FLASHY DIAMONDS ARE "OUT"

Have you noticed that huge flashy diamonds are out--they're too ostentatious with the downturn in the economy. But expensive jewelry by great designers, jewelry with impressive colored stones like emeralds and rubies, are still OK.

VINTAGE JEWELRY

Vintage jewelry attracted worldwide attention last week. Michelle Obama wore an antique silver and paste pin ("paste" is imitation diamonds made of leaded cut glass, often with a foil backing) at the neckline of the lemongrass-colored dress she wore at her husband's inauguration. The news media at first said the dress had a "beaded neckline," but the decoration was actually a large rectangular pin with an open, double-circle pattern originally made to be worn on a sash. The pin, dating from Lincoln's era, had been bought in Florida a few years ago for an online shop in Canada. It was sent to a store in Chicago and purchased there for the dress. It probably was originally made in England.