The thing about precious ornaments is that they are for life. Thankfully they don’t go out of fashion as often as other semi-precious fashion baubles do. Even so, you cannot quite fashionably wear a piece of jewelry you bought in your 20s in your 50s. Like everything else, jewelry too have a fashion life. The more expensive a piece you buy, the longer it stays relevant to the changing fashion context. While spring cleaning my jewelry box this year, I came to notice that there is a whole bunch of baubles that I have been preserving in my case fully knowing that I wouldn’t be wearing them ever again. That got me thinking for a moment. Subsequently, I arrived at the conclusion that I could make more out of my investment if I just reimagined and refashioned them instead of hoarding them in the remotest pocket of my box.
In fact, refreshing your jewelry every once in a while is a costless and pretty cool way of adding new items to the collection without overstocking it. The new should replace the old, by definition. We do that to our wardrobe when we recycle it at the end of every year. We do that to our home props once every few years. So, why are we so inflexible when it comes to our golds and silvers? First of all, we are a little too possessive about them. We are never fully open to the idea of giving them away, even if that brings us something new. That’s understandable, but in a bigger scheme of things, it’s actually a bad decision.
When you take your old jewelry to a store, you make possible access to a window that allows you to get something new without shedding much of any money. Recycling jewelry may not be common, and that is probably why it should be. It holds open the possibility to exchange one ornament for another. Just think about it. With an old cascading necklace, you can buy yourself a new diamond choker or an elaborate Riviera neckpiece, both of which are high fashion jewelry at this point. Alternately, if you go to buying new things and adding to your collection without cleaning out the old ones, you may one day be broke with some less-than-great investments collecting dust in your treasure box. The choice stands open.
