Online Shopping Roundup, Part 3: Jewelry
Kimberly McDonald at Twist
This week’s installment in our online shopping roundup brings us to jewelry. This, admittedly, is one of my big weaknesses. I looove jewelry, and I particularly love interesting design. The online stores I’m going to share with you today aren’t the place that you go to for a pair of nice diamond studs. Yes, they’re classics, but that doesn’t require a store to have an eye for design, just a jeweler with an understanding of the four C’s and a good source for diamonds. If you’re looking for that kind of thing, you can get it readily enough at Blue Nile or one of the other obvious vendors. What I’m talking about here is places that will have jewelry that’s interesting, that not only will look good on you, but may be a conversation piece at a cocktail party (and not that “Wow, that stone is huge!” conversation we’ve all heard after someone gets engaged), and that frankly, is enjoyable to look at for its own merits. After the jump, some of the best places to look.
Full-On Jewelry Boutiques:
Twist. Twist is definitely one of the best sources for good jewelry design on the web. Twist’s physical stores are in Portland and Seattle and carry art glass, ceramics, and other American craft works in addition to jewelry. I, sadly, have never been to any of Twist’s physical stores, but their online jewelry selection is flat-out terrific. Twist is a good source for dozens of great jewelry lines, including Anthony Nak, Pippa Small, Jeanine Payer, and Marie-Helene de Taillac. Their idea of what constitutes “cheap chic” is a little inflated, but they have a huge selection of beautiful stuff, and not all of it needs to be a birthday splurge.
Ten Thousand Things at Twist
Fragments. Fragments is by far my favorite local source for interesting design in jewelry. To be fair, Fragments’ website doesn’t carry anything like their full inventory. The Fragments stores (on Prince Street in Soho and Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side) carry a far more varied and interesting selection of jewelry than is available on their website, so if you’re in the New York area it’s definitely worth going in person. That said, though, the Fragments website is still a completely worthwhile stop, particularly if you’re looking for slightly fashion-forward jewelry for casual wear, even if their online selection isn’t quite as good as Twist’s. Their website carries Chan Luu wrap bracelets side by side with opulent gold from Gurhan and delicate earrings from Shaesby. Again, it’s mostly not cheap, but it’s not all splurge pieces either.
Ylang 23. Ylang 23 is a dedicated jewelry site whose home store is located in Dallas. I have sadly not been to Ylang 23′s store either, but the site is also a great place to look for interesting fine jewelry. Ylang 23 overlaps with Twist and Fragments in carrying many of the more obvious contemporary jewelry lines like Ten Thousand Things, Temple St. Clair, and Cathy Waterman, but it also carries some less common lines like Lucifer Vir Honestus that Twist and Fragments don’t have. Ylang 23 has several times been the first place I saw a new great line of jewelry, and I like to check back regularly to see what they have going on even if I’m not really in the market for anything. Hey, it never hurts to look, right?
Giving Tree Gallery. Giving Tree is yet another physical outpost that I’ve never visited, located in East Sandwich, Massachusetts, but their online offerings are solid. Again, there’s some overlap with the other boutiques in terms of the lines they carry (Jeanine Payer, Dana Kellin, Melissa Joy Manning), but they tend to skew a little more to the fashion jewelry over the fine jewelry, with the result that a much higher percentage of the offerings are under $1000 than you’ll see at the other sites. Whether you’re talking about Pyrrha pendants cast from antique seals or a lotus blossom charm from Alex Woo, this is a great place to go for casual pieces that you can wear with jeans and a t-shirt on your days off.
Other Stores:
Artful Home. Artful Home is pretty much what it sounds like; they offer artisan furniture, ceramics, art glass, and various other home goods They also have a jewelry section that contains jewelry that leans toward the sculptural and contains some really interesting statement pieces. I’m particularly intrigued by this cascading felt necklace:
For the most part, they don’t carry the same big-name jewelry lines that you see at the jewelry boutiques, so it can be a nice place to look for something a little different.
Uncommon Goods. Uncommon Goods is one of my go-to sites when I’m looking for cute gifts; they specialize in creative and unusual homewares, personal accessories, and even children’s toys. Their jewelry selection definitely leans toward the quirky, with bracelets made from retooled bike chains and a necklace with a tiny carpenter’s level pendant, but they also have some stuff that’s genuinely lovely rather than just amusing. If your tastes lean toward the crafty or you have a geeky sense of humor, Uncommon Goods might be for you. It also has the great virtue of being much more affordable than any of the jewelry boutiques.
Etsy. I know, too obvious for words, but along with the plethora of other handmade goods it carries, Etsy can be a great place to look for jewelry. Because of the nature of the site, the jewelry collection is obviously not curated at all. Regardless of your personal tastes, there are thus almost guaranteed to be plenty of pieces on Etsy that you find appallingly ugly or possibly horrifying in their very concept. (I found one of the latter within about two minutes of starting to surf Etsy’s jewelry section.) That said, though, there are plenty of genuinely talented artists selling their work on Etsy, and some of it is quite affordable. If you have the patience to sift through the offerings or have something specific you’re looking for, you can get some great stuff off Etsy.
[...] Home. As mentioned in my jewelry post, Artful Home hooks you up with art, housewares, and furniture straight from the artists and [...]