Careful testing, apart from the question of fit, is particularly important when the earclips are ready-made. The designer in such a case had no single individual in mind, but a simple adjustment may turn a routine clip into one that establishes itself as a personal adjunct to beauty.
An earclip may sometimes, by an invisible attachment on the back, be converted into a hair ornament or a clip to be worn on the dress. Earclips with pendants can be so fashioned that the pendants may be changed or the hanging part removed for less formal occasions. For any occasion, from a business engagement to the most formal function, earclips are an essential and most effective part of a woman’s jewels.
CHAPTER 6
The Necklace
The Symbolism of the Necklace
The necklace is the most conspicuous of adornments. The earclip is more subtle, because it performs a double function: it is to be noticed for its own beauty; at the same time, quietly and without advertising this aspect of its role, it helps to shape the contour of the head and to bring out a radiant glow in the countenance. In the necklace, the importance of these functions is reversed. The jewel worn around the neck can play a part in moulding the personality and enhancing its highlights—it must always be chosen with these things in mind, but its major purpose is display.
Because of its prominence, the necklace from early times has been a symbol of high office. It was worn by kings and was reserved for those to be specially honored, as soldiers returning from victorious campaigns. It is still part of the ceremonial regalia of priests of various religions.
The universal employment of the necklace as an article of feminine adornment has led to its almost complete withdrawal from the masculine wardrobe. For formal occasions, however, it is still used to designate rank or honorary station, in some variation of the wide band that goes around the neck and comes down to, or is fastened at, the belt. In the United States, for example, the President signalizes the bravest soldiers by placing around their necks the Congressional Medal of Honor.
For most of its uses, the necklace is donned without any sense of this long symbolic history. Yet it may not be too imaginative to find an echo of this significance in the romantic gesture with which a man places a beautiful necklace around the neck of his beloved.