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When I first suggested writing about chocolate gold jewelry, my
colleagues thought I meant chocolate candy shaped into rings, bracelets,
charms, necklaces, etc.; thinking, perhaps, that it was a rather quaint
new Valentine gift idea but never dreaming that I meant the real thing:
brown gold jewelry.
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Spiral
brown gold and diamond earrings, $37,050, from de Grisogono.
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We have yellow gold, white gold, pink gold and
black gold and anodized silver. Why not add brown to the gold lexicon?
Worn with all the wonderful
brown fashions available these days, brown gold also creates a tonal
quality against camel, adds soft contrast to creamy white and gives
the all-black urban style a new dimension. This new combination of fashion
and style is exactly what Fawaz Gruosi imagined several years ago,
after
he established his hold on black diamonds and then, deciding that his
midnight diamonds would look newer against a blackened background,
created a fashion for blackened metal with signature de Grisogono pavéed
gemstones.
Last year, Gruosi launched his “Browny Brown Gold” concept
with watches. The idea fired the imaginations of de Grisogono customers,
and the company immediately added jewelry. Almost every new collection
will include some of these rich chocolate statements. De Grisogono
jewelry always leans toward the bold and flamboyant rather than modest,
and the
browny brown earrings, rings, and watches dazzle with their icings
of yellow diamonds, brown diamonds, yellow sapphires, orange sapphires
and
golden pearls.
Gruosi gets this molten color via a process called PVD
(for physical vaporization and deposition), during which rose gold is
bombarded electronically,
which makes the metal change color and hold that color deeply enough
so that it will not scratch off. |
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Watch
with browned white gold case, brown diamonds, guilloché and
polished brown dial, and a chocolate galuchat strap; $29,500.
Layered earrings with white diamonds and orange and yellow sapphires, $27,100.
Circles earrings of brown gold with 80 white diamonds (totaling 1.8 carats),
$10,650.
All from de Grisogono at 824 Madison Avenue, 212-439-4220. |
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| Recently, another Italian designer, Licia
Mattioli, was inspired to create her Cocoa Collection, in part, because
Turin, where she lives and works, is known for its exquisite chocolates.
The first chocolate candy factory was founded there in the 1800s. Using
the electronic bombardment process to change rose gold to brown, Mattioli
chooses to mix her new brown gold with rose gold elements in her softly
tailored designs that circle the 150-year-old company’s historic
association with exquisite, hand-crafted gold links and chains. “We
always start a collection from a new chain or link,” says Mattioli,” “developing
the pieces by interpreting modern luxury through intriguing, new colors
and materials.” |
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| Chocolate
and rose gold ring accented with diamonds, $1,650; chocolate
and rose gold link necklace, $5,450; both by Mattioli and available
at SoHo Gem stores at 780 Madison Avenue, 212-794-2630 and
at 367 West Broadway, 212-625-3004. |
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| One could develop a taste for these exquisite
Valentine chocolates fairly quickly, and the best part is that this new
eye-candy treat is that, while it could become addictive, it is absolutely
calorie-free. |
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