Can Oscar jewels turn an ordinary girl into a star? Our columnist Faye Penn investigates–with a little help from Harry Winston (and a bodyguard named Tony links of london rings) Do I want a Nefertiti-inspired collar, a raisin-size diamond or a prune-size yellow sapphire?
I am sitting in a private salon at the famous Harry Winston store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, trying to pick a necklace. I can’t swing any of them–not because they are double the cost of the average American home but because all three choker styles make my not inconsiderable chest look too big. I’d never worn much over a carat until Harry Winston lent me nearly a hundred of them in the name of public-service journalism links of london jewellery.
With the awards shows looming, it seemed like a fitting time to re-create for readers what has become an annual rite for so many of Hollywood’s fashion plates. Would the venerable jeweler let me into the secret vault to see how the other millionth of a percent lives? Borrowing diamonds from the 77-year-old company is, obviously, the starriest of star treatments, which began with the 1944 Oscars, when Jennifer Jones, best actress winner for The Song of Bernadette, inaugurated the practice. Last year Charm Bracelet, Claire Danes, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie and Leighton Meester were among the luminaries who made a trip to Harry’s.
The jeweler agreed to gussy me up as well for the New York première of Beyoncé’s movie Cadillac Records. Part of the drill, of course, is walking the red carpet, a prospect that fills me with dread and my mother with delusional pride. “You march down holding your head high, sweetie,” Mom advises me. “Will you be on television Sweetie Bracelet?”