Rude/catty comments regarding your designer jewelry and watches

As a guy wearing designer jewelry, I often overheard comments like, "What? This Cartier/Hermès jewel on a guy?!? It looks weird/gay blablabla...". Recently, just walking in the street, a guy told me directly that "my chain sucks" (A Chaîne d'Ancre from Hermès...). Even if "I don't care", it's always annoying and makes me wonder if jewels looks fine on a guy. Anyway, I'll stick to it!
Between, this kind of comment happens more often in the US, in Europe, I just "catch eyes" ;)
 
My engagement ring is unusual and for the most part is never complimented on. It is a brown diamond in a rough platinum setting. People often think it is a lesser stone, though it is increasingly more difficult to find them in an excellent cut, clarity, color and of a decent carat size. No one even gives it a second look.

My circle of friends do not value diamonds, but they aren't mean about mine, they just don't wear them themselves.

I'm fortunate in that my husband is supportive of pretty jewelry and contributes when he can to fund new pieces (or reworks of older ones).

I suppose if you wear something that people may envy, a percentage of them will be quite rude about it, but in my experience, it is mostly family. At our wedding, my mother joked that my earrings might "fall" into her purse and my sister felt free to critise my necklace. On my wedding day.

I think managing family jealousy is the most challenging.

I love that you owned it, TexasGirlieGirl!, and told that couple of your Cartier!
 
Ugh, I would punch her in the face, Tiffany's doesn't sell nice diamonds? Only jealous people say that.

Congrats on your ring though, don't let her ruin it.

I know if Tiffany sells bad diamonds, I must be stupid to own them. On another anniversary, my hubby got me 3 Tiffany celebration rings and one time, I wore them to this group dinner. I didn't say anything until another friend grabbed my right hand and asked me tons of questions like how much and I said over $8k. She then showed her hubby my right hand and said how nice my rings looked. She then showed it to this 'friend' who owns the fake Tiffany e-ring, she didn't even want to look and she pushed my hand away very hard.
 
Cartier story: This is making you unwillingly an accessory to fraud and intellectual property theft. I would report it to my Cartier boutique manager immediately. What are you getting out of this "friendship"?

Tiffany story: That is weird. I don't understand competitiveness like that for stones. I'd just look down at my hand and be thrilled with my dream ring. Ignore the haters!

But why are both of you still friends with these people?
I'm not actually friend with her but call her friend as there is really no other better term to describe our relationship. She is my next door neighbor who frequently comes over to have small chat. My mother who also lives within the same neighborhood enjoys her mother's company and exchanging gardening tips. We go to the same church so I figure I'd be cordial. After this incident, I have stopped responding to her text and phone call, I hope she gets the clues.
 
AnHa, I'm so sorry you had to go through that! It is amazing how brazen she was! If I were you, I would tell Cartier about their little shenanigans, as they are clearly breaking copyright laws.

I've been getting in some hot water with a "friend" over my jewelry collection as well. My friend noticed some of my nice jewelry and asked to borrow some items (a few thin gold bands), which I lent her for a short period of time. Now, she is not giving them back, and jokes around about how she wants to steal my Cartier bracelet, which honestly makes me feel very uncomfortable...I've got to find some way to get back my things and cut off relations with her.
I'm so sorry you lost your bracelets. I don't think you will ever able to get them back again. Next time when you see her wearing your bracelets, tell her " ah, that's my bracelets that you borrowed and I would like to have them back, please". And please don't let her come near your Cartier.
 
I know this is an old post but I'm sorry I have to bring it back to life. I'm new to post but not new to tpf. I have something that has been bothering me for weeks already and I want to share with all the ladies here because my DH just " doesn't get it" I guess it's a man thing.

I'm very fortunate that I have 2 Cartier bracelets as my wedding gift. One a juste un clou and one Love. When my friend, more like a neighbor saw that I was wearing them together, she immediately asked me about them. I told her " they are wedding gift" but she insisted on knowing more, so I took her to the Cartier boutique. She didn't buy either one, of course. A few weeks later she asked to borrow my bracelets so she can bring them to her jeweler zen have them make her the copies. I told her I cannot let her borrow the bracelets because they mean a lot to me and I do not want them to lose my bracelets.

Last week, she called me while I was running errand and asked me to go pick her up at her jeweler 's store because her husband had dropped her off and gone home, so she needed a ride. I figured it was on my way home so I would pick her up. To my surprise, she asks me to come in to the store. As soon as I walked in, the owner and she immediately took my hand, raise it up, one took out their iPhone and took as tons of pictures of my bracelets from all angles and the owner even had some kind of device on her hand to measure the thickness of my juste un clou. I got very very irritated and told them they couldn't do that to me and tried to walk away. The owner of the store made this really rue comment " ur just wasting money on the real stuff, when ur friend gets the ones that I'm making for her at 1/3 of the price, you will be crying our eyes out, but it's ur money so I don't want to say anything".

This whole incident was so bad, awkward and I felt like I was just being robbed. I don't mind her copying my style but copying to make fake stuff is really uncool and very illegal. I hope I don't see her wearing the same two bracelets at my sister's upcoming wedding
I'm new on this forum and I've just come across this thread so I'm sorry that I'm bringing this up again, but I just can't believe you went through this experience! Just reading about it makes me feel angry and I would be horrified if any so-called friend tried this with me. I hope you didn't give her a lift home!
 
My engagement ring is unusual and for the most part is never complimented on. It is a brown diamond in a rough platinum setting. People often think it is a lesser stone, though it is increasingly more difficult to find them in an excellent cut, clarity, color and of a decent carat size. No one even gives it a second look.

Your ring sounds lovely. I love the idea of contrast between the brown and platinum.

I have a non-traditional e-ring too, but it has gotten a couple comments, mostly positive with one exception. It's not a named designer piece, but here's my contribution to the thread: a former coworker who'd been there about a month looked at my ring and asked, "Your ring, what is it?" "It's pink sapphire." "No, I meant does it have some type of significance to you?" Confused, "It's my engagement ring..." Incredulously, "YOU'RE engaged?!?!?" I know colored stones aren't as common for e-rings anymore, but it's 2 carats in rose gold, I wear it on my left hand ring finger daily, and I'd been engaged since before she started, so I'm not sure what exactly she was expecting more than it being an e-ring.

Other than that, I've been fortunate. My named designer pieces largely go unnoticed as I tend not to wear stones outside of my ring and where I live those who are familiar with jewelry designers are appreciative of the quality.
 
When I first started collecting gemstones I had no idea I would go for the more exotic looks of gems-I always wanted to look at stones that were large enough to see easily & without compliments of other stones to 'dress up' the item I put together. I did ask some advise from 'professionals' who made some beautiful pieces but to me , they all looked similar, I didnt want to see jewelry like I wore coming at me. My thing was forward, large stones, & pleasing to the eye so as to take in the whole item & not dwell on part of the piece. I was told my items are bland, no excitement, no pop or sparkle & the gold work was not 'finished' looking. A few were impressed with the stones I have & the simple layout in the design. Im showing 7 pendents in stones one will not see in most stores, the sizes average @ 2" x .5" inches, tall & wide, with very good quality stones, top 3 pendents are l to r, yellow tourmaline, purple tourmaline, spessartite garnet. The bottom 4, l to r, pink topaz & bi-color tourmaline, red spinel from Burma, pink tourmaline & blue spinel. All in 14kt & 18kt gold. All pendents are arranged symmetrical in stone placement as to let ur eyes look at the entire piece. Ive done pretty well because the combined appraisal on these pendents is @$200,000.00, insurance retail, which puts the wholesale prices @$35,000.00 just for the stones. The appraisals also help to verify the stones are as stated. The fun part is I have not paid that much for the stones as they were bought on auction & buy now sales, most overseas-a hobby for me & showing something unique & different-thank you for ur time to read this long post-stevie...:cool:
 

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