What a difference a year makes!! Just got back from my Manila trip and what was noteably different this trip from 10 months ago when I was there, is that most everyone is selling really massive pearls. Not quite as easy now to seperate the bead nucleated fresh water monster pearls from the South Seas, where in the past a quick glance into a case would tell you whether it was a South Sea or a FWP. The traditional round white pearl was definitely the bottom shelf item for many sellers.
So folks, what's driving the change? Is it the the high fashion Chanel "can't get em big enough" look, with the massive pearls mixed into layers of strands, is it new cultivation techniques that are delivering these super sized freshwater, or short growth times on really massive nucluei, or what? I haven't noticed a corresponding shift among the US on line retailers for the most part where big is still 10mm. The availability has to be high, because I saw alot of big pearls that weren't South Seas, and when I say big, these were 13-16mm "round" strands. The baroques sizes, especially the Keishi's were even crazier.
And while I would never have thought I'd buy anything even approaching that almost guady size, I have to admit that a strand of taupe multi-tones with interesting textures and touches of metallic sheen found their way into my bag. I'm not even sure how that happened!! If that happened to me, it could happen to anyone. I'm considering it strictly a funky fashion look to justify MY purchase, but is the classic pearl as we know it going to take a backseat to ever growing sizes, shapes and colors that are emerging? And did you all see the same trend in the recent Hong Kong show?
So folks, what's driving the change? Is it the the high fashion Chanel "can't get em big enough" look, with the massive pearls mixed into layers of strands, is it new cultivation techniques that are delivering these super sized freshwater, or short growth times on really massive nucluei, or what? I haven't noticed a corresponding shift among the US on line retailers for the most part where big is still 10mm. The availability has to be high, because I saw alot of big pearls that weren't South Seas, and when I say big, these were 13-16mm "round" strands. The baroques sizes, especially the Keishi's were even crazier.
And while I would never have thought I'd buy anything even approaching that almost guady size, I have to admit that a strand of taupe multi-tones with interesting textures and touches of metallic sheen found their way into my bag. I'm not even sure how that happened!! If that happened to me, it could happen to anyone. I'm considering it strictly a funky fashion look to justify MY purchase, but is the classic pearl as we know it going to take a backseat to ever growing sizes, shapes and colors that are emerging? And did you all see the same trend in the recent Hong Kong show?
