Handmade jewellery that completes a guest look

I've spent years watching the same scene play out in the fitting room: the customer looks in the mirror, turns, smiles, and suddenly something doesn't quite click. It's almost never the dress. It's almost always the bare neck, or the empty ears.

We don't make fine jewellery at the atelier. What we do is handmade costume jewellery: pieces assembled by hand, designed to accompany a guest dress without competing with it. The difference from fine jewellery isn't only in the material, but in the approach: here, each piece is designed with a particular neckline, hairstyle and dress in mind, not the other way round.

The earring that elongates the neck

The Chandelier Perla Crema Earrings are probably the ones I recommend most for straight-neckline or halter dresses: the silver teardrop hoop, covered in faceted beads, falls just enough to elongate the neck without ever brushing the shoulder as you move or dance. The movement of the chandelier earring, that multi-tiered structure that sways with every turn, is exactly what a clean, unadorned neckline needs so it doesn't fall flat under the lights of a wedding venue.

For more understated looks, or for guests who'd rather not draw too much attention to their ears, the gold Corazón Aurea Earrings bring a more contained sparkle. They work just as well with hair worn down as with it worn up, which isn't always true of longer earrings, which tend to get lost in loose hair if it isn't pulled back.

The Corazón Aurea Pendant completes the set for anyone who'd rather the spotlight fall on the neck than the ears: a fine Venetian chain, with very small, interlocked links, and a discreet clasp that's neither heavy nor noticeable under a high neckline. Paired with the Corazón Aurea Earrings, it forms a set designed as a whole from the outset, something especially noticeable in the gold tone, which is identical across both pieces.

Think about the occasion, not just the dress

A daytime garden wedding calls for different pieces than a gala dinner in an enclosed venue. In natural light, the silver of the Chandelier gains a lot, because it reflects more cleanly than under warm artificial light. At an evening event with warm lighting, on the other hand, the gold of the Corazón Aurea tends to look more flattering, because it blends better with that colour temperature.

It's also worth thinking about the hairstyle before deciding on earrings. An updo leaves the neck and ears fully on show, so that's where the Chandelier really get to move. With hair worn down, especially at shoulder length, a very long earring can get caught in the hair, so in that case I usually recommend the Corazón Aurea, which look good whether they're peeking through the hair or fully visible.

Another criterion I often use in the fitting room is skin tone: the silver of the Chandelier tends to suit cooler skin tones, with bluish veins and a rosy base, better, while the gold of the Corazón Aurea tends to suit warmer skin tones, with a more yellow or golden base. It isn't an absolute rule, but as a starting point it helps narrow down the decision when there's little time before the event.

During the winter wedding season, which in Catalonia tends to cluster around very specific weekends between the end of the year and spring, it's common for the same guest to need to get through two or three events in a row with the same wardrobe. That's where these handmade costume pieces earn their keep most: the same plain dress, worn one day with the Chandelier and another with the Corazón Aurea set, changes enough to avoid repeating the same look.

At the workshop, it's common to see customers who arrive with their dress already decided but who haven't thought about jewellery until a couple of weeks before the event, and that's fine: these are pieces that can be tried on quickly and don't take nearly as long to decide on as the dress itself.

Caring for costume jewellery is also worth a note. It's best to avoid direct contact with perfume or hairspray, which over time dull both the silver and the gold, and to store each piece separately, in its own pouch, so the pendant's fine chains don't tangle with other pieces in the jewellery box. After the event, a soft, dry cloth before putting them away is enough to keep the shine.

If you already have a dress picked out and aren't sure which jewellery suits it best, bring it to the workshop or send us a photo on WhatsApp; often just seeing the neckline and the fabric's tone is enough to rule out half the options.

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"Jewellery doesn't have to shout. It just has to be in the right place."

— Patricia Rojas