OMG - Emmy Time...Already? Michael O'Connor Gives Us the Trends

EMMY AWARDS JEWELRY TREND PREDICTIONS 

FROM LEADING STYLE EXPERT 

Michael O’Connor Hosts Jewelry Style Event for Show Nominees and Presenters

This week Michael O’Connor, celebrity stylist and television personality, will host StyleLab’s styling event for Emmy Award nominees, presenters and stylists at a private venue in Los Angeles. Every season O’Connor curates a selection of one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces from world-renowned designers for celebrities to borrow for the red carpet. 

From colored gemstone earrings to exotic cuffs, O’Connor will accessorize Hollywood’s leading stars with the most exquisite, highest quality jewelry.

This season O’Connor sees an overall fascination with more embellished styles featuring colored diamonds and precious gemstones – both modern and vintage designs. As the biggest television award show of the season quickly approaches, O’Connor offers the following trend predictions.

We’re seeing a variety of exotic gemstone colors and rare material mixes to create statement pieces. Jewelry designer Abellan New York is showcasing a ring with rubellite, turquoise, blue sapphires, pearls and diamonds. 

Designer Joan Park is featuring earrings with aquamarine, and green and pink tourmaline, priced at $3,000. This piece is part of The Diamonds With A Story™ Collection, which includes a grouping of designers who have expressed their design stories working with the variety of beautiful and natural shades from the Argyle diamond mine in Australia. The Collections are based across four viewpoints shared by consumers on what they want most in diamond jewelry; origin, sustainability, color and lifestyle. 

Another piece in The Diamonds With A Story™ Collection is from Kara Ross. She mixes parts of broken sidewalk concrete with diamonds to create a statement ring, priced at $2,130. The fashionable Heidi Klum would be a perfect fit for this ring!
Taking the concept of exotic palettes a step further, you will notice jewelry that is reminiscent of ancient times and far away lands. A necklace from Gems by Gerald featuring Karla B. Proud for the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) is comprised of a 12-carat bi-color Oregon Sunstone and an imperial jasper cabochon, on a multi-strand chain, priced at $7,500.
Designers are also creating luxurious pieces with a sleek modern twist. The 114.94 carat 
white topaz cuff from Bellarri, priced at $21,780, takes the classic line-bracelet style to a 
whole new level. 

Canadian designer Mark Lash is showcasing drop earrings, priced at $5,580, that focus your attention on the lustrous 82.61 carats of sapphires and diamonds. The “Magnolia Flower” 10-carat diamond necklace from A. Jaffe, priced at $108,018, weaves floral design in a totally fresh way. Kerry Washington would turn heads in this necklace.
Hollywood Glamour will always remain a staple on the red carpet. Stackable cuffs with diamonds by Gabriel & Co., priced from $875, are ideal for celebrities who want to look polished without feeling “overdone”. 

Michael showing off the stunning Takat Emerald

Celebrities are also obsessing over vintage pieces, including hair combs/pins once owned by Marilyn Monroe that are now part of the Jewelry By Gail collection, priced at $48,000. And, designer Takat is re-inventing the meaning of Hollywood glamour with an 108-carat emerald cut Columbian emerald necklace, featuring 72-carats of diamonds, priced at $3 million. The statuesque Sofia Vergara was born to wear these vintage types of designs.

“The Jazz Age” is swinging again! Designers are creating pieces that bring us back to the  1920’s. Mastoloni introduced a signature black and white “Ice” necklace with cultured pearls and 30-carats of black and white diamonds, featuring a tassel of cultured pearls and white diamonds, priced at $10,500. AGTA designer Baggins shows a cocktail ring with natural color Akoya cultured pearls and diamonds, priced at $30,000. Michelle Dockery would evoke modern Gatsby glamour wearing these pearls.

The “Mad Men” Appeal - Don’t forget about men on the red carpet, as they’re quickly realizing that watches and jewelrymake an important statement. Seah Watches & Jewelry launched "The Astronomer" timepiece, the only watch in the world that comes with the Greek Zodiac signs replacing the hours. It’s priced at $600. The Perrelet “Double Peripheral Rotor” watch features a black dial and luminous hour-markers, on a black alligator strap with white stitching, priced at $8,550.  We can already envision Jon Hamm and Aaron Paul wearing these styles.

Emmy Earrings - the BIG story!

The shows producers decided to celebrate the new Reality Show Host category by having the nominees host the show...I don't think they will make that mistake again!




Thank God for Heidi Klum's earrings - they never failed to amuse even if the on stage banter didn't!



Talk about jewelry on steroids - Heidi is very tall, with a long neck and every pair of the Lorraine Schwartz Inc. earrings she wore reached from her ears to her shoulders - there must be some sort of armature that helps to hold these up (they never appeared to drag her earlobes down).



The Project Runway host wore six separate big, bold diamond pieces by Jeweler Lorraine Schwartz through the course of the evening. Among the attention-grabbers were shoulder-grazing gray and yellow rough-diamond flower earrings, swinging butterfly drops (top photo) and a bohemian diamond and lavender jade suite (see photo of Heidi on the floor).






Kathy Griffin (My Life On The "D" List) wore Erica Courtney 18k gold and diamond Flower Burst earrings with yellow beryl drops.




Other actresses rocking BIG earrings:

Kat Kraemer and Mariska Hargitay


Check out the BIG earrings and stacked necklaces on Kathy Lee!

Close up of the Kwiat designs on Olivia Wilde - Kwiat platinum earrings 1960’s Decades collection featuring more than 8 cts. t.w. pave diamonds and worth more than $300,000:

Award Winning Jewels

The Sixtieth Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards were last night and I have to say - the jewelry underwhelmed me!

Diamonds were the gem of choice but even within that category the risk takers were few and far between! Classic diamond looks, including simple studs (albeit 2-5ct studs!) , drop earrings and stacked diamond bangles dazzled from Chopard, Harry Winston, Kwiat, Fred Leighton, and more.

Vintage diamond pieces made statement, with 1920s and '30s pieces seen on Kyra Sedgwick and Glenn Close, and old mine and cushion-cut diamonds seen on everyone from Holly Hunter to Mary-Louise Parker.

Sandra Oh went with the trend - classic rose or mine cut diamond earrings, but on her the look was stunningly classic!

The men were the least impressive - even Diddy (who designs his own clothing line) wore a basic tuxedo look Christian from last season's Project Runway was probably the biggest risk taker with a gold patterned dress shirt under his suit! Leslie David Baker shown here with one of the writers from his award winning show, The Office sported a tasteful geometric diamond brooch on his lapel that didn't look out of place at an awards ceremony! Aside from those two stand outs, the most daring men's accessory was a colored or patterned tie!

Red Carpet statements were (click photo for a larger size):

My favorite jewelry of the evening (I am working on finding a larger photo) Ugly Betty's America Ferrera in a 19th-century diamond flower necklace by Fred Leighton, paired with 2.5-carat old mine-cut diamond pendant earrings, a rose-cut diamond cluster bracelet and a 19th-century diamond line bracelet.





"Lipstick Jungle's" Brooke Shields donned Fred Leighton's old mine-cut diamond leaf and vine earrings and a 19th-century diamond bow brooch to the event.





Shocking in her victorian underwear inspired corset dress January Jones and the Kwiat team took the prize for most creative use of diamond jewelry. Mark Townsend and Kwiat created a custom diamond hairpiece for the Mad Men star by wrapping Kwiat diamonds by the yard with large diamond pieces.





Ugly Betty star Ashley Jensen (you should also check her out in Extras) pumps up a simple strapless black dress with a dramatic neckpiece.




Actress Olivia Wilde didn't need a lot of jewelry with the jewelled sleeves and tiny pleated detail in the full skirt on her gown by Red-Carpet favorite Reem Acra.






...and finally another favorite look was this multi-strand gemstone necklace from actress Elizabeth Mitchell - I am not sure that I like that they decided to hang the pendant from the top strand however (the taut strand changes the fluid look of the piece)!