via Piccsy

I've always been a pearl girl. In college I'd wear my necklace everywhere and with everything. In retrospect I think it looked silly with workout wear, but paired perfectly with a little cardigan or even the oversized Boston College sweatshirt (not mine!) that I coveted. I wore them with my Laura Ashley dresses and skirts, my Bennetton rugby, or little cardigans and jeans. Pearls went with little pumps, my LLBean mocasins and most especially my Tretorns! My style has changed, evolved and grown since those days but I still relish my pearls. I have the same pearls I had in college and many, many more. I am happy to, and love to mix them all up. I love real and faux, large and small... long and short. In my mind, I love to play with them, the more the merrier. They complete an outfit. They can polish off a simple sweater and jeans, they can add pizzaz to a little black dress. I believe you can never have too many. I believe that you can wear them all day, and into the night!

Pearls are the only valuable piece of jewelry that comes neither from an expensive piece of metal or precious stone. Pearls are the result of a biological process - The oyster's way of protecting itself from foreign substances. Oysters are not the only type of mollusk that can produce pearls. Clams and mussels can also produce pearls, but this is much rarer in occurrence. As the oyster grows its shell must grow too. The mantle is an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the oyster's food. Inside the shell lies the nacre which is created by the mantle and lines the inside of the shell. A pearl starts to form when a foreign substance seeps into the oyster, irritating the mantle. It is a completely natural occurance. To simplify, this is much like an oyster getting a splinter! As the oyster naturally protects itself from this foreign matter, the irritant becomes layered by the same substance that is used to create the shell, thus creating what will eventually become a pearl!

Pearls that occur and are harvested naturally are incredibly rare and incredibly expensive, unattainable by most financially. The cultured pearl, however, was then created, making these unique gems less rare and more affordable.

Following is a very condensed history lesson on the cultured pearl that I've shortened and adapted via PBS's Nova.

If you're savvy about the pearl you most likely know of Mikimoto. Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle maker, had a dream and together with his wife, Ume, they set about to do what no one else had done—entice oysters to produce round pearls on demand.

In 1907 Mise received a patent for his grafting needle. When Nishikawa applied for a patent for nucleating, he realized that he and Mise had discovered the same thing. In a compromise, the pair signed an agreement uniting their common discovery as the Mise-Nishikawa method. This remains, today, the premier method of pearl culturing. In 1896 Mikimoto had received a patent for producing hemispherical pearls, or mabes, followed by a 1908 patent for culturing in mantle tissue.

But he could not use the Mise-Nishikawa method without invalidating his own patents. He had to alter his own patents and then created one to cover a technique that would create round pearls. This patent was granted in 1916, and with this Mikimoto created a formula so successfful that he bought the rights to the Mise-Niskikawa method. Those names are now left to be found in history books, while his own remains synonymous with the elegant and cultured pearl.

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Of course when we think of the pearl we immediately think of the iconic photograph Audrey Hepburn in front of the Tiffany & Co. window in the classic, timeless Breakfast at Tiffany's. Yesterday's style-setters and socialites made them popular and wore them with grace and dignity.

Audrey Hepburn Classic Beauty! I love her eye makeup, I love the color of her lips, her flawless makeup, the way the contour of her eye brows frame her eyes, I love her pearls and her tiara, the perfect size of her earrings, the long black gloves and little black dress. Everything looks so effortless but the sum of it all spells classic beauty.

Pearls have become synonymous with preppy fashion and culture.

via The Pink Peonies

via Tumblr

And of course we think of Chanel, who is bringing the pearl back into haute couture with a sophisticated and playful vengeance.

#Chanel Spring/Summer RTW 2013 #Pearls # Details

via Chanel,
Spring/Summer 2013

#Chanel Spring 2013 RTW #Pearls #Details

via Chanel,
Spring/Summer 2013

via Chanel,
Spring/Summer 2013

via Chanel,
Spring/Summer 2013

And, then there are the rest of us... with Chanel tastes and perhaps Target budgets... fear not, pearls can be worn with everything these days. They complete an outfit and bring it to another level.