[purepearls]

I was recently doing an interview on Great Day Houston and a customer came up to me and asked me to make him a large white pearl ring. He said that he saw a producer wearing one and wanted one just like it. I just wanted to see what your thoughts are for a Man-pearl Ring? I think Tahitian pearls make gorgeous Man-pearl jewelry but white would definitely be cutting-edge. I would love to get your feedback to see if we should add it to our Men's Collection .

[jshepherd]

Wow! That would be a really tought sell with me. Kevin (POJ) seems to be a lot gutsier in that realm, but it may even be a stretch for him! Maybe in my last profession (LOL for those who know what that was) there were those who would wear a pearl ring. But I think it would be a challenge starting a trend like that.

[nlerner]

I can see Men's Gold Signet Rings with a baroque or round, all colors pearls at the corner of the ring.
But they should be deeply inset.

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Jeremy,

I presume you have not looked at Crown Jewels lately. Men of power traditionally wore white pearl rings. With one proviso, though, it had to be a paragon and the mounting had to complete the form and the whole thing had to represent something (usually a dragon of some sort although Louis XIV also had one with a fleur de lis).

Otherwise, I recommend watching some concerts of Michel Rieux. He often wears a pin with a big white pearl at the collar of his ruffle shirts. That's also a style that used to be quite hot for the last few millennia. It somehow went out of fashion when cultured pearls made it big and suddenly the white pearls became a women's only jewel.

Zeide

[jshepherd]

Was not long ago that men of fashion also wore dresses and long flowing wigs. When those return to mainstream I may try that ring!

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Jeremy,

I think you may mean robes not dresses. Dresses were for boys under ten. As the average American male waistline expands, I wouldn't be too surprised to see robes making a comeback. The big retailers will probably develop some kind of money-spending occasion around it like Valentines' Day or Mothers' Day or Fathers' Day. Now I know it. They will put the limit for robe wearing at 40-inch waistlines and call the celebration Girthday.

Zeide

[jshepherd]

Robes, dresses, gaudy, colorful fabric that hung to the floor...don't really see it coming back anytime soon!

I was actually asked by Shaun Taub to create a set of saphire blue Tahitian cufflinks and some kind of matching ring. I told him I did not think it possible, I mean to make it and keep it masculine. He had some custom-made watch with saphires set into the face, that he wanted to match.

[purepearls]

LOL!! That was too funny.

That would be interesting if the look came back. You know what they say...History has a way of repeating itself

I do think that you would need to be a "man of power" to pull the white pearl ring off. Zeide, the pearl rings in the Crown Jewels sound very intriquing.

[Caitlin]

My dad wore an oval turquoise ring maybe 10X19mm for 40 years.
So many men in Arizona wear large flat square or oval turquoise rings, that I think nothing of it! Why should a pearl be any different.

I think a Mabe pearl either Tahitian or Mexican could be put into a classic setting similar to men's turquoise rings and it would look as manly as the turquoise. How about a mabe with a small carving? Come on Tahiti- pony up! You got the supplies and the carving "eye" too.

Remember- we are a bunch of ethnocentric folks who got some advertising concepts about pearls and women- thanks to the Mikimoto blitz machine- in the 2nd half of the 20th century. This way of looking at pearls is NOT the be all and endall- it is already a dated view.

[mikehrz]

Originally Posted by Zeide Erskine

I presume you have not looked at Crown Jewels lately. Men of power traditionally wore white pearl rings.

Thing is, though, that kings and emperors can always wear pretty much whatever they want. After all, who's going to argue with them? I'm not really a big history buff, but in the days of crown jewels, those natural pearls would have been really expensive, so only royalty could have afforded them. I'm guessing they were worn more as a sign of prestige than due to any aesthetic concerns. I would be curious to know, though, if the wealthy merchants who were contemporaries of the pearl-wearing royalty also wore pearls.

Of course, wearing or owning expensive things solely because of their value hardly died out with the days of kings and emperors. Still, given the strong modern feminine connotation of pearls in general, I would tend to think that white pearls would be a hard sell as men's jewelry. Heck, I'm not too crazy about the Tahitians-on-leather as neckwear. To me, someone like Pierce Brosnan can pull it off because he has such a macho look to begin with. The average male, though...

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Mike,

The Rana of Dholpur was a guy. Henry VIII was a guy, Michel Rieux is a guy, that young swimmer from Australia is a guy, Tim Curry is a guy, and let's not forget Kabir Bedi as Sandokan wearing a 100-incher 8mm+ as a triple opera in Sandokan - the ultimate guy.

I rest my case.

Zeide

[mikehrz]

Hi Zeide,

Perhaps I should have stated my point more clearly. Speaking specifically on the topic of white pearls being sold as men's jewelry, I do think that, given the years of marketing we've all been exposed to, it will be a hard sell. It may gain acceptance, but the white-pearls-as-men's-jewelry market isn't one I bet heavily on, or invest heavily in, in the short term. And though I have no objection to pearls as men's jewelry, my tastes do tend to run toward the conservative. I would be willing to wear Tahitian cufflinks, or even freshadama cufflinks (too bad I hate long sleeves), but I don't think the Tahitian-and-leather look would work for me or most men I know.

Besides, the Rana of Dholpur, if I'm not mistaken, was royalty. Henry VIII was definitely royalty. (See previous post concerning royalty.) I'm not familiar with Michel Rieux or an Australian swimmer, but Sandokan was a fictional character. Did Kabir Bedi wear that strand in real life? It would certainly have been a fashion statement! And as for Tim Curry, I have no comment.

[Slraep]

Mikehrz,

I agree, Tim Curry doesn't exactly fall into the "guy" category.
I am not so sure about the Rana of Dholpur either.

Anyway, I personally do not like rings on men. A man with a
ring has always scared me. I've always imagined such a man
dragging me into jewellery stores to buy stuff for himself.
And pearls, of all things!

Okay, if you were some powerful Royal Dude of Old, you could wear anything you wanted because those who laughed at you got their
heads lopped off. I suspect that is why a lot of ridiculous fashion
started by royalty was not stopped in dead in its tracks.

Slraep

[Kevin Canning]

Men of power traditionally wore white pearl rings.

Does Liberace count? He does have the long flowing robes to match:

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Kevin,

Mikimoto used to have a necklace folder that looked just like that only without Liberace inside it.

Zeide