Town & Country’s Lynn Yaeger, who also pens for Vogue and The New Yorker, has offered refreshing perspective for jewelry lovers, portraying the act of self-gifting as “self-care.” A CFDA media Award winner, the author first purchased jewelry as a 12-year-old growing up on Long Island, New York. She now lives amidst her many collections in downtown Manhattan.
Three Powerful Points
The Life-Affirming Joy of Buying Fine Jewelry For Yourself, which appears in the February 2022 issue of Town & Country, is about empowerment, liberation, celebration of personal milestones and investment in personal happiness. Invoking the attitudes of Mae West and Marlene Dietrich, among others, I feel the piece includes three powerful, paradigm shifting points.
1. You’re Permitted
There is something miserable about not buying things you really want, that you can afford, because of some old-fashioned notion that you aren’t worthy of marking your own personal milestones with jewelry that is exactly your taste because, well, you picked it out.
Some of my fondest childhood memories took place in shopping malls, when mother and father would pass me some money to spend however I wished. I surely did not hesitate then. When did that change? Shouldn’t access to my own disposable income be permitted to fund continuing joyful memories associated with shopping and selection? As adults, shouldn’t we recapture some of the wonder and freedom we felt as children, delighted with choices?
2. Consumption is Consumption
Why is it okay to buy your living room a dazzling chandelier but not all right to spend the same amount on a pair of chandelier earrings? Why are you comfortable purchasing a wildly expensive snakeskin handbag but queasy when it comes to forking over the big bucks for a Victorian snake ring?
Spot on. Extra income spends the same, whether it buys an Alaskan cruise or a monstrous tennis bracelet. I’d also point out a gender contradiction here. Why is it acceptable for successful boys to show off new Range Rovers, golf clubs or luxurious man caves, whereas maidens and matrons who buy themselves fantastic adornment may be considered materialistic or gauche?
3. To Thine Own Self, Be True.
Who wants to wait around until a romantic partner stumbles into your life, and why should this hapless soul be expected to know that what you really want is a Brent Neale three-stone ring or an Arman Sarkisyan bird bracelet? They may be the most wonderful person in the world, but isn’t it too much to expect that they understand the difference between Boucheron and Bulgari, Lalaounis and Lalique?
Oh touché.
Honestly, my “most wonderful person” has to consult Google just to remember my birthstone, bless his heart. Please, yes. Permit me to set my own compass on the complex, nuanced waters of jewelry and fashion “I” would like to own.
Game, set, and match to Lynn. I also adore how she linked to articles by her colleagues to make the point.
Call To Action
Join me this Valentine’s Day in honoring that certain someone who has stuck with you through thick and thin, who has seen the disasters and the triumphs, and who is more than worthy of that antique emerald parure you have been eyeing all year long. Let’s jingle the stack of bracelets that just turned up on your credit card bill and celebrate the most deserving person in your life: you.
Count me in, Lynn. And thank you, for reminding me what it feels like to be a child, delighted with choices.
