- While costume jewelry may have once been frowned upon, it has become a major staple in the fashion industry. Costume jewelry has gotten so hugely popular, in fact, that it has branched into other areas. Collars and accessories for pets, such as leashes and bandannas, often feature faux gemstones or other embellishments glued or riveted on them. Costume jewelry is also available for people's cell phones, in the form of antenna charms. Stick-on gemstones, which can be displayed everywhere from notebooks to a woman's cleavage, are another innovate product on the market.
- Some costume jewelry can emulate the real thing, or at least try to, at a much lower price. Here is where folks will find the faux diamond, ruby, emerald and other gemstone pieces that are mean to appear genuine. Other costume jewelry is made of semi-precious stones, such as quartzite or rhinestones rather than diamonds, which also keeps the cost low. Still other costume jewelry is made of other materials not meant to imitate or appear like traditional jewels at all. Pieces include rings, necklaces, hair clips, bracelets, earrings, nose rings, body jewelry, anklets, broaches, pendants, tie clips and hat pins, just to name a few.
- There are really no limits when it comes to the materials and styles used for costume jewelry. Faux or real leather, vinyl, plastic and even fur can be found embellishing some pieces. Baubles can be made from glass, beads, porcelain, wood, shells, rocks and even chunks of debris or other recycled items. Jewelry lines can be created from soda pop tops, genuine or imitation turquoise, feathers and bones. Designs can include geometric shapes, animal figures, flowers, trees, stars, the sun and everything else beneath the it. Colors can range from a soft-spoken pink to a blaring red, a subtle mint to a neon apple green.
- Costume jewelry can range in size from a small, faux emerald nose stud to a ring nearly the size of a salad plate. Many of the styles that emulate genuine gems will be smaller as to keep the look authentic. A giant diamond ring will more immediately be pegged as fake than a small, tasteful one will. Larger costume jewelry can easily become the focal point of entire outfit. Some of the more prominent styles include chandelier earrings large enough to outfit a doll house, a string of baubles each the size of a fist, bracelets that wrap up the entire arm and gypsy style anklets or neck chains, adorned with several rows of tinkling silver beads.
- One of the saddest tales involving costume jewelry can be found in author Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace." A beautiful yet very poor woman is invited to a glamorous event and borrows a gleaming necklace from her rich friend. As fate would have it, the necklace gets lost during the evening. The beautiful yet very poor woman spends the next several years of her life working herself to the bone to save enough to replace the genuine and costly piece for her friend. Once she is worn down, bedraggled and ragged after working so hard to finally buy a genuine replacement, her friend tells her a secret. The necklace had been a fake.
