“The Official Dos and Don'ts of Shopping Vintage Jewelry

“The Official Dos and Don'ts of Shopping Vintage Jewelry - WHOWHATWEAR” plus 1 more

The Official Dos and Don'ts of Shopping Vintage Jewelry - WHOWHATWEAR

Posted: 28 Jul 2019 12:00 AM PDT

If you're ready to make a big jewelry purchase, you better get all of your ducks in a row. Walking into a store to purchase a diamond stacking ring is one thing, but if you're in the market to invest in vintage jewelry, there are a few things you should educate yourself on beforehand. If you're like me and don't know the first thing about the ins and outs of the vintage jewelry business, the whole idea of figuring out what kind of pieces are worth investing in, where to look, what to look for, and so on and so forth is all very overwhelming, but that's what Jill Heller is here for.

Heller is the expert when it comes to all things vintage jewelry. And by expert, I mean people like Rihanna and Cardi B hit her up when they need an epic array of bling for a night out. Heller works with jewelry in many capacities ranging from designing it to working with private collectors internationally to help curate their array of vintage gems. You could imagine that after working in the jewelry industry for quite some time, Heller has built up quite a wealth of knowledge, and I was itching for her to share all of her secrets. Lucky for me, she obliged and spilled her dos and don'ts when it comes to shopping for vintage jewelry.

Everything from what to look for to what to fully avoid is listed ahead, and all of the best vintage pieces are shoppable for you in between (including Heller's own collection). If you're a jewelry fanatic, I would brace yourself—the content ahead is a recipe for a major shopping spree.

How Balenciaga Became the Art World’s Favorite Brand - GQ

Posted: 05 Dec 2019 12:00 AM PST

Balenciaga isn't the first fashion house to embed itself in the art world. Prada has long been a go-to for those who admire Miuccia Prada's noetic approach to fashion theory, and that brand of course has its own art museum. Some two decades after Martin himself began creating them, the Margiela blazer remains the gold standard of the gallerist uniform, at least in New York. And Helmut Lang worked with Jenny Holzer not simply as a collaborator but something like a true design partner. In the '80s, Comme des Garçons was a uniform for artists and gallerists alike, combining a new thirst for the abstract with the New York zeal for black. (The outliers for that period are Armani fanatic Larry Gagosian and Mary Boone, whose arsenal of Chanel suits helped her burnish her reputation as one of the first blue-chip mega-dealers. Their wardrobes spoke the lingua franca of the go-go decade's obscenely monied collectors.)

Artist and Balenciaga model Eliza Douglas at Paris Fashion Week in 2017. Melodie Jeng

But Balenciaga, artists and arbiters say, approaches fashion more like the art world approaches its own craft. "Luxury is really embarrassing," Busta said. The idea of artists—many of whom take as their subject the dislocating qualities of late capitalism—wearing an earnestly luxurious brand seems ridiculous at a moment when no one trusts money or power. Balenciaga's clothing—which is often compared to (or derided as) "memes" online—demonstrates a knowledge of that tension, "so you can LARP as part of the precariat by wearing Balenciaga, which makes it look like you're just a cool kid who's mixing the codes." The house systematically unpacks and recomodifies fashion itself: "Balenciaga has reframed luxury as knowledge of the codes, as opposed to just these cheating, Trump-era ideas of what something luxurious looks like."

At that point, Busta's boyfriend, Lil Internet, who owns an eponymous branding agency, jumped on the phone to chime in. "The common trope of wealth is like, burning money," Lil Internet, who also goes by Julian, said. "Throwing money away. And it's like, you're spending thousands of dollars on an outfit that everyone knows is Balenciaga but codes as like a guy who sells like, bootleg sunglasses in a subway station."

Fashion designers plunder archetypes that "are somehow in everyone's collective unconscious," he continued: the Spring 2020 show examine what global and corporatized power looks with suited-up bureaucrats in a United Nations setting that was, ironically, vague enough to be understood to a global audience. Balenciaga seems to see fashion as a system to engage with, explore, challenge, and subvert, rather than as a luxury niche of consumer culture that drives trends. The "problematic" realities that the typical fashion brand overlooks or excuses become influences and codes for Balenciaga. Think of the time they put the logo of their parent company, Kering, on a sweatshirt. "Most luxury brands just translate wealth into beauty and power directly," he added. Balenciaga, instead, mines the way luxury has been conflated with power and money—the undeniable seduction of the beauty of an object, of wealth, and of status that fashion can trick people into believing is accessible to everyone.