Tiffany & Co.'s Elsa Peretti® Mesh Earrings

When I graduated from high school, family friends offered or actually gave me various little things from Tiffany & Co., half of which were from the Return to Tiffany's collection. Every girl around me seemed to love the collection and I don't think it was possible for me to walk around the city without seeing at least one girl wearing the braclet or necklace. But honestly, I hated it. Mostly because it was just oh-so-typical, but also because I didn't feel the particular need to be tagged "Return to Tiffany's" (even though I appreciate some girls think it's cute or whatever, no offence.) And since receiving said braclet, I've been put off Tiffany's, thinking either too many people owned the items or they were just too boring.

But a visit to Tiffany's to buy these earrings made my fall in love with Tiffany's. I now totally appreciate Tiffany's as THE place to get simple, quality jewelry. Since I can only afford the simple Tiffany jewelry once a year, I've chosen to focus on the simple shapes, namely the ones from the Elsa Peretti collection. (I can't stress how much I love this collection.)

As a little end-of-year present, I've decided on getting a pair of earrings (because earrings are almost the only jewelry I bother with,) by Tiffany's. I originally was planning to get this pair of gold mesh earrings. While I'm impartial to the little pearls, I like the shape and the way the mesh moves when you move. So last Sunday, I visited a Tiffany's boutique and tried them on. Wow. I've always wondered why people would buy these instead of the ones I see around all the time in much cheaper stores, and now I know why. The quality is amazing. The mesh feels SO smooth and silky.

After deciding the earrings were fantastic, the salesman recommended me this pair of earrings (photo above.) He said they were younger and more attractive. He was right. My mum and sister thought this pair was prettier too. This pair was younger, louder and had a way slinkier shape than the first pair. But I was so shocked by the US$1295 (HK$10000+) price tag that I left the store very quickly afterwards.

Now I'm annoyed. I mean, obviously I would like to get the Mesh Scarf Earrings (the second pair,) but there's no way I'm going to just dish out that amount of money for a pair of earrings, esp since it's not like I even have an income.

The salesman and my mum tell me that no matter which design I choose, the gold ones would last way longer than the silver ones because the silver ones tarnish quickly, whereas gold would last a long time. Another question that I'm trying to answer is that will the current trend of wearing gold jewelry end after this summer? Afterall, gold jewelry has made it's revival from the 80's around 2-3 years ago, and silver has just made it's revival this summer. But now that I think of it, these shapes are such classics I don't think they're really trend items anyways.

The salesman also (nicely and annoyingly) presented this design as an alternative. Thankfully I don't like this design as much as the others so I can quickly discard this design.

So that's my thought process. Right now I'm thinking I should just get the first gold pair because they were the original pair that I wanted and they're still really pretty and (relatively) affordable. Plus, the fact that the second pair has a louder desgin means that it's less versatile and repeatable than the first pair. Which pair would you pick?

Photo credit: www.tiffany.com