Gold Renaissance
It’s Easter Sunday, and it’s time to unwrap your chocolate eggs and gobble them down! Those coloured bits of foil in every colour of the rainbow – the prettiest parts of the chocolate sweets – are now little bits of screwed up rubbish. When I was a child I sometimes would try to flatten out the foil sheets and burnish them with the back of a spoon. I loved that reflective shine.
For a time though, I lost that love. In my early 20s metallic fashion was very passé – only wealthy madams of well-to-do areas of Melbourne gravitated towards shiny accessories, and they particularly loved metallic shoes. Usually they were flat sandals, which were bejewelled to boot. My friend Rapunzel and I share a mutual abhorrence for them.
… there is nothing middle-aged lady about stilettos in silver snakeskin
Fast forward many years later, and metallics are back in fashion – particularly in footwear, ironically. But today’s metallic leathers are much more refined, and there is nothing middle-aged lady about stilettos in silver snakeskin.
One of my favourite vintage purchases that I made quite a few years ago is this 80s Indian gold foil rah-rah skirt. I don’t think I own anything else that says P-A-R-T-A-Y-! quite so loudly, not even the multitude of sequinned garments in my closet. In shape, it is quite reminiscent of the 1920s too, which is bound to attract me.
When I first bought the skirt to wear to a wedding, I wasn’t quite sure which colour to wear it with, and I ended up pairing it with a chocolate coloured top. Now I also like it with very pale pink, and turquoise. It looks great with violet too – you can’t get a more royal combination!
As for gold jewellery, I almost never wear it. If I do, I tend to be attracted to very yellow gold (the shade of 24ct gold), and in the most OTT Bollywood style I can lay my hands on. If I could go about looking like an Indian bride, I would (the only thing that stops me is that I don’t own enough pieces). These earrings and necklace came from an Indian boutique in Melbourne.
So go on, give gold a go – it has the SNAP seal of approval.
