Should you wear your heirloom jewellery piece or pick out something new? Are the days of gold and polki gone and are diamonds set in white gold the way to go? Jewellers share their expertise on what is in and what is out for brides.
Pakistani brides have a reasonable number of options on what to wear on their wedding day as particular style is in fashion. Aleem from Naurattan Jewellers, Karachi says that stones embedded in gold are fashionable these days with emeralds being the most popular. Karachi’s Chhotani jewellers said that necklaces with an antique and traditional look are very popular amongst brides while Lahore’s Sara Taseer Shoaib Fine Jewellery said that brides are giving preference to polki, diamond and choker sets in white gold.
Naurattan Jewellers said that modern brides preferred wearing simple sets while representatives for Chhotani and Shoaib felt that brides generally went for a more traditional and heavy looking set.
One thing that has changed is that our mothers and grandmothers didn’t necessarily match their clothes to their jewellery but now all three jewellers say that the bridal set should match the bride’s wedding dress. A representative at Chhotani said that they often do a combination of two to three stones which match the colours of the bride’s clothes.
But the sharp rise in the price of gold has had a definite impact on the sales of gold with reports of a 50 per cent drop in customers despite the approaching wedding season. Naurattan Jewellers said that customers often go for lighter sets and have even begun replacing gold with silver for their sets. Chhotani Jewellers said that brides generally stick to buying the actual set in gold but the teeka and jhoomar is now being bought in silver. However, Amna at Sara Taseer Shoaib Fine Jewellery said that this varies from customer to customer with many continuing to buy gold as they see it as an investment which they can resell whenever they choose.
The jewellers named different prices for sets with Naurattan Jewellers saying that a light set of gold and emeralds would cost approximately Rs200,000 while Chhotani Jewellers stated that a 10-tola (117 grams) set is for above Rs400,000. Sara Taseer Shoaib jewellers said that a set of 14 carat Hyderabadi polki set made into silver foil is priced at Rs500,000, a 22-carat set of Jaipur polki will cost Rs1 million and a diamond set can vary from Rs1 million to Rs5 million.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2010.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ