Hello Everyone, it’s me Sissy, I’d like to tell you what I think of fashion jewelry or costume jewelry, whichever you would like to call it.

I think fashion jewelry is fabulous there are many occasions to wear the jewelry. I like to wear fashion jewelry to dress up outfits, like if I’m going out shopping I may wear more simple styles, but if I’m going out at night I might want to rock out the bling using the bigger bolder styles. I also like to take my fashion jewelry on vacations and leave the real stuff behind, that way if I lose it or it is stolen I’m not devastated over my loss. These are just a few of my ideas of how to incorporated fashion and costume jewelry into your everyday life.

Peace Out!

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.

Fine jewelry, fashion jewelry and costume jewelry are the three basic classifications in the retail and wholesale jewelry industry.  Fine jewelry metals and stones are always the most costly.  The term “solid” gold is often misused.  EG:  14k solid gold is incorrect.  The only solid gold is 24 karat gold and contains no alloys or impurities and is relatively soft when compared with 18k, 14k or 10k gold.  In different cultures, the “k” abbreviation and the numbers of 18, 14 and 10 are not used.  18k gold is identified with .750;  14k gold is .585,  and 10k gold is not offered at all.

As gold is relatively soft, and sort of a “yucky” orange color when mined, it is strengthened with copper, zinc and antimony alloys and then “tinted” to achieve a certain “shade” of gold that is the most popular..  The most popular American choice in fine jewelry in both retail and wholesale jewelry is 14k gold.  This consists of 585 parts of “pure” gold, also known as “fine” gold, and 415 parts of the proper alloy metals.  18k gold and platinum are the next levels of popularity.  18k gold consists of 750 parts of fine gold and 250 parts of the proper alloy metals.  10k gold is the least costly and contains just 417 parts of fine gold and 583 parts of proper alloy metals.

Platinum is more widely used in many industries than in the manufacture of jewelry for the retail and wholesale industry.  Due to its very special qualities there are many platinum applications in chemical and manufacturing facilities and, of all things, in your automobiles exhaust system.  In its natural mined condition, platinum is not the least bit attractive.  It is a very strong, “greyish” metal and after extensive polishing can be electroplated with rhodium for a beautiful bright finish that is similar to the very best sterling silver metal finishes which we will cover in my next blog post along with “Fashion Jewelry” information.