several years ago. I get so many compliments on it and it reminds me of the hard work I have done in my life. I love telling people it was a reward to myself, they assume it is from a boyfriend.
What did you buy, Laur?
A few months ago I bought myself a sterling silver ring with a diamond buckle and it is currently my favorite piece and the only one I wear. I had been wanting a similar one for years and missed out on getting that one but I love this one just as much.
I also wear it on my ring finger of my left hand. I’m sure most just assume it’s a wedding band but I couldn’t care less. I just love that I bought it for me just because I love it.
The piece sounds lovely, Michele. I love that you bought it for yourself, and that you wear it proudly on your ring finger.
Your friend gives excellent advice to her clients. It’s great when a significant other asks me what I like and wants to browse with me to get a sense of my style.
My favourite pieces are some stainless steel earrings I bought in Germany, my mother’s wedding ring in which I replaced the lost diamond with my birthstone, and a silver charm bracelet my father gave me when I was 10 yrs old.
I’m debating whether to sell my engagement ring and wedding band, or have them fashioned into something new. It’s a shame to just have them sitting in my safe at home; they’re definitely the most expensive items I own, and I’m not a huge jewelry gal. If I can get a fair price, I think I’d put the money towards a downpayment on a house, or buy a little sailboat, or take a nice trip. We’ll see.
Repurposing jewelry is a great idea. My mother left me her diamond engagement ring, and there was no way I could imagine wearing it. I sold it, and put the money into a long-term CD.
I’m not a big jewelry person, but my favorite piece of jewelry is the antique jet necklace that my great aunts gave to my aunt who gave it to me. I think of all the aunts every time I wear it, so really, it’s more about the story and the relationships than about the actual necklace. I’ve got it on today, as a matter of fact.
I wear my mother’s wedding band every day (in conjunction with another gold ring of hers), and I love them for the sentimental value.
I’m a jewelry geek. I started collecting vintage jewelry after I inherited several pieces I had always admired from my mother and grandmother. I focused primarily on rose gold jewelry for many years. I think my favorite piece is a ring I designed and had made a few years ago as a reward to myself after a successful year – it’s commonly reffered to as “the honker” among my friends. It is very comtemporary in design and sits about an inch high on top of my finger. It is rose gold set with a 10 carat sherry-pinkish tone gem imperial topaz (my birthstone)bordered with tiny diamonds. It’s funny, but I get more comments from men than women on this ring.
10 carat?!! Wow. Sounds amazing. That’s interesting about more men commenting on the ring. I wonder why that is.
To answer your question,wendy, about my gold ring: it was a surprise but my daughter helped my ex pick it out, and so it has that sweet enduring association. I am saving my engagement ring for one of my daughters. It was my ex’s great grandmother’s and I feel a responsibility to pass it on, much as I wish to sell it. I may not get along with the ex but I am still close to his family.
My grandmother willed me her diamond eternity band, though my mother didn’t give it to me until I was forty. She kept waiting for me to get married. The ring is too fragile to wear, but it’s a treasure.
Waiting to get married is a losing proposition, I think we can agree. The point is to enjoy jewelry when we can. And it sounds like the women here have found great ways to do that.
I’m not much for jewelery, but when I travel I’ll often buy a piece as a long-lasting souvenir.
Sarah Jeanne, do you wear these “souvenirs?”
Mine favorite is the diamond stud earrings I bought; the only diamonds I’ve ever purchased. They’re small but very, very sparkly.
I had a diamond engagement ring at one point, and ultimately put the diamond into a pendant; and then a hotel maid at Disney World stole the necklace. I guess that diamond was just not meant to be mine. (“Happiest place on earth,” indeed.)
I have never been in a relationship with anyone who’s given me a gift of jewelry…so for me, buying it myself is the norm. I don’t have a lot but I do have a beautiful silver ring made by a jeweler in her home studio. She was a personal friend/acquaintance. Several years after purchasing it I bought the house from them! And now I wear the ring everyday and live in the house where it was made. So that’s a cool and meaningful story for me.
Robin, I’d call that a very significant ring.
Haha! I think my Texan tall-tale-telling kicked in. I just checked – the ring is 7 carats -not 10. Still a “honker”. As to why it appeals to men, I’m not really sure. It came out taller than I originally designed it in order to accomodate the depth of the stone. One of the jewellers I was dealing with described it as “architechtural.” Cheers!
No matter. 7 carats still is big.
I do! I have a ring from a high school trip to Spain that I wear frequently and a ring I bought in Mexico that I love–though I haven’t been wearing it lately because that trip was with an ex and it’s a little tainted.
One of my strangest souvenirs is a book I bought in Denver—the cute used book shop wrapped each book individually in brown paper and put a sticker with the book shop info on it. It was so adorable I didn’t have the heart to unwrap it. That was at least ten years ago, and today I have no idea what book is in there.
Sarah Jeanne, what do you think would motivate you to finally unwrap the book?
Twice I’ve bought myself jewelry after the end of a significant relationship (and made a trip to Vegas each time too). One is a pearl ring and the other is a diamond ring. I call them my break-up rings. I wear them all the time, but the ex-boyfriends don’t really cross my mind when I have them on. Instead I think about the empowerment I felt when I purchased them: that I’m an independent woman who doesn’t rely on anyone else to make her happy. I didn’t get the ring (i.e., relationship and happy ending) that I wanted from these guys, so I’m making my own. Still a work in progress.
Amy, I like your ritual. Buying yourself jewelry at the end of a relationship. Very cool and empowering idea.