Difference between jewelry and costume jewelry.
Can we draw an unmistakable line between jewellery and costume jewellery?
It is symptomatic when we present jewellery that if we call it “jewellery” some people will consider it to be costume jewellery and if we call it “costume jewellery” other people are surprised and expect very poor quality jewellery at 5 or 10 €. So, when it comes to costume jewellery, can we talk about cheap jewellery or do we need to make a different differentiation? We will try to answer the following questions: What is the difference between a jewel and a costume jewel? Is there a true definition of costume jewellery?
Is the difference between jewellery and costume jewellery a matter of price, costume jewellery is cheap, real jewellery is expensive?
If this was the difference between a piece of jewelry and a piece of costume jewelry, where would you draw the line? If we take the extremes no problem, we would have difficulty calling a Van Cleef and Arpels® gold and diamond set a costume jewel, and conversely who would call a piece of jewelry a vulgar Asian industrial production at 1.60 € as found on Ebay or Amazon. But what about jewelry between 50 and 100€. If we look carefully at what jewels we find in these prices, we can find jewels like those of AVARE in silver 925 gold-plated or rhodium, resulting from an undeniable work of creation and stylist. We also find between 50 and 100 € of completely industrial jewels sold by big brands like Cerruti® or Lacoste® and many others, jewels without any noble material (steel, leather, industrial ceramics…) and without originality of creation. As we can see, price is not an element of differentiation.
The design, a fancy jewel has an extravagant design, a jewel is classic ?
Difference between jewelry and costume jewelry:
Pingtipong enamel and resin costume jewellery
Extravagant fancy jewel in simple metal
Extravagant high quality silver and Swarovski® crystal jewellery by OSTROWSKI Design
Again, extravagance could be one of the differences between jewellery and costume jewellery but the reality check shows that this is a misconception. The great Parisian jewellers have their collections full of extravagant jewels.
Do the materials allow to differentiate the jewel from the costume jewel?
In principle, a gold or diamond jewel cannot be a costume jewel, and conversely a simple metal jewel can only be a costume jewel. As with the previous points, there is indeed a grey area when it comes to silver or semi-precious material jewellery.
Rhodium silver “feathers” earrings by Olivier LAFOND
Butterfly Earrings in silver with Swarovski crystals from SPARK
Gold and silver plated earrings by Olivier LAFOND
The definition of jewellery and costume jewellery
Wikipedia differentiates between unique and handcrafted jewellery and costume jewellery made industrially from materials such as mother-of-pearl, plastic… But then how to classify jewellery made of mother-of-pearl or plastic by hand? Like for example those of “La petite Sardine” which are in mother-of-pearl and handmade?
And conversely how to classify jewels made of silver, gold plated in a totally industrial way as for example the classical medals and crosses?
So, can you really tell the difference between jewellery and costume jewellery?
We see it, whatever the criterion which we use to classify and differentiate the jewels from the costume jewels, that it is the price, the design, the material or the artisanal or industrial production, each time, the extremes are easy to classify but there remains in the middle a zone of vagueness or it is difficult to say if we must speak about jewels or costume jewels. We can say that some jewels are “low-end” without this being pejorative, or that they are “high-end costume jewels” and in both cases we find the same jewels generally handmade with a value of 30 to 100 € and in beautiful materials. There is therefore no precise boundary between jewellery and costume jewellery, and one must in any case beware of making a hasty judgment.
Spark®, Kelim Design®, L by L’AVARE® are registered trademarks
Also to be read
This article was published by the PINGTIPONG Bijoux team.
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- When can we talk about cheap jewelry?
- How can you tell the difference between jewellery and costume jewellery?
