Do we hear you go “Yes, please.” But, we are referring to stylish, slightly-mammoth-ish cocktail rings, which have stolen more hearts than we know! Isn’t it time you know them better, asks P S Bhavana, who tries her best to trace their opulent history.
Egyptians loved geometric largeness—they had cylindrical rings as part of their jewellery sets—and the Romans worshiped bulk, too. As part of their decoration, they adored myriad rings fit for different weather conditions. Indian Maharajas were famous for ornate shapes (and donating some), as well. Recall jewellery of any ruler from any dynasty (both Hindu and Islamic), huge rings were signs of power and richness. While royal women took fancy to smaller, delicate forms, they too had a penchant for the luxe and the extraordinary when it came to jewellery. Eons later, ring size still mattered. In the 1920s Western world, Coco Chanel injected the concept of outsized faux jewellery. Other than necklaces and bracelets, she created big rings that worked as eye-poppers.
Later, when alcoholic beverages were constitutionally banned during the Prohibition Era (1920 to the 1933) in the US, little did those hapless souls know that their absence would give rise to another form of addiction—the love for statement rings, more so by the Flapper style-lovers. The large, glittery for-fingers baubles—rose gold and gilt metal with solo jewels—became symbolic of then-modern and independent elite women treating themselves to a glass or two of Gin Rickey or French 75, which they sipped rather clandestinely in speakeasies (a.k.a blind pigs or blind tigers: illegal establishments selling alcohol). Most of the designs, usually worn on right hand, were a tad more brazen than what regular, middle-class women would wear back then. Their ‘notice-me’ tag remained so even in the 1950s, too, when they were flaunted as fashionables at ‘Cocktail Hours’ (pre-dinner socialising periods). This, by fashion experts, is considered the reason of their being called so.
Soon, by the 1960s, a number of Hollywood stars wore cocktail rings to award functions, and they were subsequently lapped up as a fad. For a while, the rings stayed studded with a single, precious stone or a set of dear stones on each, but then-First Lady of the United States Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower (wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower) wore vintage costume, Trifari jewellery to a public event and made faux stuff famous. Costume cocktail rings with fake-but-huge stones hogged all the later limelight, as a result. Although, the next two decades saw the biggies slip into hibernation, it was not long before Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City fame) made them a late 1990s, chic women’s wardrobe staples. Cocktail rings had returned in new avatars—to live on luxuriously, happily ever after.
Today, it is every elegant lady’s best friend, and a young woman’s pick-me-up. They have become synonymous with glamorous, fun or radical-with-an-ounce-of-wannabe-elegant dressing. On moreintelligentlife.com Linda Grant, a novelist who has bagged the ‘South Bank Show’ annual award for literature, and been (Man) Booker shortlisted for ‘The Clothes on Their Racks’, writes (in Dress Sense: The Light Fantastic), “A cocktail ring is the antithesis of a wedding ring… It announces no status other than the desire to have fun.” She also goes on to explicitly state the purpose it is made for and then describes the way it is meant to be worn. “A cocktail ring is seen to its best advantage when the hand holds a cocktail glass. It is the olive or the lemon peel in the martini, designed to be viewed through refracted light. It’s a showy, show-off piece and no one expects it to be real. Diamanté and rhinestones find their natural home in such big rings—and their size is their point, for the cocktail ring is cheap, false and doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. This is not the Crown Jewels we’re wearing, it’s disposable luxe. It belongs in cocktail-party conversation, brittle and, in the 1930s sense, “gay”. Out take: She gets this spot on! We couldn’t have agreed or explained more.
Now, if you are inspired to invest in a few rockers, get yourself a bejewelled take—try basic hues to offset almost all looks or blur the lines between statement and cocktail rings further with interesting pop-coloured pieces. But if you have already jumped onto this bandwagon with a few in your jewellery kitty, you could get off-beat this time with some handcrafted designer pieces. Deconstructed, quirky, minimal, art deco, ornate-vintage or animal-ish are our faves. Take your pick, would you?
