Fashion jewelry, for hundreds of years, was the name of choice in many parts of the world, including America.  It’s meaning was to tell both the retail and wholesale jewelry industry that Fashion Jewelry quality was highly recognized worldwide.  .925 sterling silver was the most widely used in the retail and wholesale fashion jewelry industry for a number of reasons.  The most important reasons were the finest quality and being recognized worldwide as a precious metal just as gold and platinum are recognized worldwide as  precious metals.

Since .925 sterling silver was a widely prized precious metal for hundreds of years, Italian craftsmen began to add 100 microinches, or 2 1/2 microns, through electroplating.  Eventually this special product became recognized in America with the term Vermeil.  In 1972, the Shavonne Corporation registered the mark of 14kGVDG with the Federal Trade Commission and identified this special fashion jewelry to both the retail and wholesale jewelry industry with this special hallmark
that translates:  14kGOLD VERMEIL by DON GIST.

At that point in time, the Italian craftsmen identified .925 sterling silver as High Fashion Jewelry, and .925 sterling silver with 2 /12 microns of 18k gold as being part of the precious metals world as the only two components were precious metals:  .925 sterling silver and 18k gold.  Please notice the .925 is constantly repeated.  .925 means 925 parts of pure silver and 75 parts of the proper alloys. The reason is .800 is recognized in certain parts of the world as sterling silver – yet of lesser value as it contains just 800 parts of pure silver, and 200 parts of special alloys.

Costume jewelry is properly defined as “relatively inexpensive jewelry made of non-precious metals and imitation stones.”  In the past one hundred years some ultra high quality manufacturers kept improving the quality of costume jewelry.  When the Russian chemists first developed brilliant cubic zirconium stones, these special manufacturers reasoned they had another great product for the retail and wholesale jewelry trade by combining their ultra quality craftsmanship and “CZ’s” as they are now commonly called.  For the retail and wholesale jewelry industry, Shavonne manufacturers the vast majority of its jewelry with genuine Russian Formula Cubic Zirconia stones of extraordinary brilliance and lifelong wearability.

Unfortunately their is virtually no enforcement of any kind for levels of quality for what would qualify as Costume Jewelry.  This is where the reputation of the manufacturer is of the utmost importance.  In the 19th century, a fine company manufactured table silverwear known worldwide as Rogers Silverplate.  Rogers may easily be recognized as one of the premier manufacturers of its kind in the world to this very day.