Monday, February 27, 2012

Oscar Jewelry Suite
By Kari Ann Marquart and Bianca Taylor Word
BeansTalk Special Correspondents

Attendees of the 84th Annual Academy Awards had two responsibilities: wear something fabulous and pair it with exquisite jewelry.

Somewhere in the Rainbow's $1.2 mil necklace. (Photo by Kari Marquart)

Style Lab’s Jewelry Suite exclusive jewelry preview was held in Beverly Hills at an undisclosed location. The preview featured jewelry from the Rio Tinto Global Design Competition, the AGTA collection, Rayaz Takat, Tanzanite King, Marco Mavilla and more.

At the preview celebrities and stylists took turns speaking with Michael O’ Connor, an expert on jewelry and style.

 “There seems to be a lot of people going to be wearing black on the red carpet, which is actually fabulous for a number of reasons, because sometimes when it’s a very simple black, you could pop it up with some color,” he said, “or you can just stay along the monochromes.”

When it comes to monochrome jewelry to pair with black and gray dresses O’Connor told BeanStalk that blackened metals will be common on the red carpet.
Earrings and rings designed by Rayaz Takat.  (Photo by Kari Marquart)

Baggins designed a pair of earrings where the diamonds are set into the black rhodium in a hoop style with a pearl on the inside of the hoop for the AGTA collection. O’Connor said this look works well with black dresses and vintage gowns.

Black, white, and gray are the main colors expected to be present on the red carpet, but O’ Connor said there will still be some color.

He said that since many attendees are going to be wearing gray that he has been partnering their dresses with a lot of blue and green jewelry.

Designer Rayaz Takat had half of his collection at the preview, which featured many large blue and green gemstone earrings that O’Connor thinks will go well with the dress trends he has been seeing.

O’Connor has also been noticing a number of white, gold and silver combinations as well.

“I’ve seen a lot of people… who have sent me their dresses and are doing an interesting kind of yellow and white combination, or gold and white, or gold and silver,” he said.

Stylist Lindsey Dupuis was there to find accessories for Ashley Tisdale to wear at Elton John’s Oscar Party. She felt the opposite of O’ Connor, saying that color blocking and bright colors are the current trends. Tisdale’s style will be a “sleek look, modern, simple, and sexy,” said Dupuis.

Octavia Spencer, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in The Help, is one celebrity O’ Connor would like to style. He said he tweeted about it the other day saying that Spencer would be his ideal person to dress for the Academy Awards.

O’Connor thinks that Somewhere in the Rainbow’s necklace and earrings combo for the AGTA collection would look great on Spencer.  The combo features pink and blue spinel gemstones, which took seven years to gather, and is worth $1.5 mil.