Tea at Trianon: Jewelry: How and When to Wear It

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Jewelry: How and When to Wear It

From Southern Living:

Southern women often get thrown into a trope of being over-the-top, but for as long as I can remember, that is what has made my grandmother the most effortlessly fashionable person I've ever met. The opposite of subtle, she dazzles with layers of jewelry and a loud personality. Turns out, there's much to be learned from someone who isn't afraid to be confident; and while it goes much beyond aesthetics, she especially taught me about her favorite accessory: jewelry.

From how and when to wear it to old-school tricks you'd only learn from a seasoned Southern woman, here are 5 indispensable things my grandmother taught me about jewelry. (Read more.)