Chopard Celebrates with the A-List

Jewelry events thrown by luxury design houses are often the best parties for bauble gawking, and no one does it better than Chopard.

Celebrating 150 years of sparkling style and the launch of their couture collection, Animal World (see an earlier post for details), the Swiss watch and jewelry maker threw a soiree last night at Manhattan's Frick Museum where A-list beauties mingled with high society - all dripping in Chopard diamonds.


Gwyenth Paltrow looked lovely in a long lace Antonio Berrardi gown with Chopard’s fancy shape diamond chandeliers set in platinum (24.2 carats) and a rose cut diamond ring set in platinum (13.3 carats).

Kate Hudson sparkled in a grey Lanvin number with Chopard’s chalcedony, sapphire, diamond and iolite chandeliers, a multicolor pearl (558 carats) and diamond (54 carats) sautoir and south sea pearl, pink and black diamond ring. Stunning.

Christina Ricci worked a vintage Kermit green Galanos gown with Chopard’s fancy shape diamond earrings set in 18kt white gold (33 carats).

And Claire Danes looked lovely in Lanvin with air-shaped diamond chandelier earrings set in platinum (20 carats) and a paraiba tourmaline and diamond bracelet set in 18kt white gold (131 carats).

Finally model, Eugenia Silva, rocked Chopard’s black and white diamond swallow necklace set in 18kt rose gold ( 25 carats) and black and white swallow diamond earrings (13.6 carats) from the 150th Anniversary Collection, Animal World.

Blinded by all the ice? It gets better. The New York Times reported that one lucky socialite had to double up on the diamonds when her husband surprised her by purchasing a 'ram'-inspired Chopard necklace from the Animal World collection for, oh, a mere $250,000 - so she had to throw it over the $700,000 diamond bib number she was (sigh) already wearing.

I'm going to lose a lot of sleep thinking about her predicament. No, really.

Tribeca Film Festival Jewelry Style

Jewelry moments on the red carpet are few and far between now that Awards Season is behind us, but there are still some sparkling showings at events like the Tribeca Film Festival to crow about.

Here are few of my favorite baubles so far:

Statement Makers:

Who said the statement necklace is dead? Oh right. I did. Enter Joan Rivers, who never met a bib necklace she didn't wear with a metallic mumu.

The Celebrity Apprentice winner was there to celebrate the premiere of the documentary based on her life, aptly called A Piece of Work.

Jessica Alba and one other festivalgoer joined Joan in the big necklace brigade.





Diamond Danglers:

Kate Hudson, there to debut her film, The Killer Inside Me (and rumored new breast implants??), sparkled in a concealing Louis Vuitton cape and diamond dangle earrings.


And the always fetching Amanda Peet dangled her diamonds at the Please Give showing.


It's All in the Wrist:

Finally cuffs and bangles continue to trend big with Kristin Bell and Zoe Kravitz in chunky styles at the tony Chanel dinner held last night.


And Nikki Reed shined in some serious wristwear ice for the film, Odine.



What do you think of the Tribeca jewelry style so far? Curious about the movie line up? Click here to see the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival full schedule!

SAG Jewelry Hits and Misses

The 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards shined a light on some unique red carpet jewelry choices for a change - some stunning, some, well, notsomuch.

The winners in my book were Diane Kruger (see my earlier post for more), Kate Hudson in over $1 million of Cartier diamonds

Marion Cotillard in over $1 million of Chopard in her hair alone (!), Christina Hendricks in another teardrop triumph (by Irit), and a glowing Christina Applegate in Lorraine Schwartz diamonds - including this unique diamond hair piece. Love it.

I'm on the fence about Meryl - like the emeralds and the Balenciaga print but am not sure it was appropriate for the occasion. I'm also not sure about Sandra Bullock's Alexander McQueen choice: is it cool or a little too 'Golden Girls go to the buffet'? Same with Drew Barrymore's navy get up, simple gold earrings and bedhead hair. Something's just off here.

Speaking of off - Joan Allen? Bless your heart, but what on EARTH were you thinking with this necklace choice? The former queen of red carpet class just jumped the shark with this ensemble - quite possibly the worst jewelry look I have covered to date. Yikes.

The disappointment continued with Vera Farmiga's unfortunate gown choice coupled with a powder blue eyeshadow look I haven't seen since the pre-teens wore it in the 80s.

And the always reliably tacky Patricia Arquette didn't disappoint with this 'Mae West meets Priscilla Queen of the Desert' interpretation. ALL Sequins? WITH gold chandeliers? Really?

As usual, I MUST know what you hounds think, so weigh in. And if the spirit moves you, check out the Jewelry.com Fashion News for more SAG jewelry buzz and their Facebook Page for a complete look at the SAG divas on display.

2010 Golden Globes Jewelry Roundup

The rain couldn't drown out the dazzling jewelry fashion at the 2010 Golden Globes tonight, and while the red carpet started off slow with lots of stars who opted for little or no jewelry - the showstoppers arrived just in time to save this jewelry hound from hyperventilating.

If 2009 Golden Globe jewelry was about the statement necklace, 2010 was all about the statement earring. Tassels, topaz, and tear-drops were big winners with Julianne Moore in emerald Bulgari beauties, Lea Michele in more emerald teardrops, Courtney Cox in black sapphires designed by Ofira Schwartz. Stunning!

and Kate Hudson and Meryl Streep in tassled elegance, among MANY other earring showstoppers.

Despite rumors to the contrary (and the Julianne Moore emerald forest), diamond jewelry won big over color this year with stunners like Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Garner in diamond danglers...

Chloe Sevigny and Tina Fey in diamond cluster earrings;

Penelope Cruz and Maggie Gylenhaal in simple diamond drops;

and Drew Barrymore in icy Lorraine Schwartz diamond studs (and one whopper of a moonstone statement ring - not pictured).

Icy cuffs complimented just about every look with the necklace a veritable no-show compared to years' past.

The boring-in-black awards go to Amy Adams in a jewelry-less snoresville ensemble and A-list queens, Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts - who seem to have an allergy to color on the red carpet these days. Step it up, sisters. We need you!

And the less-is-more award this year has to go to one Mariah Carey, who thankfully didn't have to speak this time around but brought out more cleavage and diamond overload than a Dolly Parton convention. Yikes.

What do you guys think of the Golden Globe jewelry extravaganza? Are Julianne's jewels fab or funky? Julia's statement necklace - cool or clunky? Weigh in!

People's Choice Awards - A Jewelry Fashion Recap

Last night’s Queen Latifah-hosted People’s Choice Awards kicked awards season off in style, as the red carpet at LA’s Shrine Auditorium positively glittered with stars, frocks and new jewelry looks for our drooling pleasure.

Maybe it’s the economy or maybe it’s the event itself, which celebrates the power of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, but it looks like we’re seeing an end to the bigger, bolder statement trend and the beginning of a more, shall we say, subtle era. In other words, the celebs kept the ice quotient to a minimum last night - perhaps to keep us in their good graces? And it worked. For the most part.

The World Gold Council recently reported that gold jewelry is seeing an upturn in sales even in these tough economic times, and the stylists proved their point last night. Fashion icon, Debra Messing, glowed in a sculptural Donna Karan number and H.Stern's new Hera earrings in 18K gold. House star Jennifer Morrison honored the metallic trend with a Gianfranco Frere dress and H.Stern's Zephyr earrings in 18K Noble gold; and Jewel, Chandra Wilson, Jordin Sparks and Olivia Wilde rocked their own subtle yellow gold looks.



























While there were some signs of the statement trend hanging in there, like Marissa Tomei’s stunning teardrop necklace and Kate Hudson’s oversized earrings and Jack Vartanian black and white cocktail rings, most celebs opted for understated diamond looks instead.













Dancing With the Stars host, Samantha Harris, is usually dripping in diamonds, but this time she dazzled in small chain-link diamond earrings. A nice touch. Our favorite 90210-er, Jenny Garth, wore a tasteful little boring, I mean, black dress, as did fellow blonde Reese Witherspoon – yet thankfully each of them sprinkled right hand rings and simple diamond earring styles to take things up a notch.



















The most unfortunate misstep of the evening did not go to Kathryn Heigl for the pants suit (I’ll let it pass for the Populist Choice awards), but rather to Malin Ackerman, whose sculptural, chunky accessories did nothing to make the unfortunate frock choice any less 'wrong'.




























My favorite jewelry fashion star last night, though, had to be Samantha Who?’s Christina Applegate. Again. The A-line Jenny Packham gown sparkled with just enough crystals, and her matching vintage diamond cuff was the right amount of bling to remind us that she’s a star. Who doesn't love this woman is the question? Bravo!















With the Critics Choice Awards tonight on VH1 and the Golden Globes this Sunday, the jewelry hound brigade is in for a long magic red carpet ride right up to the Inauguration - where all fashion hell will surely break loose.

What will the Divine Mrs. Obama wear for gosh sakes already? Diamonds and de la Renta? Gemstones and Gucci? A pearl strand from J. Crew and a pants suit (god forbid)? I can't wait!