Jewellery Love Affair: Why We Love It

It’s easier than it has ever been to buy jewellery. It’s everywhere. From the high-end boutique jewellery stores with the prices that make you want to wince, to the supermarket you shop for groceries at. No longer is jewellery the reserve of those with more money to spend than most of us will ever make in a lifetime. It’s accessible to all and we all have a jewellery love affair going on.

There’s no doubt that there is a huge benefit to accessible jewellery. We can change jewellery depending on our outfit almost without limit. Jewellery trends come and go just the same way that general fashion ones do. It’s a whole industry in and of itself, and the affordability means most of us have drawers overflowing with as many costume pieces and accessories as we can find. When it only costs a couple of dollars online, the need for more expensive jewellery could be considered to be greatly diminished.

Yet somehow, we still have that love affair with expensive jewellery – and not just in terms of the items we choose to last a lifetime, such as our wedding ring. There is something about a high-ticket piece of jewellery that can flutter the heart, stir excitement, and finish off an outfit unlike anything else. Why, in a world where jewellery is literally at our fingertips at every turn, is it such an enduring passion for many of us?

The Reasons Behind Our Jewellery Love Affair

Value has more than one meaning

When it comes to disposable jewellery that we wear once and then forget about, there is very little sentimental attachment. There is very little time for much sentimental attachment. When earrings cost so little, there’s nothing to stop you just taking them off when you please and dropping them onto the nearest available surface.

With more expensive pieces, we’re far less likely to just take it off and discard it. We’re going to keep ahold of it because of the purchase price. That means we’re likely to hold onto it for longer, and soon, that fancy pink diamond that we bought because we liked it, becomes something we love. It begins our jewellery love affair.

We imbue it with experiences, times we wore the piece, the good experiences involved – and our sentimental attachment deepens every time that we wear it.

It’s just… better

We live in a world of dupes, copy cats and outright rip-offs – but jewellery? Jewellery is not so easily faked. Most of us have dabbled with cheap jewellery, unable to resist the lure of the cubic zirconia even when we know it doesn’t really look like diamonds. Many of us have paid the price, from catches that break the first time we try to use them through to the unfortunate green staining of bad gold plate.

Jewellery is one of those things in life where sometimes you just have to pay more to get something worth having. Replicas and cheaper versions might look good in a still photograph, but the moment you see them more or if they catch the light a certain way, their lack of provenance is obvious. The real thing – with the price tag to make you wince – is always going to look better, wear better, and mean more.