For me, 2008 is all about classic, understated luxury, and nothing exemplifies this aesthetic like timeless black with gorgeous gold accents. Evocative of art deco and 30’s New York, as well as 1950’s swing, the look is impeccably tailored and delicately trimmed - the gold should provide a whisper of stately grandeur, not an unstoppable torrent of bling. Think Grace Kelly after the wedding or Dominique Sanda in “Il Conformista” - subtly sexy, mysterious, and unstoppable. And besides - what could look better next to a tall glass of champagne? Don’t wear it out til next December…

See more of my Black Gold list at ThisNext.

After carving out nature’s icons in recycled materials and precious gems, Simon Cardwell clearly isn’t your average treehugger. He’s captured a back-to-nature philosophy with an inspiring jewelry collection, and endangered species around the world are now shining under his platinum (and gold) spotlight.

Cheeky Monkey Jewelry is just one of the designer’s contributions to the world of green, and celebrities and ecocasters alike have come to adore his sculptured creations. We found him rounding up some precious collections on ThisNext, so we put on our English charms to find out what this cheeky jewelry maker is carving up next:

TN: What do you think about green being the new black?
SC: It makes me happy to be asked this: It shows a shift in consumer attitudes. But being green should not be just a trend. Styles change, style doesn’t.

...continued: Who Is Simon Cardwell?

He’s the Australian jewelry designer who has us eyeing a fresh collection of men’s accessories made with stylish silver and wood designs.  From symbolic ebony cufflinks to eco-friendly necklaces,  Mark Armstrong shows us how to be a dreamer with Passion, Modernity, and Urbanity. 

When he’s not busy marketing and designing the esteemed John Ferdinand collection, you’ll find him sharing his eco chic picks on ThisNext.  Here’s what this up-and-coming Aussie designer has to say about the latest trends in sustainable jewelry, accessories, and his globally-inspired lifestyle:

TN: Any sneak previews you can share with ThisNext readers?
MA: We’re launching funky new bracelets in Nappa leather, lizard and python. Preview them here.

TN: Biggest response a product of yours has received from consumers?
MA: People are loving our Passion cufflinks in silver inlaid with ebony.  And our Devotion pendant in a medium size has people foaming at the mouth for more.

...continued: Who is Mark Armstrong?

Gorjana is the lady behind Gorjana jewelry, a line favored by A-listers like Mischa Barton, Paris, and rehabber/sometimes actress Lindsay Lohan. Signed with Ford at 15, Gorjana modeled fashion and jewelry, and took her design hobby pro in 2004 with her eponymous line.

While we can’t count Mandy Moore and Hillary Duff as fans of ours—yet—like Gorjana can, we’ve got a common core: a passion for products making your life better. According to her bio, Gorjana “considers  her designs to be a form of energy that she shares. Positive self-image is the reflection she desires women to experience when wearing Gorjana.”

Read on as we play Q&A. 

TN: Biggest response a product of yours has received from consumers?
G: The Stackable Rings have been a best seller for nearly three years. They come in a set of seven, skinny rings that are all different textures. They are great to wear all together, only a few at a time, or to mix in with other rings – a really great staple piece.

...continued: Who is Gorjana?

Live-working in an A-list beach town, since I moved back to La La Land from NYC over a year ago—

I haven’t dipped my toes in the Pacific once, and I think I’ve peeked at the great big blue maybe thrice, depending how often it was visible from the Getty Center while I downed hazlenut soy lattes and admired naked Greek statues.  

Vivre’s pearl and shell ring is as beachy as I get:  its cowry shell is barely recognizable as it’s been tooled into a boss bauble frosted with pearl mabe.

Still, maybe I could hold the cocktail ring to my ear and hear waves kind of crashing, like with a seashell.

Though for $600, I’d rather it echo Jay-Z’s chorus of “cash, money, hoes.”

Since marriage rings mean nul—I think dudes get more girls with them—and I only get shiny eyed at the institution for its tax deductions, I’m courting Soixante Neuf’s “Taken/Available” necklace ($148) instead.

A tiny chain made of hooked hearts hangs a hammered 14k vermeil pendant, which you can flip between “Taken” and “Available” depending who’s double-checking you.

So happily single, I know which side I’ll mostly be sporting:

“Taken,” since I’m sexing myself. 

Waspy waists went out with ’50s housewives, so cinch your chic more modern, a la an old-fashioned Gigi Caron “Victoria” ring ($6,250). Inspired by finger candy popular during Queen Vicky’s rule, you can inscribe the boss buckle ring with your lover’s name.

Since 18K gold and diamonds are serious shiny shiny to stamp a dude’s title on, I’m torn—

Either I’m tattooing my fav Starbuck’s barista’s name on the ring, or “iced green tea soy latte, no water, only two pumps of melon syrup.”

Or maybe just “KRiSTOPHER,” since I’m sexing myself. 

Check out these earthy accessories from Early Jewelry. Kansas-based Kylie Earlene Grater engraves owls, horses, feathers, wallpaper patterns, and other images onto wooden pendants in her AM line, which also includes laser cut leather earrings and feather and bone necklaces. Her PM line incorporates vintage materials and readapts unused jewelry to make one-of-a-kind pieces. Both of the handmade lines have an organic and nature-based influence with plenty of modern appeal.

Mom pushed me to complete college, though I was completely bored with its pseudo intellectualism —

And I finished early, while working full time as a freelance writer. 

Mom encouraged me do whatever made me happy, sans regarding whatever anyone else might have thunk—

So I ditched a nine-to-five to spend my seven-to-eleven in home in high heels, snuggling with my MacBook, stringing words together about It bags and shoe hags.

Mom made sure a “Thank you” answered my wishes granted, and that I prefaced requests with “Please” — 

And since my talk is oft sprinkled with a dialect of French particular to truck drivers, maybe I’ll gift the lady this Jessica Kagan Cushman Wide Scrimshaw Phrase Bangle, which says a “please” prettier than she had taught me. 

Bold but dainty, aggressive but refined, with a common origin man-molded into preciousness —

This BBlessing “Fighting Cockerel” necklace is the stuff of a boss lady, of your haute mamma.

So gorgeously gift your girl this pendant this 13^th, go on and tell her why it reminded you of her —

You know, play up the “bold but dainty” ish.

Leave out about how the cockerel’s bared claws and wide-open beak vibe like Ma used to on a Saturday morning, when she saw you left a few (hundred) coffee mugs in the sink and passed out cuddling your iBook.

Octopi are the new owls, according to Gen Art Pulse. And while I still give a hoot about the birds of prey cutely featured in Keep Company’s Owl Sweatshirt and Leviticus Jewelry’s Retro Owl Charm Necklace, I’m also hoping to get my measly two arms around these cephalopod-inspired treasures: A Rare Bird’s Octopus Love tote (cherry-red vinyl with felt cutouts), boygirlparty’s olive Inky Octopus t-shirt (on yummy-soft American Apparel tee), and the Jennifer Ackerman Octopus #1 necklace selected by Gen Art.

Just like this Kenneth Jay Lane clear apple necklace, you’re bright, glossy polished, golden —

You’re the apple of your mamma’s eye.

And just like this Kenneth Jay Lane clear apple necklace, your haute mamma’s sweet, clever, classic —

So you’re thinking gifting her this for May 13^th. 

Holding Kenny’s pendant up to your eye, you see it clearly:

So generous, so loving —

You’re sure Mom’ll let you borrow it. 

Diamonds and minks and platinum are lovely, lovely.

But nothing’s more luxe than seeing completely clearly, your sight independent and unclouded by say-so from any other guys and dolls.

So put this Patricia von Musulin ring up to your eye, and squint through — though the Lucite ring is high volume like your vision, it’s light like your happiness, it’s weightless like your confidence.

And so slightly starry, it’d rock right with your heavenly body in a very little nude dress.

Since sparrows are said to carry the souls of the deceased into the afterlife, killing one will - according to superstition - leave you cursed for good. Luckily, we’ve got a major thing for sparrows here at ThisNext and would never dream of harming one of the plump and precious little birds.

Among the sweetest sparrow-adorned jewelry on ThisNext: Little Blue Sparrow’s Sparrow and Key Necklace (with gold plated chain and aqua colored glass seed beads), Tryst By Kerry’s Align Earrings (featuring brass sparrows soaring through gold metal hoops), Erica Weiner’s Sparrow Earrings, the Birdie and Hoop Earrings selected by LMizzle, Max and Chloe’s SYdney Evan Kissing Sparrows Necklace, and Garnett Jewelry’s Swooping Sparrow Necklace (“I love how the vintage brass charm looks like it is in mid flight,” says my3dogs).

We’re also all aflutter for Rock Steady’s Teal Sparrow Dress, Thomas Paul’s pink sparrow melamine plates, and Lux de Ville’s Black Sparrows Handbag. And for the wee ones: the Sleepy Little Sparrows Bird Mobile selected by szlea, who adores the birdies’ pink and white ribbon trim and embroidered blue eyes.

You’ve grown past hunting for Easter bunny eggs in the backyard, but you haven’t quite shrunk into collecting Faberge eggs.

So check Alex Bittar’s “Eggs in a Basket” cuff — 18K gold vermeil is handtooled into a bubble basketweave that cradles egg-shaped semipreciousness, like pastel quartz, peridot, brandy, and garnet.

It’s your perfect Easter gift to yourself —

You’ve been good.

You even held back a gag, you paused on running away when your mom pointed to an over-eligible bachelor at church and nudged you close, asking why you didn’t bring fellas home like him for dinner?

Ladies -

I use the term as loosely as most frat boys’ grasp on R-E-S-P-E-C-T during Mardi Gras.

- Are getting their sidewalk strip on down south, showing off their hopefully hot bodies for cheap trinkets in the Big Easy, making your K big uneasy.

I mean, really - 

If you girls are going to flash, at least do it for shiny shiny jewelry worth some cash.

There’s not much charming about that plastic string of Mardi Gras mask beads, nor does a glittering strand of made-in-China Mary J beads qualify for cheeky chic. Your K can’t think of anything worth showing off her goodies to cheap chumps, but I’d advise holding out at the very least for Juicy Couture’s “Jetset” charm bracelet.  An Eiffel tower charm and London town telephone booth show you where your next R&R sesh may be more classically - emphasis on the “class”  - spent, while -

“Okay, so it may be naff as hell, but who can resist a charm bracelet with a miniature telephone box and walk of fame star on it?” says Shiny Shiny’s fashion editor Shiny Gemma.  “I hate Juicy Couture… but I need this bracelet!” 

Gotcha, gorgeous, I completely understand.

Just keep your Balenciaga blouse on, K? 

...continued: Goods Almost Good Enough to Flash Your Goodies For

You already know it, doll:

Roses’ll expire faster than a subscription to Vogue.

Chocolates won’t do much for her hot little body.

And diamonds are a girl’s BFF, but sometimes we ladies like to play well with others, enjoying -

“Finally a set of handcuffs that are actually romantic in a sweet way,” says ThisNexter girl Henry.

How do you mean “finally,” honey? For sure this handcuff bracelet by Cuffs of Love is sweet, but -

“Not the freaky deaky way you keep thinking is romantic,” says girl Henry.

What’s freaky-deaky about mink-trimmed lingerie, about hooker-high heels, about soy latte baths?

...continued: VaVaVoom: Lock You Down

You’re counting down to V Day, ladies and fellas, and -

“She’s been hinting about a diamond ring, but you’re not quite there yet,” says Szlea.

Nope, not quite, especially considering I don’t even know the lady, though I’m sure she’s a champ. Maybe I should -

“Get her this [Carrie Weston Accessories diamond ring necklace] for Christmas instead,” says Szlea.

You mean Valentine’s Day, love?  Still recovering from that New Year’s Dom?

...continued: Valentine's Day: Diamond Rings and Things

I understand if you’re not ready to give your girl your heart come V Day.

She’d probably dig dirty lingerie more, anyway.

Your K means to say, love is a plant that needs to be nurtured, it needs to mature, it needs to evolve, it -

Feeds off cutesy ish like heart-shaped jewelry, like this heart cut-out razorblade necklace.

“Show your gang girl tendencies with this silver razorblade with a heart cutout!” say John_and_Rose.

Oh em gee, Rose. I always thought you more urbane than urban, but I dig that you’re a toughie. I’d never say a bad thing about you ‘cause I like you, but now, though I doubt I’ll ever need it, I see I’ve got another reason to keep from ever chatting catty about you.

...continued: Heart Jewelry for Valentine's Day