Lavish Court Fashion Display Calls out to Costume Jewellery Lovers

I remember quite vividly, in my youth, having a faux ruby and diamond ring procured from some mall shop with a few weeks' worth of allowance. When not resting in its special place of honor in my ballerina jewelry box, the ring added some serious weight to my finger as I played out various roles with friends. With a substantial center stone standing out at well over ten carats, surrounded by a double row of seed-sized clear sparkler stones, the piece was nothing short of extravagant, and took me from playing Queen to Empress to mysterious wizardress and well beyond, into the farthest reaches of the imagination.
Though breaking out the playhouse isn't exactly on my to-do list these days, I still enjoy the possibilities a nice piece of jewelry can bring to the appearance and atmosphere of a given look. Of course, I can't quite compete in the market of royal jewel buyers; and even if I found myself exorbitantly stuffed with spending power, I might find it hard to justify the price tags on many modern and antique jewellery pieces of rare and exceptional quality. Luckily for me, costume jewelry achieves all the instant gratification and impressive presence of the real thing while staying sane in terms of price. With the opening of the “Fastes de Cour et Ceremonies Royales -- Le Costume de Cour en Europe 1650- 1800,” at Versailles, France, this week, I suspect many fashion mavens will experience a similar wave of gratefulness for the possibilities of costume jewellery.
The show, which runs through June 28th, features an impressive collection of garments and accessories from royalty throughout Europe during one of its most visually extravagant periods. Pieces ranging from the personal accouterments of Marie Antoinette to robes that once graced the shoulders of nobility from Denmark and Sweden. Fabrics are rich and colorful, showcasing expensive and highly prized materials and dyes, as well as the painstaking efforts and skills of those craftsmen who created the finished products. The splendour is certainly an eyeful as far as the fashions are concerned, though the accompanying bits of jewelry and accessories are reportedly an especially magnificent sight. Louis XV's coronation crown makes an appearance at the exhibition; though it is still an incredible piece to behold in terms of its fine details and design, its antique value has slumped to a considerably low figure since the jewels --representing the full spectrum of those precious stones with which the European world was so in love at the time-- were pried off and replaced with inexpensive substitutes.
Costume jewelry allows modern fashion royalty to display their taste without worrying over such conundrums. Though it may not end up in a museum, an extravagant yet affordable necklace or bracelet lets the dress-up days of youth mature into something bold and beautiful.