Jewelry to express yourself, the fascination of composable jewelry.

06 December 2014 | Esther Ligthart | Trends & Inspiration

Maybe you have heard about composable bracelets. There are so many concepts of personalized jewelry on the market these days. And maybe you thought that it was Pandora who invented this as they are so well presented all over the world.

Pandora and Endless bracelets, both from Denmark

Personalized jewelry was out long before Pandora

But the composable bracelet and other types of composable jewelry, existed already in many different forms. Indeed I possessed a small set of letters in gold and enamel in the early 90’s and there were and are so many more ideas and funny and cute designs out there. It was before the hypes that we see nowadays. Where one year it is cool to own a bracelet by some company and the next it’s outdated. This responds to the idea of fashion with its seasonality and far less to luxury where there is no such thing as something being hyped or hot for just a short amount of time.

Nomination bracelets and ring

Nomination

One of the very first big commercial successes made by a company that specialized in the idea of making it personal was Nomination. It was also a company that used stainless steel in a time where jewelers had only gold and maybe some silver in their shops, but it wasn’t before long that people discovered that personalizing something creates a whole new kind of attachment to pieces of jewelry. Whether you buy it yourself, or receive it as a gift, you have to put some thought into it. What symbols, which name? What reflects me? What reflects the person I want to give this bracelet to?

Yours truly with her new favorite bracelet :-)

A lovely surprise

Some weeks ago Nomination asked me what kind of bracelet I would choose. So, I took the time to look with a fresh eye at their website. I must admit that in my mind, I kind of took this company for granted. When I blog I often use extensive lists of jewelry companies to search for inspiration and photo’s but with a bit of blushing, I will whisper that Nomination wasn’t on that list.

Talking about symbols! Wearing a tattoo is something much more permanent than a piece of jewelry. Will you value this person forever? What does he or she represent to you? Although I probably never would get a tattoo, I love to watch a truly beautiful tattoo like the art it should be. these are all by Lippo Tattoo from Italy

Pleasure and affection

Why, I asked myself, why is it that I forgot about them? But the fact is that I really never did. They are one of those companies that you …sort of take for granted they exists and maybe hasn’t changed much of the years and so. And yet, of all the existing companies of composable jewelry, it is certainly one of the most beautiful. A brand with a long reputation (1980 people!..1980!) that I observed throughout my years in Italy and later on the roads of the Benelux ( Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg) and Great Britain, with a sort of pleasure and affection. It was in many stores available and went from being very popular to a little less popular and back again.

Another trend in personalizing jewelry, one that I love too a lot, is charm bracelets. When you put a lot of charms it may loose a little of the personal effect and gain more on the visual effect, but it is possible to choose, in the case of Thomas Sabo for example, to choose from such a fast variety of charms that themes rather than really personal things, can represent your loves and likes.

There is such a tsunami of bead bracelets in this world today. They are chunkier than say: a Nomination bracelet. Produce is mostly done in the far East. Trollbeads and Pandora are both the most famous ones and I am sure: the quality is great! But an endless row of companies followed this example and more or less produced the same ideas. Some maybe better...a lot of them worse in quality and design. But Trollbeads and Pandora weren't formed yesterday either...they had their time to develop. Even if the big boom started a little more than a decade ago.

Scandanavian tsunami of composable bracelets

Attention from the company may have been taken away a little by the big mostly Scandinavian companies that ruled the world of composable over the past decade. But we appreciate ever more that what we buy is genuinely well made. After the crisis, values have changed for many of us. Now we like to see that a company has some real values and that there is a face behind the company. That there is a family, a vision, passion.

Symbols can be found even in a far more modest form as on these delightful little earring by Lebole Gioielli. Or on the goofy bracelets by Disney ( this piece of fashion jewelry appeals somehow to my inner child and to the disbelieve of my hubby, I said with joy in my voice that I would wear this of course. He just nodded his head whilst walking towards the kitchen..hehe)

Easy

When I looked at the Nomination website, as they had asked me to do, I will tell you that one of the first things I noticed was: it is a very easy one to navigate. This may sound less romantic and poetic, but I find this extremely important. I am online a lot and I appreciate a website with clear and beautiful designs. Not an overwhelming amount of information that is thrown at me. And I want to see clearly how I can get to the information that I search for and preferably arrive on that page with no more than 2 clicks.

There is a lot of thoughts and quotes about symbolism. Writers and poets always like to grasp why symbols appeal to us, why they are important ....I personally loved these ones.

Keep it simple

Instead, I still encounter sites that force me to watch a screen that plays a design of something developing in front of my eyes and I have to wait to see the whole thing finish. Loud music immediately with too much information (I dislike music on websites, haha, they cause me more often than not a slight heart attack or annoyance because I have Spotify on and now I need to search like a mad man for the silence button on that website I just opened!)

It seems that these kinds of websites are a little bit more in love with themselves than welcoming and focusing on you: the visitor. (oh how I love the website of Hermés! So understated chic and so simple and elegant)…I arrived easily at the page on the Nomination website where you can compose your own bracelet online. Why I thought it was great? It loaded very quickly! It was intuitive and….not the least important thing: it showed you right away how much the bracelet was going to cost you. No surprises, no seeing a price only if you place the order and you sort of have to get through the whole process, scared to place the order by accident, but curious to know a final price including postal costs and so on. The pieces to choose from are abundant and you can sort of see already, that they are well made. The effect on screen, whilst composing, is exciting!

Would you consider this? The symbol of wearing your child on your body is powerful and impressive. I see the utter beauty, although I can understand that once teenagers the kids will think differently about this. Yet, once you are a parent, even though maybe you wouldn't opt for a tattoo, you can deeply understand the emotion and love behind this tattoo. I, instead, choose a less invasive way to wear a symbol of my child :-)

Unexpected attachment

Nomination surprised me by sending me the bracelet I had composed and I must admit that it is very comfortable to wear (apart from blogging, I am a busy mum that runs a household too, so I do appreciate practical use too :) and very well made, but it is the sheer fact that I *created it* that kind of made me attach to it immediately. It is a pyschological thing ( and sometimes used into tricking people to buy things) : when people own something or have the feeling they own it already, they feel more attached to it, it has a value that differs from the one that it had when it was still in the shop.

But this had nothing to do with owning it now...it was the fact that there was the name of my child, my hubby's initial and the Eiffel tower, because my child somehow LOVES that tower and likes it lots when he regonizes it in movies or on tv...or..when we pass Paris on our way to our holiday destination on the Costa Brava in Spain and the statue of Liberty. I have never been to America and I would love to. It is one of those things on my list of things I would love to do in the coming year ( and has been there for years hahaha) but I love the dream about that trip I will for sure make one day.

And suddenly I understood with my own feeling instead of just my rationality; why these composable items such as Nomination, are so much embraced all over the world. It is the emotion. You put your thoughts in it yes, but when we look at symbols that represent ourselves, names of our loved ones, dreams we cherish….it becomes so personal that it almost hurts once you see it composed to tell your jeweler: Mmm…not sure yet…and see him decompose it? Ouch! Or click your design away? Oh no…

Symbols as ways to express ourselves....

Tattoo's

It made me also think about tattoos. How? Well, it is this same kind of self-expression. You put something that means a lot to you on your body. A bracelet or necklace is maybe a lot less invasive, but I guess that it is all the same emotion that people feel. Something dear and meaningful. In a world that is as fast and often chaotic and uncertain as it is today, it might explain why people love so much to grab back on symbolism.

It gives you a sort of identity; it represents a value for you. It shows what you stand for. Looking at it like that, I saw the name of my son on my bracelet. Yes…being a mother to a child is the role I absolutely adore most. I never got a tattoo, and most probably never will. But I get it…I get it why people love this so much.

The secret of succes of Nomination and others

Obviously I think this fact is one of the major secrets of the success of Nomination and their many colleagues all over the world. But in order to survive in that same world, you have to live up to the expectations. You have to produce good quality and invest constantly.This family run company from the hills of Tuscany, led still by its founder Paolo Gensini, certainly deserves that place in the spotlight.

If you have become curious about Nomination you can find their website here. Nomination asked me to inform the readers of Bizzita that there will be a discount of 20% on your first order, if you subscribe to their newsletter!