Real or Fake

I came upon a small jewelry quiz in The New York Times Style Magazine in which one has to tell the difference between real and fake jewelry. I tried the quiz but did not do very well. As I looked at the answers I was surprised to discover the prices of the fake jewelry reached hundreds of dollars. The prices range from $450 to $2,975. The last time I bought costume jewelry I spent $10 and got one bracelet and one necklace.
After getting over my shock I looked closer at who produced the expensive costume jewelry. True, the jewelry came from Tom Binns, vintage Schiaparelli and Balenciaga but I always thought fake implies cheap. Pricey costume jewelry such as that cost a lot for the simple reason that one is buying name not quality.
Why bother spending almost $3,000 on a fake necklace when real stones can be purchased for less. In the 1930s after the stock market crashed costume jewelry became increasingly popular. When clothes are harder to afford or take a back seat to other priorities accessories become important; affordable accessories. In today’s plummeting market consumers are more likely to buy accessories to add variety. At prices like those listed in the magazine the majority of the public will not spend such an extravagant amount of money. Such a fact makes me wonder; how out of touch have designers become with the regular consumer?
~Stephanie

Works Cited
Ball, Joanne Dubbs, Dororthy Hebl Torem. The Art of Fashion Accessories.
Pennsylvania, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1993.
Tonchi, Stefano. The New York Times Style Magazine. Fall 2008.