The cabinetNecklaces
The length comesbefore the pattern.
A necklace is named for where it sits: collar at the collarbone, princess just below it, rope down the chest. The length decides how the piece wears. The gold, 21 or 22 carat, decides what it holds.
Collar, princess,and the long rope.
The collars are the big pieces: wide, closely worked, made to be seen from across a hall. That is the necklace a bridal set is built around, and the one that comes out for the serious nights.
The princess length does the everyday work. It sits under a collar without arguing with it, and it is the length a pendant hangs from. The rope is bought long and worn as the day demands: on its own, doubled, or laid over the shorter two. Layered lengths sit right when they are chosen together, one held against the other at the counter, not guessed at home.
After a plain length by the gram rather than a worked piece? That is a chain, and chains have a page of their own.
- Collar
- Rides high, on the collarbone itself. The wide, worked length — the piece a bridal set is built around.
- Princess
- Falls just below the collarbone. The everyday length, and the one that carries a pendant.
- Rope
- Reaches the chest and beyond. Worn long, doubled at the neck, or layered over the other two.
The collar, worn
Photograph: a wide worked collar at the collarbone, head turned away, one warm light from the side.
In a set, the necklace leads. Every other piece is made to answer it.
The earrings that follow
A collar rarely leaves the counter alone. The earrings that go with it repeat its border at the ear, cut smaller, and the pair is chosen while the necklace is still on the tray. Bought together, the two read as one decision. How a full set is matched and held →
Answering an heirloom
Some necklaces have to sit beside a piece the family already owns. Bring it in, or bring a photograph. New work is quoted by weight first, then made to carry the older pattern in the same carat. How a custom order works →
Where the necklace leads
The earrings that answer it, the pendants that hang from it, and the set that starts with one.
Lengths are settledat the neck.
Not from a chart. Come in and hold a collar and a rope against you. The right length settles itself, and we will weigh whichever wins.
364-378 Prospect Road, Kilburn SA 5084
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30am – 6pm