The sighting: Actress Gugu Mbtha-Raw walked the red carpet at the New York premiere of Surface in a gorgeous green Alexander McQueen gown with jewelry to match.
The jewels: Gugu Mbtha-Raw’s jewels for the night are all Cartier High Jewelry. They’re understated in quantity but substantial in quality and size: a beautiful, satisfyingly thick peridot and diamond bracelet in platinum and two large platinum stud earrings with dangling lines of peridots and diamonds. The vibe from the colors and shapes is almost late Art Deco, early MidCentury, but the effect with that stunning McQueen is purely modern.
The trends: Green is an extremely popular gemstone color right now. Emeralds are leading the charge, as always, but the passion for green is so strong that it’s spilling over to include tourmaline, garnet, malachite, peridot, and even (in some niches) sphene.
In an Instagram post about the look, Mbtha-Raw proclaimed her love for the color, saying: ‘Green is the color of the Heart Chakra. I love what green represents: life and freshness.’
The actress’ choice to eschew a necklace or rings and just stick with the statement bracelet and earrings is right on trend for the relatively understated red carpets we’ve seen recently, too.
What do we think? I mostly find the “less is more” jewelry approach to be a bummer, but it’s very elegant here as a foil to the architectural gown. I love love love that that the dress and the jewelry match so perfectly and it’s a treat to see peridot used in substantial high jewelry.
This is a somewhat understated outfit that probably wouldn’t catch my eye as one of many on a red carpet, but the more I look at it, the more I appreciate it.
Judgment: 12/10 for glamorous use of an underappreciated gemstone.
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