On September 5th, 2018, luxury jeweler designer Mimi So opened her newest namesake store on Crosby Street in New York City’s Lower East Side.

So’s store is a self-described “urban wonderland.” The space appears as though it was decorated with a light hand: a pair of display cases for jewelry, some inviting plush armchairs near the front of the store, and a vintage park bench sits at the back under a large screen that displays the colorful artwork associated with the Mimi So brand and her signature Wonderland Collection. Every single piece in this minimalist space was not just hand-picked by So herself, but she also infused her unique sensibility for design into it as well.

The store is intended to feel like a comforting space; So wants her clients to come in and feel as though they’re walking into her own home. To that end, So placed items from her actual house (including delicate china and personal affects like a silver hand mirror and children’s books) throughout the display cases to infuse the space with homely touches. The quality of the furniture played a big part in creating that atmosphere for her.

“I am about materials,” she says. “The quality of maple wood, the finest textile embroidery from Italy, reclaimed wood floors. The integrity of a space is of more importance to me than many pieces of lower-quality execution.” This philosophy extends into the creation of her jewelry, as well.

Using high-quality gemstones, fine metals, and top-notch craftsmanship, Mimi So allows the caliber of her pieces to speak to her definition of luxury. More than that, both her jewelry and the new store that they now live in are born from her desire to make manifest her love for the whimsical and for the childhood she spent being exposed to the sights and sounds of New York City.

The Mimi So store is full of surprises, but not just because of the unique jewelry it displays or the one-of-a-kind furniture that decorates it. Its address, 21 Crosby Street, is not exactly a destination for jewelry, but rather a street that is slowly evolving to cater to lovers of art and luxury.

“[Having] Rick Owens across the street [and] Opening Ceremony and luxury hotels as bookends really creates an exciting organic flow of people,” So says. Considering her A-list clientele (from Davie Bowie and Iman to Jennifer Lopez), it’s no surprise that she would choose a location oriented towards luxury, but 21 Crosby Street also lies at a fascinating intersection where it acknowledges both its luxurious future and its gritty, New York City past. That juxtaposition allows for some interesting traffic: she notes that some loyal clients have flown in to see the space while tourists trickle in from the Gucci store down the street and famous artists like Jeffrey Brosk stop by to say hello.

As with her unique pieces, Mimi So has created a space of her own in the heart of the Lower East Side, just blocks away from the street she grew up in. For So, 21 Crosby Street is both a way to bring her brand home and a portal into her inner beautiful, colorful world.

NOW OPEN
Mimi So
21 Crosby Street (between Howard and Grand Street)
New York, NY 10013
212-300-8620

A “push gift” is a present given by the expectant mother’s partner to celebrate the arrival of their newborn, a humble gesture to recognize and thank new moms for carrying the baby for nine months. (Admittedly, the term “push gift” feels rather indelicate for such a well-intentioned present.)

Push gifts in general are on the rise but a growing trend is more expectant and new mothers treating themselves to a gift post-delivery.

So whether it’s for you, your partner, or a loved one, here are our favorite baby gifts for new moms.

Cartier Trinity Collection
The Cartier Trinity Collection features interlocked bands of yellow, white, and rose gold that represent a different tenet of a strong relationship: fidelity, friendship, and love. This sentimental collection carries more emotional weight, as the three bands can also symbolize your new family of three.

Birthstone Jewelry
Commemorate your newborn’s birth month with a piece of jewelry that includes their birthstone. (Check out the complete list of birthstones by month here.) Birthstones are traditionally worn as a pendant necklace, but there is an incredible variety of settings and styles available to customize your look.

Three or More Stone Pendant Necklace
Gemstone pendants are a sweet keepsake and many new mothers like to have a string of pendants with a stone to symbolize each member of the family. Alternatively, opt for layer-friendly delicate necklaces and build upon your collection as your family grows.

Diamond Band
Another popular gift for a new mom is a classic diamond band which is worn with or in lieu of their engagement and wedding band. Alternatively, some modern moms are sporting a diamond band on the ring finger of their right hand instead of stacking the three bands together.

An Elegant Watch
If you’re not one for jewelry, consider a stately timepiece as a gift to yourself. If you want the watch to feel more personal, ask a professional if the watchcase can be engraved with your baby’s initials or birthday.

The primary birthstone for the month of October is a mineraloid that goes by the name of opal.

The Origins and Cultural Significance of Opal

It was believed the word “opal” was adapted from the Latin term opalus, though many modern references suggest it is adapted from the Sanskrit word úpala. 

In the Middle Ages, opal was sometimes considered a stone that provided the wearer with good fortune, good health, and love because it was believed that each gemstone color represented in opal’s spectrum allowed the stone to possess the powers and characteristics of them all. However, opal is also known to have a negative stigma attached to it. For example, there were countries in Europe that feared opals because they believed the stones possessed the “Evil Eye,” largely due to the fact that it looks like the eyes of animals and reptiles such as cats, snakes, and frogs, which were said to be used in spells cast by witches and warlocks.

Despite the negativity surrounding opals, there have been plenty of cultures that have credited the colorful gem with supernatural characteristics and healing powers. The ancient Greeks believed opals protected their owners from illnesses and even allowed them the ability of prophecy. Even some Arabic legends believe that opals had fallen from the heavens during lightning storms. 

Opals, unlike its birthstone predecessor sapphire, are for the most part not found all over the world. Most opals are mined in Australia, Ethiopia, Mexico, and parts of the United States (though smaller deposits have also been found in Brazil, Indonesia, Canada, Turkey, and other countries). In the United States, northern Nevada’s “Virgin Valley” opal fields produce a wide variety of precious fire opal, black opal, white opal, and lemon opal, with the largest producing mines of Virgin Valley being the Rainbow Ridge, Opal Queen, Royal Peacock, Bonanza, and WRT Stonetree/Black Beauty mines. 

Notable Opals

The largest and most valuable opal found to date is the Olympic Australis, found in 1956 at what is known as the “Eight Mile” opal field in the outback opal gemstone mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. Weighing roughly 17,250 carats, the Olympic Australis was named for the Olympic games which were held in Melbourne, Australia the same year the stone was discovered. Valued at $2,500,000 AUD, the gem currently resides in Sydney, at the offices of Altmann & Cherny Ltd.

The Properties and Hardness of Opals

Coming in at a 5.5 to 6 rating on the Mohs hardness scale, opal is much softer than many of the other birthstone gems and should be worn sporadically and stored carefully to avoid being damaged by other gems or jewelry.

Because of its colorful characteristics and wide array of prismatic displays of varying hues, opal can look appealing whether it is set in white, yellow, or rose-colored metals. Oval shaped opals are often seen as jewelry centerpieces surrounded by a halo of white diamonds, but Boulder opals and black opals in funky shapes look just as inviting set into high carat yellow gold and enhanced with colored gemstones that are reflected in the opals, themselves. 

The Love Bracelet is Cartier’s signature jewelry design and arguably the most popular piece in Cartier’s vast collection.

The Love Bracelet’s distinctive design features perfectly spaced screws. This unique detail was inspired by the medieval chastity belt folklore and is meant to symbolize devotion and faithfulness. In turn, the Love Bracelet includes a screwdriver so only your significant other can “unlock” the bracelet.

While you may be very familiar with this iconic bracelet, you may be a little nervous when it comes to screwing it open and closed the first few times. Here’s a video tutorial to show you how to easily lock your Cartier Love Bracelet and the thinner new Cartier Love Bracelet, Small. Plus the video shows how to pull open and push closed your Cartier Juste un Clou!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5QuW_oSbU

How to Lock Closed Your Cartier Love Bracelet, Size Small
1.Put the two halves of your Cartier Love Bracelet, Small around your wrist.
2. With the provided Cartier Screwdriver, turn the screw at the closure one half turn counter-clockwise. Once the screw matches the other rivets, the bracelet is locked.

How to Lock Closed Your Cartier Love Bracelet
1. Put the two halves of your Cartier Love Bracelet around your wrist.
2. Use the provided Cartier Screwdriver to turn the screw the screw roughly two full turns clockwise.
3. The rivet of the locked screw does not need to match the other rivets in order to be locked.

How to Put On and Take Off Your Cartier Juste un Clou Bracelet
1. To wear your bracelet, simply snap the bracelet shut.
2. To remove your Juste un Clou, lightly press on the release mechanism on the underside of the bracelet to open it.

To learn more about how to spot a fake versus real Cartier Love bracelet, check out our post here.

If you’re shopping for an engagement ring, the very first question any jeweler will ask you is, “What is your budget?”

While this may strike you as a very forward question, it’s posed to help the jeweler focus your engagement ring search. While jewelers will begin with budget and then pin down the style, most couples shopping for rings know the design they want but haven’t considered exactly how much they want to spend.

How Much Should I Spend on an Engagement Ring?
There is an incredibly antiquated calculation that you should spend three months’ salary on your engagement ring. By today’s standards, that means Americans earning the median household income of $56,616 would spend over $14,000 on an engagement ring! That said, in 2017, Americans spent, on average, $6,351 on an engagement ring—so clearly few couples are abiding by that dated adage.

So how much should you really spend?

You should only spend what you can comfortably afford on an engagement ring. Truth be told, your wedding day is going to be a major expense—a worthwhile one, of course—but likely to take out a big chunk from your savings. Start your life together on the right foot and budget responsibly when it comes to your engagement ring.

3 Ways to Save on an Engagement Ring—Without Compromising on Style or Diamond Size
If you still want an impressively-sized ring that won’t immediately deplete your wedding budget, here are three ways to save on an engagement ring.

1. Consider a “very slightly included” diamond.
Lots of couples think that they need the highest quality diamond in order to have a beautiful engagement ring. Flawless (FL) or Internally Flawless (IF) diamonds, as their rating names suggest, do not have any inclusions visible under 10x magnification, let alone to the naked eye. FL- or IF-graded diamonds are very rare and therefore very expensive.

In reality, all diamonds are slightly imperfect. So you can make your budget go further if you look at diamonds graded as Very Slightly Included (VS) or Slightly Included (SI). Considered the diamonds with the best value, VS or SI diamonds have inclusions that are visible under 10x magnification but not the naked eye. Therefore, on the hand, SI or VS diamonds will look stunning and flawless!

2. Add a halo around your center stone.
A halo is the row of pavé or micro diamonds that frames your center stone. This detail was particularly popular during the Art Deco era and gives a ring a cool, vintage-inspired flair.

Adding a halo is also a clever way to make your center stone appear bigger without taking a bite out of your budget. Because a halo is made up of lots of small diamonds, they’re a fraction of the cost of a single diamond of the same total carat weight. But, visually, this detail will add more sparkle and pump up the size of your overall ring design to give it more oomph!

3. Shop pre-owned engagement rings.
First off, let’s table the idea that pre-owned engagement rings are haunted by the doomed relationships of its past. The truth is, most diamonds in even new engagement rings are recycled from other engagement rings, retired designs, or estate jewelry.

That said, you stand to save a lot of money if you opt for an engagement ring that is pre-owned. The retail price on engagement rings is significantly marked up—and depreciates the moment you step out of the store, just like a new car driven off the parking lot. You can not only bypass but also benefit from that drop-off if you shop pre-owned jewelry. The quality is exactly the same; the only difference is the price!

For more on why you should shop pre-owned engagement rings, check out our post here.

The Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry and a strong predictor of who will take home the equally illustrious Academy Awards’ Oscar. Here we take a look at how the design of the award has evolved over the years into the Palme d’Or’s distinct modern design, created by Chopard.

The Early Palme d’Or Award Design
The Cannes Film Festival began in 1946. Initially, winners received a “Grand Prix” in lieu of the traditional awards statue or plaque we know of today. The Grand Prix was a piece of modern art, designed by a rotating contemporary artist.

In 1954, the film festival’s directors put out a bid to several jewelry designers, asking for award submissions that prominently featured a palm frond, a reference to the city of Cannes’s coat of arms and the tropical palm trees that line the Promenade de la Croisette, where the film festival is held. Ultimately, jeweler Lucienne Lazon’s design—which featured a palm frond set in a terracotta base—beat out the competition. Lazon’s Palme d’Or design was used until 1964 when the film festival temporarily resumed awarding a Grand Prix.

The Palme d’Or award design was reintroduced in 1975 and, by 1984, had a noticeably modified shape; the base of the award went from a rounded triangle to a severe pyramid. In 1902, French jeweler Thierry de Bourqueney further modernized the Palme d’Or’s design, swapping out the terracotta base for a hand-cut crystal pedestal.

Chopard’s Inspiration for the Modern Palme d’Or
Chopard’s co-president and creative director, Caroline Scheufele, designed the current Palme d’Or in 1997, after admiring the former design in the office of Pierre Viot, who was then the director of the film festival. Viot invited Scheufele to refresh the Palme d’Or and Scheufele, a film lover herself, enthusiastically threw herself into the project.

Preserving the award’s symbolic palm frond motif, Scheufele and the Chopard atelier sculpted a new frond with more movement, “as if [the leaflets were being] ruffled by a gentle breeze,” and a stem that subtly forms a heart at the base. The modern frond is made of 125 grams (or more than a quarter pound) of 18-carat fair-mined gold. 

The most significant change Scheufele made was to the pyramid-shaped crystal base. She scrapped that rigid form in favor of a crystal, hand-cut in the vein of an emerald-cut diamond. Each crystal is unique and, in its raw form, weighs roughly seven pounds.

It takes Chopard’s seven craftsmen roughly 40 hours to complete a single Palme d’Or award.

2017 Palme d’Or Design
To celebrate the Cannes Film Festival’s 70th anniversary, Chopard upped the ante of its now signature Palme d’Or design. Chopard’s artisans gave the crystal base a “frosted” effect and added 167 diamonds to the leaflets of the frond to give it an extra dose of glamorous sparkle. True to Chopard’s standards, the gold used was 100% fair-mined and the diamonds were responsibly sourced through an ethical supplier, certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council.

This elevated take on Caroline Scheufele’s Palme d’Or award design is a spectacular tribute to the history of the Cannes Film Festival, the inspiring region, and Chopard’s premier craftsmanship.

Longines has a fascinating history that is intertwined with some of the world’s most significant Arctic explorations, Antarctic scientific research, and aviation breakthroughs. We review three adventurers who chose and relied upon Longines’ precision instruments as a crucial part of their expeditions’ equipment list.

Explorer Prince Luigi Amedeo’s 1899 Arctic Exploration

As early as the 1500s and through the 19th century, scores of explorers ventured into the vast and unforgiving Arctic wilderness hoping to leave their mark in history by reaching the North Pole or navigating the Northwest Passage that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In 1899, Spain’s Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke D’Abruzzi, already an accomplished mountaineer and explorer and the first to ascend Mount St. Elias in Alaska in 1897, organized an expedition to the North Pole. Amedeo’s crew of 20 men boarded their 570-ton steam whaler ship, the Stella Polare (Pole Star), and among Amedeo’s personal gear was a Longines watch, specially furnished by the brand.

After camping on Rudolf Island, the northernmost Russian island of an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, Amedeo’s team rode dogsleds to reach a latitude of 86° 34′ on April 25th, 1899, setting a new record in North Pole exploration. Unfortunately, Amedeo himself had to remain behind after losing two fingers to frostbite, therefore rendering him unable to hold the reins of his dogsled.

This ultimately did not hinder his exploration career. Amedeo went on to summit peaks in Uganda’s Rwenzori Range, scale the mountain K2, and set a world altitude record in his attempt to climb Chogolisa mountain in Pakistan.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh and Longines’ Navigational instruments
After his historic non-stop solo flight from Long Island, New York to France, across the Atlantic in 1927, pilot Charles Lindbergh was an international star of unprecedented and epic proportions. The 25-year-old aviator was celebrated around the globe with city-wide parades. Virtually every newspaper headline shouted his name. Even a commemorative US postage stamp bearing his name and a picture of his plane was released.

In 1931, Lindbergh designed a navigational instrument that—when used with a nautical almanac and a sextant (which measures the angular distances between objects)—could help aviators calculate their latitudinal and longitudinal positioning and therefore their exact geographic location.

In the 1930s, Lindbergh’s celebrity status had hardly waned and, given his hero’s status in the world of aviation, he could have collaborated with virtually any watchmaker to realize his specially-designed aviation equipment. Lindbergh selected Longines as his collaborator on the Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch.

By this time Longines had established itself as an innovator and developer of highly accurate and reliable navigation instruments. Longines had, in fact, been the World Air Sports Federation at the time of Lindbergh’s celebrated flight and, therefore, were responsible for timing and recording Lindbergh’s flight time in the history books. In 1927, Longines worked with US Navy officer Philip Van Horn Weems to develop a series of navigational devices to synchronize the second hand with a GMT signal, essential for accurate navigation. This patent set the foundation for Longines’ work with Lindbergh and ultimately helped the watchmaker and the aviator create the Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch.

Scientist Paul-Emile Victor’s Expéditions Polaires Françaises
In 1947, French ethnologist and explorer Paul-Emile Victor was commissioned by the French government to study Antarctica and the Adélie Coast and the Arctic and Greenland. Victor organized a robust team of scientists including geologists, meteorologists, biologists, physicists, and geographers and founded the Expéditions Polaires Françaises (French Polar Expeditions). This scientific collective set up polar study camps to understand the fragile relationship between the oceans and atmosphere.

Working in these inhospitable regions required a lot of equipment, including several tractors, a mobile weather station, two Dakota propeller airplanes, and seven amphibious vehicles. Counted among the 30 trucks’ worth of supplies, were four Longines chronometer (set to both civil and sidereal time, the time adjusted for the motion of the Earth and relative to the stars instead of the sun) and fifteen Longines stainless steel wristwatches.

This equipment was crucial for the scientists to determine their astronomical position and make precise geodesic calculations. As a part of Victor’s French Polar Expeditions that lasted from 1947 to 1976, the Longines-issued equipment traveled to both the North and the South Poles and was an integral part of the team’s research equipment.

In 2011, Longines re-issued a modern interpretation of Paul-Emile Victor’s Longines wristwatch as a tribute to the accomplished scientist’s work. The commemorative watch (appropriately named the Expéditions Polaires Françaises – Missions Paul-Emile Victor) is a faithful reproduction of the Longines watch Victor wore himself.

As of July 2018, Chopard has been using 100% ethical gold in the creation of its fine jewelry. Such a major jewelry brand committing to using only ethically sourced gold has made waves in the industry and might even portend a more environmentally-friendly future for watch and jewelry brands. We’re taking a look behind what all of this means for Chopard, the jewelry industry, and for jewelry shoppers.

What is 100% ethical gold? Is there unethical gold?

First of all, yes, there is unethical gold, or “dirty gold”. In fact, very few methods of sourcing gold can actually be considered ethical. Unethical gold refers to gold that is sourced from mines whose workers are subject to inhumane and dangerous working conditions. It can also refer to gold whose origins are unknown, and, since it cannot definitively be classified as ethical, it ends up falling under the umbrella of unethical.

According to Chopard’s Ethical Gold Manifesto, the brand classifies 100% ethical gold as that which is “responsibly sourced from one of two traceable routes”: it will either use freshly mined gold from small-scale mines that participate in the Swiss Better Gold Association and in Fairmined’s or Fairtrade’s programs, or it will recycle gold from the RJC Chain of Custody. Simply put, the onlygold that Chopard will be using is either sourced from mines that meet international best practice and social standards or is recycled from refineries that also source from ethical mines.

Is there a difference in quality or in price between ethical gold and unethical gold?

While jewelers like Chopard have to pay premiums to Fairmined or Fairtrade that go towards ensuring fair living conditions and work environments for the miners, it often falls on the brand to adjust by reducing overhead costs internally. According to theFinancial Times, “A 7g 14-karat wedding band in Fairtrade gold costs £14 (about $18) more at purchasing price than a non-Fairtrade one.” So, because brands themselves are re-allocating their funds internally rather than just inflating the purchase price of their products, the customers won’t feel much of a difference in cost.

As for the quality of the gold, these fair mining associations use the London Bullion Market Exchange standard for the metals that are used and traded by the largest banks in the world: the London Bullion Market Association’s list of members spans 148 companies in 24 countries and includes financial giants Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

Their standards for gold dictate that “the minimum acceptable fineness is 995.0 parts per thousand fine gold, with fineness determined to four significant digits.” As 100% pure gold is not technically or economically feasible, Fairmined and other fair mining associations use this to grade their gold. In other words, because these organizations use the same stringent standards as other gold sourcing companies do, the quality of the metal will not be affected.

Why does it matter that Chopard is doing this? Aren’t there smaller brands doing the same thing?

While there are smaller independent brands that only use ethically-sourced metals, Chopard’s commitment to ethical gold is groundbreaking because it’s a heritage brand—in fact, it’s the first out of all the major maisons to make such a change. And not only did Chopard commit to using 100% ethical gold and paying the extra $2,000 per kilogram of gold, but it also funneled an incredible amount of resources into helping more small-scale mines achieve Fairmined certification by providing “training, new processing plants, and social and environmental support.”

That Chopard is leading the charge towards achieving sustainable luxury means that other major maisons will be more likely to follow in the brand’s footsteps and change how they source and produce their fine jewelry and watches as well. This move will hopefully portend a significant change in the jewelry industry and lead to the dissolution of mines that still use inhumane and dangerous practices, eventually making it so that the metal mining industry is operating entirely inside a sustainable and more socially- and environmentally-friendly system.

This is especially important as most modern mining practices involve using mercury to find the metals, and after use, the mercury is discarded into waterways or burned away so that it pollutes the air. Gold mining, in general, is terrible for the environment, as tons worth of rock is laid to waste for just a few grams of the metal, leading to huge craters and quarries that are disruptive to the natural formation of the land, which can cause landslides and droughts. The industry has also been accused of “encroaching upon protected land—especially that of indigenous peoples—and disrupting local communities.”

As such, that Chopard is moving so completely towards using ethical and recycled gold is a good sign that this industry is finally doing its part to create a better, brighter world.