A Strand of Pearls For Every Lady

Every young lady in years past wanted a strand of pearls. They are certainly classic, beautiful necklaces. Most necklaces a referred to be their physical measurement, but pearls have a specific vocabulary.

They are named by how high or low they hang on the neck. The collar measures 10 to 13 inches and sits directly against the throat. They are often made up of multiple strands. Yikes! who has a ten inch neck? My small dog’s neck is bigger than that. Pearl chokers measure 14-16 inches and sit at the base of the neck. Princess length strands come down just to the collarbone and measure 17-19 inches.

How Best To Use A Strand of Pearls

Now if you really want to be fancy, a matinee strand of pearls measures 20-24 inches and falls just above the breasts. The opera length is 28-35 inches and will reach the sternum. That’s a whole lot of pearls, but if it isn’t enough for you, a pearl rope will measure over 45 inches. You can wrap that baby all around you.

Strands of pearls are uniform or graduated. Uniform pearls are all the same size, but actually fall within a range of .5 mm. Graduated strands of pearls generally have three different sizes of pearls and have about 3mm differentiation from the ends to the center of the necklace. These became very popular here in the 1950′s when soldiers brought home strands of cultured pearls from Japan.

My Thoughts On Strand of Pearls

The princess length strands are probably the most popular strand of pearls. My mother loved pearls and had several necklaces, which I now have. I do appreciate their beauty, but seldom wear them. They were definitely her style and she looked wonderful in them. I feel kind of silly when I wear them, maybe when I’m older.
I think that despite today’s more casual style of dress, a classic strand of pearls still looks nice.