Viola Davis in Lorraine Schwartz

Emerald earrings are a popular choice for the Oscars. Angelina Jolie’s 2009 Oscar earrings are the most memorable example. The reason that the Lorraine Schwartz earrings that Viola Davis wore to the Oscars this year stood out was the incredible detail. While the color looked great on television, particularly with her emerald green Vera Wang dress, the detail of diamond pave filigree covering the gems made them even more interesting in photos. They are not just lovely gems in a classic mounting, they have the kind of intricate craftsmanship that makes them works of artistry as well. Viola also wore a lovely wide Lorraine Schwartz diamond cuff.

Gwyneth Paltrow in Anna Hu

A vision in sleek modern white, Gwyneth Paltrow paired her superhero cape with a cuff that puts Wonder Woman to shame. Inspired by the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, the cuff is set with  2,368 icy D VVS quality diamonds: 163 carats in total. The ring next to the cuff was almost as striking. In a night where many stars appeared to be wearing mom’s diamonds it was breathtakingly fresh.

Busy Philipps in Irene Neuwirth

Irene Neuwirth always rocks but the earrings that Busy Philipps wore last night are exceptional, even for her: shoulder-grazing boulder opal in vermillion and cerulean (they seem to demand more than blue-green, no?) Totally one of a kind. Organic in shape and undeniable in impact, they were the most-coveted jewel of the night.

Tina Fey in Bulgari

Although chandelier earrings were a popular look on this year’s red carpet, no one wore them better than Tina Fey. Her sapphire and emerald chandeliers by Bulgari were the perfect complement to her navy dress. The color was very flattering, matching the dress from afar, and showing bright highlights of contrasting emerald up close. Lovely.

For more beautiful red carpet gems, see my Oscar Jewelry board on Pinterest.

So which look was best? Julianne Moore’s emerald earrings were spectacular but a bit too reminiscent of Natalie Portman’s Tiffany earrings at last year’s Oscars. Kate Beckinsale’s mesh earrings are gorgeous but are Lorraine Schwartz from more than five years ago: Beyonce has worn this look many times.

Debra Messing and Julianna Margulies in new Lorraine Schwartz styles are strong contenders, with sophisticated color: both combining lavender and green. But as I watched Octavia Spencer give her acceptance speech, earrings and rings flashing, I couldn’t help admire how her jewelry complemented her and her dress without demanding all our attention. And realized how much I wanted those earrings! That makes this ensemble the best for me.  But here are the top-reviewed looks. What do you think?

Debra Messing in amethyst, emerald and blackened platinum earrings by Lorraine Schwartz

Julianna Margulies in carved jadeite earrings by Lorraine Schwartz

Julianne Moore in emerald tassel earrings by Fred Leighton

Kate Beckinsale in draped diamond mesh earrings by Lorraine Schwartz

Octavia Spencer in spectacularly oversized rainbow moonstone earrings and rings by Irene Neuwirth

Charlize Theron in diamond headband and brooch by Cartier

Heidi Klum in a turquoise and diamond necklace by Lorraine Schwartz

Frieda Pinto in a dramatic bib necklace by Chopard

Tilda Swinton in vintage bracelets by Fred Leighton

Carey Mulligan: Fred Leighton Earrings

The most dramatic jewelry look of the 2010 Oscars, these beautiful diamond chandelier earrings are bold in scale but delicately detailed. This look is a textbook example of how to accessorize a strapless black dress. Although chandeliers are more often worn with long locks, these earrings make Carey’s pixie haircut look sophisticated and red-carpet glamorous.

Amanda Seyfried: Lorraine Schwartz Bracelets
There are bracelets and then there are bracelets.  Amanda Seyfried’s chic stack of boldly patterned Lorraine Schwartz bracelets are lavish and funky at the same time.  Lavish because they are set with hundreds of carats of fancy colored diamonds in each of the three bracelets: any one of the three would have been red-carpet worthy. Funky because the colors of the diamonds are carmel brown, cream, and mint green, colors more more often seen in ice cream than in red carpet diamond jewelry. Let’s face it, her dress is a bit Disney princess (although better than the similar style worn by J-Lo) but those fabulous bracelets keep it young and hip.

Kate Winslet: Tiffany & Co Necklace
The only serious museum quality jewelry of the night, Kate Winslet’s $2.5 million fancy-yellow diamond necklace isn’t at all over the top, despite the price tag. The exquisite necklace, which was made just for the occasion, has an Art-Deco timelessness. The three sizable fancy-yellow diamonds are set in platinum paved with colorless diamonds. (Winslet accessorized with 10-carat fancy yellow earrings and a fancy yellow bracelet too.) This sounds like too much but the necklace does exactly what jewelry is supposed to do: accent the woman, not call attention to itself.  It is restrained, elegant and tasteful and the perfect complement to the gown, which would have been boring without it.

Miley Cyrus: Lorraine Schwartz Earrings
When you are wearing something that looks like you forgot to actually put your dress on over your skin-tone slip, you’d better accessorize with some really interesting jewelry to fend off the fashion police.  Miley Cyrus saves her red carpet look with fabulous earrings and cuff by Lorraine Schwartz.  Although the cuff with its interesting corset detailing is a witty comment on the style of her dress, the earrings are even better. Each ear has a lavish pansy with a ruby in the center, suspended from delicately adorned chain from a pave button.  Feminine and drop-dead gorgeous, they also made Miley look almost sophisticated, despite the Tammy Faye fake eyelashes.

Nicole Richie: Lorraine Schwartz Ring
Say what you wish about Nicole Richie’s striped dress, one look at her hand explains it.  Surely she fould that fabulous Lorraine Schwartz ring first and told her stylist to find something that would go with it?  More than 100 carats of fancy-colored diamonds in interesting shades of black, gray and brown: how cool is that?  Schwartz shows why she is the go-to jeweler for those who don’t want their mother’s diamonds.

The big winner at the Grammy Awards this year wasn’t Taylor Swift: it was the sleek new earring silhouette that the star wore on the red carpet: the drop.

Unlike chandeliers, which have a wedding cake of pivoting tiers, the drop has just one pendant dropping from the ear. The most popular shape for the drop is a pear shape, either right below the ear or suspended from a longer drop.

The Diamond Information Center is calling these “diamond pendant earrings.”It makes sense: they do resemble pendants. Smart designers are going to make these styles detachable so they can be work as pendants too. Sadly it’s much harder to go the other way: if I only had two of each of my pendants I’d be set for earrings for the next year!

This trend began at the Oscars last year. Angelina Jolie’s drop dead pear-shaped emerald drops by Lorraine Schwartz had 115 carats of emeralds.Julianne Moore followed suit with huge Bulgari pear-shaped emerald drops, featuring a 50+carat gem on each ear at the Golden Globes in January.Courtney Cox black sapphire and diamond drops were only slightly smaller.

But if this tasteful new earring was a big hit at the Grammy’s, with a grand tradition of tacky bling, it’s really official. The drop is the new chandelier.

Rings by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for Asprey

Sinuous and stylish, snakes have always inspired jewelry designers. Gold snake bracelets and rings  at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that were the hot look in 300 BC would be just as fashionable today.

But 2010 may go down in jewelry history as the year of the snake thanks to the new “Protection” collection of snake jewelry designed by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for Asprey. (Asprey says the designs were inspired by Angelina’s reflection on the snake as an “iconic guardian, a cultural symbol of family protection.”)  The new collection benefits a good cause too: the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.

Jolie isn’t the only star wearing snakes on the red carpet lately. Shakira also donned snake earrings at the recent American Music Awards. Emily Blunt has been seen recently in a snake bracelet. Everywhere you look, gold and silver serpents spiral around wrists and fingers.

So with so many snake designs, how does the jewelry by the world’s hottest couple stack up? Judge for yourself by ranking the serpentine styles in our very own design Snakedown!

Shakira in snake-inspired diamond earrings

Zorab ruby and black diamond ring

Le Vian diamond and blue sapphire bracelet

Stephen Webster Queen Cobra ring in blackened sterling and sugilite

Erica Courtney platinum and diamond earrings

Lena Sklyut 18k gold and garnet ring

ZDNY fancy colored diamond ring

Sarah Jannerbo bracelet in 18k gold with rubies

Tracey Mayer Viper cuff in sterling silver

Christina Ricci doesn’t always get it right. But this week, she followed an appearance in dazzling diamond chandeliers from Bulgari with the week’s best jewelry.  The petite star wore an ice-blue form-fitting satin dress to the launch of the Prada book party. Instead of echoing the pale tone of the dress in her jewelry, she added a dramatic dimensional brooch set with gold gems and loops of diamonds against black. And then she added beautiful classic deep blue sapphire and diamond drop earrings.  The ensemble wouldn’t have been out of place on Mad Men but for the unconventional palette and scale of the brooch.  Classic jewels yes, but somehow modern too.

 

Christina Ricci in diamond chandelier earrings

Fashion keeps trying to drive a stake through the trend, but the dramatic tiered dangle earrings known as chandeliers return every night at sunset. Although officially replaced as the “it” accessory by the statement necklace, chandeliers are still a celebrity staple. That’s because stars dressing for the red carpet know these sexy earring styles flatter them most.

Although in the past, chandeliers were often worn with the hair down, the choice today is most often a loose updo. They are the perfect foil for a strapless dress and even work with styles with shine, sequins or beaded embroidery. 

The latest chandelier styles incorporate pear-shaped, often colorful, gemstones. But, as Christina Ricci proves above, diamonds are dazzling too.

Evan Rachel Wood in chandelier earrings

Emily Blunt in chandelier earrings

Emmy Rossum in a nature-inspired style

Cameron Diaz in gold

Statement necklaces are (finally!) starting to show up on the red carpet. Cameron Diaz wore a lovely multistrand gold necklace to the premiere of The Box. The yellow gold is the perfect foil to her structured navy dress. You can get the look with the Marco Bicego Cairo necklace, which has slightly thinner strands. It’s a classic that you can wear forever. (And, having tried it on, I can report that it’s very supple: feels great on your neck!)  And isn’t this a nicer way to join the gold rush than having a gold bar in your safe?  You can always cash out.  Just not with these people, please.

Marco Bicego Cairo Necklace

Jennifer Lopez at the This Is It premiere in Los Angeles

How hot is blackened metal? Just take a look at the diamond hoops Jennifer Lopez wore to the Los Angeles premiere of This Is It. You can’t miss them: they are bangle-size. And the huge hoops are even more dramatic thanks to the blackened gold of the setting.

Cuff worn by Jennifer Lopez

JLo also wore an armful of bracelets on both wrists. On her right, a stack of dragon link bracelets.  On her left, an unusual corset style cuff, laced with silver chain with a black bar underneath the arm layered with yet another link bracelet.  The corset cuff also had a dangling black piece on a chain. I’ve never seen anything exactly like it so I’m afraid I can’t give you the designer. Lopez often wears Lorraine Schwartz who may have made the earrings and link bracelets but probably not the corset cuff.

The hoops were stunning and her makeup perfection. And she seemed to effortlessly walk the line between funeral and premiere that this event required. (Almost everyone wore black but some looked a bit too goth.) But the bracelets with the sequined dress might have been too much. What do you think? Too many bracelets? Too many metal colors? Hoops too big to be comfortable (one twisted around in the wind on the red carpet.)  Or just right?

Jennifer Lopez adjusts her earring, showing off that corset cuff

Blake Lively in diamonds by Lorraine Schwartz at the 2009 Emmy Awards

With most stars going strapless or one-shouldered this year at the 61st Emmy Awards, you would think we’d see a lot of fabulous statement necklaces, just like on the runways of fashion week. But necks, for the most part, stayed as bare as those shoulders. The top Emmy jewelry trend this year is, once again, cuff bracelets.

Fabulous cuffs on display included Debra Messing’s yellow diamond cuff by Lorraine Schwartz and Leighton Meester’s two cuffs by Cathy Waterman.
Both of these examples are set in yellow gold, another strong trend on the Emmy red carpet. Stars warming up in yellow gold include Chloe Sevigny in dotted black and white and Jenna Fischer in strapless black. Sandra Oh, who wore Tacori earrings, and Jamie Lynn Sigler went even further, wearing metallic gold dresses with their gold jewelry.

Unlike at the MTV VMAs, where hoops were hot, at the Emmys no single earring silhouette prevailed. Heidi Klum rocked her ninth-month silhouette in a curvy Marchesa black strapless gown and chic tasseled Lorraine Schwartz knotted black diamond earrings. Kim Kardashian wore hoops, Drew Barrymore wore pearl studs, and Blake Lively wore diamond studs as large as her neckline was low.

There were more colored gemstones than usual: garnets on Padma Lakshmi, rubies on Mariska Hargitay, blue sapphires on Christina Applegate, green tourmalines on Leighton Meester, citrines on Jenna Fischer, amethysts on Joely Fisher, emeralds on Sigourney Weaver, and chrysoprase on Joanna Newsom.

One trend from the runway did make it to the red carpet. Several dresses played with transparency, notably January Jones’ Versace style with a glassed bodice. Jewelry played with transparency two, with some styles set with rock crystal. The best: Ginnifer Goodwin’s rock crystal necklace by Ivanka Trump, and Blake Lively’s rock crystal and diamond cuff by Lorraine Schwartz.

Emmy cuff bracelets: Blake Lively, left, and Debra Messing, right

Golden details: from left, Chloe Sevigny, Leighton Meester, and Heidi Klum

More on the Emmy Awards:
The Daily Jewel: Diamond Information Center’s jewelry credit list
People magazine’s Emmy photo gallery: click for close-up views of jewelry
Cindy Edelstein’s Emmy jewelry credit list
Yahoo’s Emmy Big Baubles photo gallery
In Style’s picks for best jewelry at the 2009 Emmy Awards

Beyonce and Alicia Keys wear jumbo hoops at the MTV VMAs

At this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, the skirts were definitely shorter. And the earrings were definitely bigger. Beyonce wore huge doorknocker hoops by Lorraine Schwartz. Alicia Keys wore hoops the size of the sequin circles on her dress. And Pink wore geometric hoops from Siera. The show will inevitably be remembered for Kanye’s outburst, but the jewelry was pretty show-stopping too.

Pink in angled hoops by Siera

Amy Adams is pretty in pink

Tina Rodriguez in aquamarine earrings

The best look of the first day may be a forecast of trends to come.  Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie added chic color to a white Halston Heritage dress with a fabulous angular multicolor Solange Azagury-Partridge necklace.

The statement necklace is back!  But the movie?  Not until May 2010.

Sarah Jessica Parker wears a necklace by Solange Azagury-Partridge

Angelina Jolie in yellow gold hoops

Angelina Jolie knows how to rock a strapless form-fitting black leather dress on the red carpet. Not with silver studs or diamond pave skulls. Instead she opts for organic yellow gold hoops and matching ring from the Nougat Collection of Dior by Victoire Castellane. And, of course, the ultimate accessory: Brad Pitt.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the Inglorious Basterds red carpet

Angelina Jolie's yellow gold ring reflects the red carpet

Rumer Willis in stripes, sequins and diamonds

Rumer Willis in her birthday suit

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron

No, this is not a post about Zanessa being engaged or not engaged. This is a post about how Vanessa Hudgens, who, yes, is often seen in company of High School Musical co-star Zac Efron, is one of the latest stars to become enamored of the pointer-finger flower ring trend. Following the lead of Scarlett Johansson, Vanessa sported the flower ring on her left hand along with another large diamond ring. A lovely and quite fashionable fancy diamond dome ring by Le Vian, who also created that chocolate diamond and strawberry gold flower ring. But not an engagement ring. Just in case you are wondering.

Vanessa Hudgens wears Le Vian fancy diamond rings

Cate Blanchett wears the gemstone statement necklace

With bling oh-so-over, adornment for the red carpet is a bit more difficult. I mean, just a year ago, all a celebrity needed to do to nail it was to don some diamond chandelier earrings and a million-dollar armful of diamond bracelets. But how does one look well-dressed and suitably star-like yet at the same time ostentatiously non-ostentatious? Cate Blanchett might have the answer here: a yellow gold and gemstone bib necklace. The yellow gold makes the necklace a bit more casual, the white of the agate beads keep it summery, and the silhouette is strong enough to stand up to the bold color of her dress.  Even the Fug Girls liked this look. Loose locks, the relaxed fit of the dress, and the dangling beads of the necklace combine to make it a tad bohemian, which makes it less serious but definitely not less glamorous. A strong statement necklace worn alone seems to be the perfect answer to the dress-down dress-up dilemma.

Scarlett Johansson wearing Amrapali flower ring on her pointer finger

Thinking about adding a pointer-finger ring to your jewelry wardrobe? Here, Scarlett Johansson demonstrates how to wear this new trend in style, sporting an 18k gold, silver and diamond ring by Amrapali on her left pointer finger.  The ring itself is also very fashionable: a good example of the big blossom ring trend, the most popular Hollywood choice for a pointer-finger (and increasingly chic for any finger!)

The scale of this ring seems to require wearing solo but in this case, it’s the scale that makes it work with the chunkiness of her engagement ring. (Chunky is definitely a plus when it comes to diamonds!) Note how the large floral ring complements but doesn’t overwhelm her engagement ring and wedding band. The combination of mixed metals helps lighten the scale of the ring and also harmonizes with Johansson’s yellow gold engagement ring.  And yes, she is left handed, the better to show off those rings while signing autographs.