fashion focus: jewelry at wimbledon

Serena Williams goes Dionysian at Wimbledon 2008.

Let’s talk jewelry for a sec. I write about it once in a while when it looks good, but I’d like to address some folks out there who have come to me asking that their jewelry be featured on TSF.

God bless their entrepreneurship and knack for making things, but please — mini-bedazzled tennis balls as necklace charms and racquets as earrings — that’s just too easy. (As Samantha Jones once said, “Owning a hot-glue gun does not make you a hot designer.”) These designs might sell at the country club, but that’s not cutting it here.

For Venus, hoops to go with her new EleVen outfit.

People need to think outside the box. Tennis jewelry can be something other than racquets and balls. Just take a look at what the likes of Venus, Serena, Daniela, and Maria wear on the court. They have jewelry that are inspired by tennis or are appropriate for the rigors of competitive play. You’d never see a tennis ball from their lobes — it’d just be too much. And really, there would be no other appropriate occassion to wear’ em! Tennis overkill.

If you want to incorporate tennis iconography in your jewelry, some suggestions:

Charms sold by Links of London include strawberries, trophies, and ump chairs.

Other examples: A shop out of the UK created a strawberries and cream charm bracelet (here); a brooch of a tennis shoe (I once saw one from Marc Jacobs); a brooch made with shoe soles; rocks cut in the shape of tennis strings, etc.

This is how you do “tennis” jewelry.