I was recently browsing Cornelia Webb’s sample sale, where you can find bargainous jewellery samples from previous and present seasons. Like many Scandinavian designers (for example Bjørg, Maria Nilsdottir, Charlotte Bonde, By Birdie, Maria Black, Sophie by Sophie), Webb does spectacular jewellery in brass and silver. To me though, their products are often overpriced. If I wanted to pay thousands for jewellery items, I would rather buy handmade jewellery in genuine gold. Gold has intrinsic value, is durable, and has at least some resale value. Silver is soft and details wear over time. Gold-plated silver fades. Brass is not something I am prepared to pay anything significant for. So I trawl sample sales and auction sites, where I have managed to buy pretty items from these brands at much cheaper prices.
This item caught my eye, not to buy, but as a cultural and era marker.
The full price was, as usual, pretty high ($350 for brass), but what caught my eye was the item itself. Fashionable people in countries who have always had a high incidence of daily face mask (or veil) use have probably personalised face coverings for years. However, this must be a relatively new thing in the west, rising out of the pandemic, surely? In a Vogue magazine from March 2021, I saw an entire feature on mask chains, mask jewellery, masks made by designer houses, and makeup designed to be worn under masks. I wonder if that market has completely disappeared in the west?
Sweden never had mask mandates so very few people wore them in public. Maybe 5%, if that. I had a cloth mask with little dinosaurs on it and a pocket for filters, but I probably wore it about 5 times. We had to wear masks all the time when we went to Tenerife in 2021, but we used disposables.
Do you still wear face masks? Did/do you ever personalise them or buy decorated/logo ones?