About Face

INDESIGN

About Face

Last Updated on Wednesday, 05 May 2010 00:17 Written by Trace Shelton Tuesday, 04 May 2010 23:44

Beautiful designer jewelry and beautiful customers don't always mix well. Trace Shelton hunts down the experts who can tell you how to match customers to the right jewelry.

Beautiful designer jewelry and beautiful customers don’t always mix well. Rather, it’s the right jewelry on the right customer that forms a beautiful combination. And that’s a combination that can often be unlocked through an understanding of face shapes and how they can complement — or contradict — the various shapes and styles of earrings and necklaces.

“The best jewelry for an individual will not only look good on them, but it will make them feel good as well,” says Cynthia Sliwa, image consultant and co-author of Jewelry Savvy: What Every Jewelry Wearer Should Know. “The customer may often be looking for guidance — for someone to be able to say, ‘Notice how this earring highlights the shape of your mouth or the arch of your eyebrows,’ which is delightful to the customer. They see that the jewelry really relates to them and honors their physical characteristics.”

Her co-author, Caroline Stanley, is a third-generation jeweler who manages her own marketing and communications firm, Red Jewel. Having worked in retail sales and management for more than a decade in her family’s store in Arkansas, Stanley knows that some salespeople “get” the subtle interplay between face shapes and jewelry more than others.

“There’s a ‘fashionista’ type of customer out there who is really interested in the ‘whys’ and will base a buying decision on the relationship between her own physical appearance and that of the jewelry,” Stanley says. “Many retailers already have a gut feeling for what will look good on particular face shapes, but they don’t really know why. They’ve developed an eye for it without knowing the theory behind it.”

In their book, Sliwa and Stanley describe nine different face shapes: oval, inverted oval, round, narrow, inverted triangular, heart-shaped, triangular, diamond-shaped, and square. Each comes with its own distinctive forehead and jaw line, and therefore with its own recommendations for complementary jewelry. In this article, we give you a basic overview of the five most common shapes. (For more detail on these five and the other four, check out Jewelry Savvy.)

Naturally, face shapes aren’t the only characteristic to be taken into account when helping a customer choose a piece of jewelry; personality, neck length and other physical traits should also be considered. And, as Sliwa points out, some customers like to focus attention on what’s unusual about their face, while others want to draw attention away from that characteristic. As a salesperson, it’s up to you to glean this information from each customer, rather than rushing to judgment.

A discussion of face shape can be a great tool not only for making an immediate sale, but also for cultivating loyalty. The customer who sees that you care about how her jewelry looks specifically on her, and that you have the skills to back it up, is very likely to return for that experience again and again. However, as Stanley says, there will be those who “couldn’t care less. If that’s the case, please move on. But usually, people who are fashion-conscious think this is the coolest thing in the world.”

wearing earrings

While each face shape has its own specific recommendations, there are some general guidelines to wearing earrings. Pretty much anyone can wear a pair of stud earrings or small earrings that sit on the earlobe, says Sliwa. (The size of the earlobe compared to the size of the earring should then be taken into account.)

“Earrings of an inch in diameter, like a shell design or soft floral, will also work on anyone,” Sliwa adds. “Such earrings are large enough to be noticed without detracting from the natural shape of the face, and are a great recommendation for someone looking for a gift.”

When it comes to longer earrings, if your customer has a narrow chin (such as the heart-shaped face), then she has a lot of room to wear earrings. Assess the length of the earrings based on whether a person has a long neck or short neck. Someone with a wide jaw line doesn’t have the same ability to wear a beautiful pair of chandelier earrings well, Sliwa says.

“And, as we saw at the Academy Awards, if someone has long, gloriously full hair, they need to wear very large earrings because tiny earrings will be obscured.

wearing necklaces

More than any other type of jewelry, the necklace is the piece most affected by the wearer’s choice of garments, because there’s a potential for conflict between the necklace and the neckline. “The savvy woman who understands how to dress for her overall physical appearance will know how to choose a flattering neckline, and everything will flow from that. Unfortunately that’s not always the case,” Sliwa says. “Either the necklace or the neckline needs to dominate; the necklace shouldn’t conflict with the neckline and cause confusion to the eye.

balance points

The term “balance points” refers to what artists have deemed as attractive placement of necklaces on the bodice (or neckline).

A necklace-and-neckline combination that matches one of the two recommended balance points will flatter any woman. The human eye is drawn to symmetry, and as such, each balance point is based on a measurement that correlates with the dimensions of the face.

According to Sliwa, the first balance point can be found by measuring from the visible hairline to the bottom of the chin, then dropping down the same length onto the bodice from the bottom of the chin. “That spot is often an extremely good placement spot for a necklace,” she says.

However, there are times when the second balance point is a better choice. That can be located by measuring from the wide part of the face to the chin, then dropping a necklace the same length from the shoulder to the bodice.

“Essentially, you trace the curve from the wide point to the chin and drop that entire curve down to the shoulder,” Sliwa says. “It’s a mirror image of the jawline.”

That spot tends to fall higher than the first balance point. For someone who is starting to show some signs of age and wants to keep people’s attention up, the higher point is better, says Sliwa.

If the neckline of a dress is higher, then the first balance point works better (the necklace will lay over the neckline), especially if the necklace is the dominant piece.

“That length will generally be between 24 and 28 inches for most women,” she says. “A necklace length appropriate for the second balance point will be between 18 and 22 inches in length.”

Oval Face