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Sarah Magid’s Delicious Candy Drop collection

There are a lot of different things jewelry can do: it can make you feel strong, elegant, sexy, refined, bold – but sometimes what you really want is a piece of jewelry that makes you smile.

Sarah Magid’s new Candy Drop collection is like laughter made tangible. It’s vivid, vivacious, and (ahhh I’m out of v words) just super fun. It’s also a delight for the eye to behold.

The chandelier statement earrings from Sarah Magid's Candy Drop collection! Enamel and Swarovski crystal. These are so fun.These chandelier earrings are the showpiece of the Candy Drop collection and a perfect introduction to its lurid, voluptuous appeal.

What you’re seeing here hand-painted soft enamel embellished with perfectly matched Swarovski crystals. When sending me the photos, Sarah Magid said of this collection that she always loves to use fine jewelry techniques to make costume jewelry. I’m glad she does, because the results are certainty fantastic.

A beautiful, bright cuff and ring from Sarah Magid's Candy Drop collection.The colors in the Candy Drop collection are inspired by the art of Yayoi Kusama. That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? These designs embody the same kind of whimsical exuberance that makes Kusama’s art so irresistible.

I can’t quite believe we haven’t talked more about Sarah Magid here. She makes high quality costume jewelry and I’ve been a huge fan of her designs ever since I discovered a cache of her jewelry in my friend Hannah Becker’s luggage when we were consulting on each others’ outfits for the AGTA Spectrum Awards Gala last winter.

Beautiful pink and blue earrings from Sarah Magid's Candy Drop collection! Enamel with Swarovski crystal.I can’t decide which color is my favorite. And I love love love that this collection is being launched in Winter, a season so frequently treated as appropriate for nothing but metallics. We all need a little more color in winter.

Any time you’re looking for seriously good quality jewelry that’s below the four digit price range, Sarah Magid is a fantastic option. If you like the spirit here but aren’t quite ready to rock color this intense, you should definitely check out Sarah’s other designs.

If you hurry, you can get 40% off! She’s still running a Cyber Monday Special – and most of these pieces are under $200 to start with, so we’re talking fully splurge-worthy.

Images c/o Sarah Magid.

 Sarah Magid Candy Drop cuff bracelet in blue enamel with Swarovski crystal. The chandelier statement earrings from Sarah Magid's Candy Drop collection! Enamel and Swarovski crystal. These are so fun. Sarah Magid Candy Drop ring in cosmo pink with Swarovski crystal. Sarah Magid Candy Drop ring in blue enamel with Swarovski crystal. Sarah Magid Candy Drop linear earrings in blue enamel with Swarovski crystal. Sarah Magid Candy Drop earrings in cosmo pink with Swarovski crystal. Sarah Magid Candy Drop earrings in blue enamel with Swarovski crystal. Sarah Magid Candy Drop cuff bracelet in enamel with Swarovski crystal.

Jubilee Jones is bringing back the dress clip.

There are two possible reactions to hearing that Jubilee Jones is bringing back the dress clip:

  1. Joy and delight (my reaction).
  2. Confusion (the reaction 90% of the people I told).

That’s why we’re going to start today with a definition.

Every Jubilee Jones dress clip can be worn on its own, or clipped to its twin to make a brooch.What is a dress clip?

A dress clip is a brilliant piece of jewelry that peaked in popularity around the 1930’s. Dress clips are versatile brooches that attach via a clip, rather than with a traditional pin fitting. They latch onto the edge of a piece of fabric, fur, shoe, glove, or lock of hair. You can put them on basically anything.

Dress clips are usually made in pairs or sets: rather than just one piece, they’re two identical pieces that can be worn together or separately.

Legendary ladies wearing dress clips! Ava Gardner, Carole Lombard, Wallis Simpson, Coco Chanel, Agnes Moorehead, and Tallulah Bankhead.Ava Gardner / Carole Lombard / Wallis Simpson
Coco Chanel / Agnes Moorehead / Tallulah Bankhead

If you’ve ever looked at photos of devastatingly stylish women of the past, you’ve seen a dress clip. I’ve rounded up just a few here for you. I actually found so many great examples that I started a Pinterest board just for dress clips.

Many dress clips, especially the higher end Art Deco versions, include mechanisms for the two separate clips to join together into one larger piece or sometimes other pieces of jewelry as well. This bang for your buck probably helped the dress clip trend hang on through the Great Depression, when the concept enjoyed great success in the hands of many costume jewelry manufactures.

The dress clip is a fantastic piece of jewelry, and I’ve always loved them and thought it was a shame that they had no modern equivalent…at least, they didn’t until now!

The best part about Jubilee Jones' dress clips is that they give you so many ways to add an unexpected pop of sparkle to anything!Chelsea, the design genius behind Jubilee Jones, collected vintage dress clips from flea markets around LA for years before deciding to start making them herself. A longtime jewelry lover with a fashion background, Chelsea’s favorite part of dress clips are their versatility.

In her own words:

I have to credit Queen Elizabeth II for sparking my love of jewelry and introducing me to dress clips in the first place. She has arguably the most impressive jewelry collection in the world and it includes a diamond and aquamarine double clip brooch by Boucheron her parents gave her for her 18th birthday. That was back in 1944 and she still wears it regularly. After seeing tons of pictures of it over the years, I wanted to hunt down a costume jewelry version and learn everything I could about dress clips.

Each Jubilee Jones piece is made with great care and attention – we use Czech and Swarovski crystals and each stone is set by hand – in the hope that they can be worn and enjoyed for decades to come.”

Jubilee Jones is bring back the dress clip and I could not be more excited.Jubilee Jones was kind enough to lend me some dress clips to play with and let me tell you, it was hard to give them back. I loved them.

They’re so easy to throw onto anything, and because they’re a clip and not a true pin, they don’t leave any holes in your clothes (or shoes, or hats, or bags).

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Feminist jewelry to wear while you smash the patriarchy.

Traditionally, I’ve tried to keep my political opinions and Diamonds in the Library pretty separate. You can tell what I think about certain things by looking at what links I share in my “What I’m Reading” posts, and even more easily if you follow me on Twitter, but I’ve kept my opinions about current events off of the blog, for the most part.

After this most recent Presidential election, I feel strongly that some things are just too important to stay quiet about. It is in that spirit that I bring you today’s roundup of feminist jewelry to wear while you smash the patriarchy.

A handmade 'Smash the Patriarchy' necklace, complete with cute little hammer.Say it loud, proud, and with a cute little hammer.

I love feminist jewelry because there’s something deliciously subversive about taking an item that’s ostensibly intended to adorn women, something delicate and pretty, and turn it on its side as an expression of defiance and strength instead.

Every single one of these picks is an individual designer or an independent artist – if you purchase any of these feminist jewelry designs, your money will be going to support the arts, not a big corporation.

Feminist fine jewelry from Wendy Brandes.When it comes to fine jewelry, few designers are representing the feminist agenda more thoroughly than Wendy Brandes.

Her “BOSSY” and “NASTY” necklaces come to mind first, but if you look through Wendy’s website, you’ll see that the majority of her high end pieces are inspired by great women of the past, and her entire “Maneater” collection is dedicated to the idea of powerful women. Then there are all of her delightfully irreverent emoji studs, which can be worn in any number of ways.

Purchase of the BOSSY or NASTY necklaces also gets you a donation to Planned Parenthood in your honor.

All of the proceeds from this Black Lives Matter button are actually donated to the movement.What is a Black Lives Matter button doing in a post on feminist jewelry? It’s your visual reminder that feminism is nothing if it isn’t intersectional. For more discussion on this topic, here are some excellent resources from Book Riot (a whole list of books!) or articles from Everyday Feminism, Bustle, and Jill of All Trades.

100% of the proceeds from this particular #BLM button are donated directly to the movement.

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