Why women love gemstone and diamond jewellery?
You will be hard pressed to find a woman who doesn’t like gemstone and diamond jewellery or is not moved by the mere mention of it. I remember my grandmother and aunts making such a hullaballoo during a cousin’s weddings over diamond jewellery – in the great Indian wedding scene the bride is usually valued as per the jewellery she wears.
If you go by gemstone and diamond jewellery advertising, it is clearly a woman’s domain – and a jewel is critical for a man to secure his woman. Don’t believe me, have you seen these ads?
“Woo her with a solitaire ring, and she will surely say yes.”
“Charm her with a bracelet or ear-rings and she is all yours.”
GAGA OVER GEMSTONES!
But what is it about jewels that get a woman so excited; so easy to be won over; to be impressed?
Is it the sparkle or the glamour or the size or the rock? Or is it just that the advertisements that are so brilliantly created? Or do real women have a real preference for gemstones?
I decided to explore this question a little further by asking women about what is it that makes a piece of jewellery or gemstone so special that we go gaga over it at the drop of a hat.
A SPARKLE OF BEAUTY!
“I hear the word ‘Gemstone’ and something ‘sparkling’ and really ‘beautiful’ comes in front of my eyes but my brain takes me back to the chemistry class when I had learnt about gemstone as a ‘mineral’,” says Sneha Jain
Sneha is actually quite correct. A gemstone is after all just a stone – going by conventional wisdom, “Gemstones are naturally occurring stones which maybe further classified into precious, owing to their monetary value”. Then why all the excitement over it?
As per Sanjana Marlecha, “a working definition of gemstone would be a stone that has certain unique qualities with respect to colour or rarity that makes it unique and thereby precious.”
Ritu Agarwal likes to relate to them as “the feminine-ness of ruby; calmness of the emerald; power of the blue sapphire and the spark of diamond.”
Shilpa Chopda feels that “even though the other gemstones are not as hard or precious as diamonds, they are beautiful to look at due to their gorgeous hues and imperfections.”
THE MYSTERIES OF A GEM!
So is the allure of a gem in its beauty, its colour, its sparkle? Majorly, yes!
But there is one more important fact we cannot ignore. There is a school of thought that believes in gemstones being good for various aspects of life- from health to romance to business. Crystals associated with the body chakras are used for healing and astrological gemstones are believed to bring about positive changes in the life of the wearer.
“Gemstones are exotic minerals which are strikingly beautiful and colourful. They are used in jewellery but perhaps their most mysterious attribute is that they are used as healing stones (and they do work!)”, says Pallavi Sharma from Mumbai. She runs a successful e-commerce venture and has been wearing a yellow sapphire since 2003, which she says has helped increase her self-confidence and made her a better judge of people.
THE REAL ALLURE!
“Diamonds really are “forever” and they are super awesome heirlooms to pass on to the next generations and cushions for bad times!”, says Nidhi Surana- a homemaker cum investment banker.
A girl’s best friend, the most celebrated of all gems – a diamond has successfully been cultivated as the ultimate symbol of love and affection! No matter who you are or how you deny it, the lure is unmistakable and hard to resist. The hardest mineral in nature, its crystal lattice is what makes it so unique. Flaunted in baubles as cut or uncut – all that matters is that it is a diamond. The bigger the better; it is a sign of affluence and there is a whole science devoted to grading it commercially.
“I remember never being truly enamoured by gemstones till perhaps the second when my husband-to-be got me a diamond. I am not big on jewellery still but these two rings [the proposal ring and the engagement ring] make me feel like the prettiest girl. Every girl wants to feel like that once in a while,” confesses Sonal Das.
Hence, I can sum up by saying that more than the commercial value attributed to jewels, it is the emotions attached that make it special for the wearer. So while somebody wears it for confidence, somebody else will wear it for the beauty of it. And that perhaps is why gemstone and diamond jewellery will never go out of style or business!!
