What is Lucite jewelry? Everything you need to know about this beloved vintage costume jewelry material

Somewhere along my vintage jewelry journey, I fell in love with chunky — some might even say yummy — Lucite jewelry. Early during my foray into the vast world of costume jewelry, I flat-out rejected Lucite pieces. After all, Lucite is essentially another fancy word for plastic, right?  Well, that’s somewhat true, but there’s no … Read more

The 3 most popular classic Christmas jewelry motifs

holiday brooches

The delightfully sparkly and borderline gaudy holiday season is officially upon us. Whether they’re donning Renaissance-esque pleated silver skirts or ironically ugly sweaters, the festive and fashion forward are hunting down the perfect jewelry pieces to embellish their Christmas outfits. When it comes to Christmas accessories, my area of expertise lies in vintage costume jewelry … Read more

A brief history of the vintage clip-on earring: Why are there so many clip-on earrings from the 1900s?

I’ve had pierced ears since my wee baby days, when my aunt marched into my parents’ apartment armed with a piercing gun. It wasn’t until fourth grade when I came across a pair of highlighter orange flower clip-on earrings from Claire’s, which, in its heyday, was a purplish utopia of fun, affordable costume earrings for … Read more

The 6 best things to buy secondhand

Goodwill

Have you seen the price of ANYTHING these days? It’s a real doozy just trying to make ends meet in this economy. For me, it feels wasteful to buy things new unless I absolutely need them, not only because I’m frugal but also because our planet is warming up faster than Bagel Bites in the … Read more