When a beautiful Blonde steped our of a long, black car, all eyes and cameras were instantly sealed on a young actress. Miss please smile! We love you! Look here miss! Cameras flashed like a thounder strom would have just hit the street corner. People were screaming and shouting with excitement. They had all come to see one thing and would have given everything for even a glimpse of that rare life they were never going to experience.
"And then, she was alone
on her way to dive into an ocean she will never get fully out of.
And all she had in oder to stay afloat
were a diamond neckles, months of ballet classes
and a bottle of champange."
The Blonde placed her ten inch, white, satine heels on the ground and straightened herself. She was nervous but that couldn't show because she didn't want to disappoint everybody. She needed to be fabulous, perfect and most of all effortless in this performance as well. Her manager had made her take ballet classes for strait posture and smooth walking because according to him, these galas, where thousand of people and journalists are watching your every move, were the hardest part of the job. No mistakes were aloud in hollywood or you were out like you never were in. "Remember smile and answer a few easy, lighthearted question, then pose for photograps and walk in the theater. And do not look back so they'll keep coming for more." her manager had said before she got in the car. And then he had open the car door again and added "And please don't ever say too much, you see, it's good to keep up the mystery as long as possible." He had slamed the door close again. And then she was alone on her way to dive into an ocean she will never get fully out of. And all she had in oder to stay afloat were a diamond neckles, months of ballet classes and a bottle of champange.
The blond took of her cateye sunglasses and shaked her head. One carefully parctised swing to the right and the soft, curled hair is of her face. Red lips, long, black lashes and white, almoust pearly theet smile to the cameras. Miss we love you! Look here darling! Here on you left! Smile, please! The Blonde smiled, laughed and posed in front of the car. She was wearing all white, starpless, skintight dress that was so low on the back that the dress would fall down if it wasn't so tight. Even her long cloves were white silk and only thing to keep her warm was the glass of well needed champange and a white fur robe. She looked like an unreal beauty form a story book. "Prettier than a princes." some magazines had writen. But despite all that glamour not even the diamonds on her neck couldn't change the fact she had been a poor beggar from the street that happened to be picked to act on a movie just because the hollywood wasn't interested in paing a lagre sum for a real actress. Luckly, for bouth, she turned out to be a success.
The Blonde walked towards the theather door still smiling and posing for every photogapher shouting for her. When she reached the door one journalist asked "How are you to night, miss?" and she answered laughing like she was taught "Simple fabulous!". "And what happens to be the value of the set of daimonds lady has on her neck to night?" another journalist jumped into the conversation. "Ou how would I know, sir. I'm just happy to be wearing them." she said back with a little dumb and funny voice while still laughing. Her manager had said that they love that, when you act a bit stupid and all. "It makes them feel like their smarter than you. So that's...well...better for business". She hadn't quite got it but still she did it because that was all she had.
One more pose and one more smile and three long hours inside the theather and then she would be happily in her apartment comfortably eating all the things her manager didn't want her to eat but she couldn't help it now that she got food practicly free from the best places. One more! Here, smile to the camera! We love you! Falshes and screams from the croud and one final pose.
The Blonde turned around and walked in the theather without looking back. Desperate screams and questions from the world outside The Blonde is no longer a part of were locked out the moment the theather door closed.
That night The Blonde became a star and the diamonds on her neck became to symbolies a sheal between her reality and the outside world.
History in brief
Jewelry has been worn as long as we can remember by both women and men, and were produced from all kinds of materials. Bones, shells, feathers and rocks were some of the earliest materials used in jewelry making in a prehistoric world. As the technology advanced, when time went on, metals and gemstones also became a part of jewels.
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Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China can be considered to be the earliest places for the development of jewelry. These acient civilications set the foundation for modern jewelry making as well as several fashion trends in a centuries to come.
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In mediaval times jewelry was highly influensed by religion and reflected persons power in society. Nobelity and royalty wore more precious jewels made out of gold, silver and gems while other parts of society used more base metals such as copper.
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Jewerly's place as a mirror of status became even more visible in the renaissance perioud when the life on earth became more intresing and the conflict between church and monarchs started setting Europe apart. Now classical world and mythological figures from the acient societies rose back to fashion.
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In the 17th-centry, fashion favored dark, powerfull colors. So as a contras to the reigning fashion, jewelry was meant to be more soft while still remainig elaborate. That's why the main metal used in jewelrys was gold, for more powerfull look, and the colors for gem's and pearl's backtrops were softer pastels.
The 18th-century was the birth of diamonds, thanks to the development of briliant-cut which enabled gemstones to shine even brighter. Now silver was mainly used in jewerly making to enhance the color of diamonds.
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In the 19th-century dispite the social and economical change jewels often focused more in the past. In the early 19th-century classical styles from acien Greece and Rome were popular and so were jewels from medival and renaissance period. Also, naturalistic styles rose during this period and for example figures such as flowers became desired subjects in jewels.
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Moving to the 20th-century new styles were introduced such as arts and crafts jewellery, Art Nouveau jewellery, the Garland style, art deco and contemporary jewellery. Arts and crafts jewellery focused more to the making process and strongly opposed machine made jewels. Art Nouveau was a style which favored rather windling shapes often with a spice of eroticsim and death, while the Garland style was more traditional, coping earlier styles from the 18th-century and the early 19th-century. From the 1920s to 1950s art deco's geometric desings were popular and diamonds still held their place in people's hearts but when moving to the 1960s due to contemporary jewellery many boundaries were droken. Now jewels could be made out of other materials as well such as plastic, paper and textiles.
Many meanings of jewelry
From the earliest days of human civilisation jewellerys porpuse in our life's was not only decortavie but also practical. Jewels were used as a protection to ward of evil, cure illness, bring luck as well as hold cloth together. More over, jewelry's practicality goes as far as using it as a currency and an item of exchange.
Whilst jewerly's porpuse has been more practical it has also reflected persons power and status in society. Therefore jewelry has always held political, religious and emotional power making its wearer apper important and prestigious.
Nowdays jewelry represents more persons individuality and personality rather than power. Also, jewelry's value doesn't anymore add up to the amout of prescios metals or gems used in them but to their artistry and uniqueness.
Bond between us and jewelry
Jewellery is often given as gifts or pasted down on generations as a symbol of eternity. Namenly, good jewels last for centuries collecting remarkable stories in them. You could say that a piece of jewerly becomes better and better when it gets older and more precios, not just because it value in money might rise but because it has seen and lived many life's. So, it seems that when it comes to jewels it isn't just about the look of them but the story behind them.
Just think about the story in the beginnig to visualize; The Blonde wore diamonds for rest of her life because she wore a diamond neckles on her firts movie premier. This means the diamonds became alive to her, the neckless started meaning more to her than before that night. Looking that neckles she will always be a young, unreal beauty. And because of that neckles her memory will always have a place in present even if no one remembers it.
Over all I guess Marilyn wasn't wrong when she sang that "diamonds are a girl's best friends".
Thank you so much for reading!
Siiri
Sources used to make this post (read these if you would like to know more):
https://www.britannica.com/art/jewelry/The-history-of-jewelry-design
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-history-of-jewellery
http://www.historyofjewelry.net
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