When Are Pearls Appropriate?

“A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls” according to Coco Chanel, designer of timeless fashion from another generation.

A wife, mama, friend from Hometown, Texas would probably agree with Ms. Chanel.

Barbara came to a girlfriend event a few months ago wearing faded jeans, tennis shoes, and an event t-shirt adorned with her own ropes and ropes of pearls.  We should have rolled out the red carpet and played the Hallelujah Chorus, because the rest of us girlfriends were awe struck at her classic elegance and style in her t-shirt and pearls. She rocked my fashionless world.

My head was spinning with thoughts of all those estate and flea market pearl finds that I keep buying and stashing in my dresser drawers. There are bright white, tinted brown with age, greenish, pinkish, purplish, well worn, and almost new pearls.  My cache includes earrings, chokers, long necklaces, double strands, triple strands, bracelets, and a few broken clasps. There are freshwater pearls gifted from my parents years ago and a set from a home jewelry party that I only wear on special occasions. I gathered all my pearls together and displayed them in a thrift store vase on my dresser along with a few estate turquoise pieces.

Why hadn’t I thought of this before? Pearls are almost as beautiful adorning my dresser as they are Barb’s pretty neck. Of course they have to be dumped out of the vase to decide which one works with today’s t-shirt…and which clasp works.

Two weeks after Barbara’s pearly debut, I took some junk to a flea market sale with my two  junkateers (that’s like musketeers, but with junk). We were wearing t-shirts that said clever things like “She Loves Her Junk” and “Queen Junker” and “I Have All the Junk I Need, Said No Junker Ever” and ropes and ropes and ropes of pearls.

We looked classy and elegant and amazing with our pearls and all our junk.

Natural pearls are created by an oyster when an irritation gets inside the shell. That irritant (more likely a parasite than a grain of sand) is then coated with soothing layers of a liquid that is a beautiful pearl when it hardens.

One day, I wondered if any of those treasures were actually genuine pearls, so I asked Mr. Google how to identify genuine pearls. He said, “It’s easy. Just rub the pearl against your own pearly whites. If the pearl is smooth, it is fake. If it feels a little rough or gritty, it is genuine.” Well, those weren’t his exact words, but close. So there I sat at the dining table rubbing my pearls across the tops, bottoms, and undersides of my teeth. There were, amazingly, a few strands that didn’t feel perfectly smooth and were maybe genuine. I wonder if we have some grit after we’ve allowed God to coat and soothe our irritations or is our smooth exterior a cheap copy of the genuine pearl.

Whether pearls are genuine, estate jewelry,  from the dollar store, or strung on an elastic cord, they are still elegant and beautiful. I have come to agree with Coco that a girl needs ropes and ropes of pearls.

I also agree with Jackie Kennedy who said that “Pearls are always appropriate“.

I’m sure my friend Barbara agrees, too.

Never hesitate to buy pearls from garage sales, estate sales, thrift stores and flea markets.

Never hesitate to wear ropes and ropes of pearls

because pearls are always appropriate!