Met Gala Thoughts: The Statements We Make When We Wear Designer Jewelry

The first and most obvious problem with the Met Gala - the celebrity-studded fashion event that makes headlines each and every year - is that there are not nearly enough horses involved. You can watch the red carpet for hours, and not see a single one!

So there’s that. But this year’s Met Gala had a number of other issues, related to the fact that the honoree was Karl Lagerfeld. While being renowned as a fashion designer, Karl Lagerfield was not the world’s nicest person. He had many opinions that people found offensive, and they expressed themselves by wearing things Karl Lagerfeld specifically would have hated.

Yes, that’s why so many of the dresses were pink. Karl once famously said “Think pink, but don’t wear it.” He also had issue with larger people - a category in which he included Heidi Klum - which guided the fashion choices of Lizzo, Alex Newell, and Precious Lee.

What Happens When The Person Who Designs the Jewelry We Love Turns Out To Be Kind of Awful?

Can you separate the art from the artist? That’s a question we all have to face in the course of our lives. As a purveyor of fine horse jewelry, we often carry designer pieces by Hermes, Tiffany, and others. There’s also vintage and estate pieces where the maker may not be known, but later through research discovered.

Everyone has to make their own decisions about what’s important to them. Jewelry is such a personal item. It may be that you don’t want to wear an item after discovering the maker is hostile to the type of person you are. In that case, you have options: jewelry can be sold, or the materials used by another artist to create a fresh new piece of jewelry, or simply put the piece to the side and not wear it.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible that you have and love a piece of jewelry for reasons that transcend the maker’s words and actions. You can wear jewelry without it having to be a statement of support for the maker. There is no obligation to deprive yourself of joy because of someone else’s bad behavior. In time, the maker’s name and reputation will fade away, but the diamonds are forever.