My Fantasy Ring Wardrobe

 

By Chupi 

Crown Of Love | Hero Garnet | Crown of Hope | Sparkle In The Wild | Victorian Clover Leaf 

By Lisa Eldridge

 Lisa Eldridge The Marlene | Lisa Eldridge The Anderson | Lisa Eldridge The Isabella

Lisa Eldridge The Mina | Lisa Eldridge The Josephine Oval | The Josephine Cushion | The Lily

I'm sure you've all got the gist by now that I've fallen head over heels for Chupi. 

I think part of my reasonably new found love (grown and developed over the past eighteen months or so) for jewellery in general comes from the fact that, as far those pricier purchases go, well chosen pieces of jewellery can be worn every day and, in terms of cost per wear, ultimately end up at less cost-per-wear than a handbag or pair of shoes. Coupled with that, the fact that well made jewellery is designed to last forever, to become an heirloom that may be passed down, means an item of jewellery is a more expensive piece that I am personally more likely to actually wear, to be less precious about than I am with a pair of expensive shoes, where I know each wear takes them closer to the end of their life. I'll gauge the weather and location of my destination before making any decisions about whether or not certain pairs of shoes in my wardrobe will get an outing that day, but jewellery can be worn all year round, in all weathers and, depending on what you've invested in, with hopefully the majority of your outfits.

It's something I want to continue to build my collection of, more so than bags or even shoes these days (did anyone else seem to entirely lose their ability to wear proper heels for any length of time over lockdown?) and I thought compiling an old school wishlist of those investment pieces might be useful for me to refer back to and have on hand to remind me, when I'm pining over yet another red lipstick, why I'm on the journey I am with buying less and buying better. Having it to open and reread might hopefully give me the motivation and the strength to remember to focus on my long term goals, buying better, spending more wisely and, ultimately, put the damn lipstick down. 

Prior to buying my Chupi pieces, I booked for a virtual consultation and got to see various stacks made up, so that I could envision not just how my first piece would look but gauge what I was eventually planning to work up to over time and how those stacks looked next to one another.

Whilst I thought the virtual consultation was wonderful, incredibly impressive with the technology Chupi has obviously invested in to be able to offer them, one of the rings I originally overlooked until I saw it in the actual store was The Crown Of Love. You can see me trying it on above my beloved hero ring in the first picture below, but I've rotated it in the collage above as I still am so drawn to the Crown of Hope and I think my intentions at the moment for my Hero Ring stack are to have a Crown of Love below and  a Crown of Hope above. The two slot in nicely under the tourmaline in the Hero ring and would hopefully solve the issues I talked about having with because of that high setting in my last post.

When I was in store they didn't have a Crown of Hope in the yellow band to try on and I wasn't keen on the white gold band (I've very much realised I'm someone who loves that shot of warmth the traditional yellow gold gives to a design, especially one where diamonds are the stone and there's no other injection of colour) so I wasn't able to see the stack IRL as I imagine it, but I'm sure it'll be very, very lovely.

Speaking of a bit of warmth and colour, my Hero ring is the green tourmaline option, but Chupi have created the same ring with a garnet in pride of place, which you can see me trying on in store in that first image and I'm very drawn to that. The green was released first and had been on my radar for longer, so it was definitely the right choice, but I'd like eventually to have a green Hero ring stack on one finger and a red one on the same finger of the opposite hand!

I think for me the emerald cut is a flattering shape, so since we're talking wishlist here, I did feel I had to include the Victorian Clover Leaf ring. At just shy of £14,000 it's probably not entering my life any time in the near future, but I absolutely love it. Just look at it in that far right image from my consultation, sandwiched between two crown of hopes - I mean, can you even?! That's probably a bit too much icy diamond for me, I love the crown of hope sandwich with the green hero in the middle to add a shot of warmth, but you can't deny it's an impressive sight!

Another ring I hadn't paid much attention to during my initial investigations was the Sparkle In The Wild - but it very much caught my eye in the store! Again that yellow band (and the beautiful texture of that stunning hawthorn hand!) I think give this ring such a warmth that even that 1ct diamond can't make it feel too icy! I tried this on in the shop next to my love heart ring and I can't explain how good they looked together - an absolute match made in heaven! I think I was too busy gawking over the combo to even think to take a picture!

I'm super aware I'm about to turn into a dedicated Chupi fan blog, so I wanted to take the time in this post to discuss some of my Lisa Eldridge ring desires too. 

What I love about my Chupi Love Heart Ring is how flat it is - even in winter I can wear it every day with woollen gloves without worry, whereas the Hero ring is set quite high up from the finger and more likely therefore to catch on things. I went to put it on one day with my Aran knit gloves and nearly snagged a line of the pattern beyond repair as I pulled them on without thinking - lesson learned! 

It makes sense in a way, with Lisa's career being make up artistry and therefore consistently using her hands then, that her rings are also probably quite practical choices, being not quite flat to the finger (you can see from the side view on her website that the stones are slightly raised) but being overall flatter and smoother in shape - ie being rings even non lined, knitted gloves would flow over.

As they're all very much variations on a theme, I'm not going to go through all the rings of Lisa's that I love individually, but you can very much see my colour palette that I'm consistently drawn to at play here - warm tones, greens, reds, warm yellows and even the brown. 

Victoria Beckham wore a Lisa Eldridge Isabella ring on her pinkie finger and I was massively into that, I think I use my thumbs too much and would find a thumb ring an annoyance in real life terms (though I love the look!) but a pinkie ring I think would work very nicely!

Now just to start saving...