Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003222003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Los Angeles Daily News
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Though many men still limit their accessories to these essentials, the move away from the basic dark suit has prompted more creative jewelry adornment.
"I think, first, it starts with clothing," said Michael Roman, board chairman of the Jewelers of America. "It used to be all you wore was a navy blue suit and a white shirt. Now you can have expression in what you wear."
A few jewelry designers are prepared for trend-setting customers, offering a non-traditional collection of lapel pins, pendants, necklaces, belts and bracelets.
Even traditional business dressing finds a new flair with jewelry.
The return of dress shirts with French cuffs may have sent businessmen scurrying for cuff links, which were hard to find in even well-equipped stores, said Roman.
The traditional, staid cuff link was cut in classic shapes and finished in enamel or polished metal. Now many add dash with cars, coins, boats, masks and elaborate designs.
The rise of black-tie affairs also aided the cuff link resurgence, according to Jeffrey Shapiro, president of ABL Jewelers, a New York manufacturer, who offers them in African mask designs.
Even the simple suspender, normally hidden under a jacket, earned better-looking clips, bringing them along the road to finer finery. Ornamented clips shaped like leaves, badges or art-deco designs with prices of about $24 to $60 are available from designer Jan Michaels for Man Michaels.
As the suspender earned broader acceptance, men began to wear the tie bar to balance the vertical look of suspenders on pants, said Scott Hill, general manager of the Los Angeles area firm Ron Ross Inc.
Hill says he has sold tie bars decorated with trucks to heads of trucking firms and some with planes to executives who are pilots. The store carries hundreds of tie bars, with 35 styles in sterling silver alone.
The next trend, according to Hill, will be sterling lapel pins. Stores now sell them in serious, classic and whimsical designs. Men are buying lapel pins shaped as pebbles, keys, periwinkles and birds, offered by New York designer Robert Lee Morris. More whimsical clowns, Buddhas, bugs and planets are made by San Francisco-based Michaels.
"The reason these things are coming back is that we are character dressing. The mood of the clothes now is coming from themes of the '40s," Hill said. That was an era of tie bars and cuff links, when men were not well-dressed without a complete wardrobe of accessories.
Still, Morris said he doubts men will ever adopt costume jewelry in the same way or quantity that women do.
"I think the whole connotation of costume jewelry and cheap dime-store stuff put it in the world of junk jewelry. That's what kept men away from jewelry for so long," Morris said.
Men don't buy several items of jewelry for each outfit, he continued. "Women burn up jewelry because of their fashion changes. A man isn't expected to go through so many changes."
Consequently, he buys fewer but finer pieces of jewelry, sometimes with the intention of making them heirlooms, Morris said.
Morris hopes the momentum will build for innovative men's jewelry - whether it's a whimsical pair of cuff links or a silver pin punched through a leather jacket lapel.
"I'm so bored with traditional classifications like tie tacks and cuff links," Morris said. "They're all so safe. They look like they were handed down from someone's grandfather. It's an insult to men to think that's all they want in this day and age."
Memo: Spring Fashion