this is what wearing a Grecian coin looks like
+ notes on expression expansion, and the intangibles of style
It feels like forever since I wrote a post, like really wrote one. April was a whirlwind month, in so many good ways. Lots of projects are percolating! So excited to share as things start to take shape, but for now, I wanted to tell you about a necklace that sat in my Etsy Favorites for months. It’s a sterling silver coin necklace, set on a vintage sterling ring chain. Every time I’d going into my Favs to find something, I’d scroll back to see if it was still there. There was truly nothing holding me back from getting this necklace (I even had an Etsy GC from xmas!) other than my apprehension that I didn’t “need it.”
Avoiding overconsumption can sometimes turn into an inward spiral of self inflicted guilt over enjoying anything new — this is what happened to me. And in the formative stages of starting my new brand, my business, etc it can be really easy to push back on my desires to get anything new. That money would be better spent on _____ (insert literally any overpriced photography equipment items).
But that’s not what this is all about! To me, getting dressed, expressing style, trying new things, sharing concepts, inspiring people .. these are the things that made me want to start writing this substack. These are the things that made me want to leave a lucrative corporate job in exchange for a $0/year TBD job that I was creating as I went along. And here I am, almost a year later, feeling like I’m finally finding my stride with so many different aspects of the business.
So maybe the better lens is: fear of overconsumption shouldn’t be a paranoid side effect of style expression. Style expression requires adding new pieces ie. getting new stuff. It just does! And while so much of what I buy isn’t actually new-new, I clearly still struggle with the concept of not needing more. Maybe a better rebrand on this aspect of getting dressed would be “expression expansion” — bringing more variables into the fold is just a way of continuing to express in novel ways. Enter, Grecian coin necklace.
I’m not sure what’s happening with sterling silver lately,
but I’ve been wearing it more than I usually do. I think I’ve been seeing it more (and maybe simultaneously noticing it more) and something about that is effecting my interest in adding more to my collection. I tend toward gold jewelry, but over the years have picked up a few 925s here and there — when the piece was right. I had a theory that gold jewelry is warmer with my fair winter skin, and the cooling sterling is more lively on my skin as it darkens (I mean, ever so slightly) in the summer. Is there any merit to this theory? No. I think more than anything it’s a story I’m telling myself to explain something that’s actually intangible. It’s not ~~crazy~~ that someone would wear both gold and silver jewelry, but I think a lot of us tend to put ourselves in one camp or the other.
To use a completely unrelated reference in illustrating this point, I’d like to introduce former Baltimore Ravens head coach, Brian Billick. I recently watched an NFL documentary on Tom Brady’s draft story. Various coaches and players are interviewed, and one quote struck me as universally applicable, but especially resonant in terms of comprehending our own style instincts:
We have no clue what we’re looking for, we just know it when we see it — I mean, nothing more accurate could have be said about my approach to curating new pieces into my wardrobe. He’s obviously talking about evaluating athletes, but I couldn’t help immediately resonate with this. Like the sterling silver creeping back into my jewelry rotation…I have no clue why it is, but it feels right.
The Greek sea nymph coin is my intangible.
In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a sea nymph who fled from her home in Arcadia, beneath the sea, and transformed into a fresh water fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, Sicily. The image of Arethusa is surrounded by dolphins, and was regarded as the most famous and beautiful ancient Greek coin.
I fell in love with the silver pendant on the silver chain, as it was created by the designer on Etsy. But what I didn’t anticipate was how versatile it would be off the chain. Pictured here, the coin takes on goddess energy when strung on an ivory silk cord. The silk cord actually came from the empire waiste of a vintage nightgown, but you can also find silk cord online, this listing has colors ranging from ivory to champagne. I highly recommend; even just wearing the cord as-is would be a very femme accent to any body part.
When worn with the chunky silver chain the necklace is perfect as a weightier piece, but the ivory cord alters the feeling into something bedtimey. I really like the vibe.
worn here with a vintage slip dress from @biddefordvintagemarket — and my thrifted lace bodysuit that I serendipitously found right before a shoot where I needed a bodysuit for the model. lace bodysuit / slip dress / silk cord — the bedtimey vibe is starting to make sense :)
And here she is paired up with my strand of vintage jasper beads.
The clasp [bail] on this pendant is genius, it makes it so easy to add the coin onto pretty much any piece of jewelry. The likelihood of getting any other fixed-size bail over a string of beads this size is ..well, unlikely.
the sterling silver / stone beads combo has some serious gravity. worn here with a vintage silk shirt from @moodylords. I had never been into this shop before but made a stop while between meetings last week — it was ~so~ curated. everything was starched, ironed, steamed … I mean, it was in ship shape. felt very grown up in there. mother of pearl buttons are the icing on the silk.
I picked up this bathing suit a couple of weeks ago — it’s a thrifted fast/fashion brand but I love the simplicity of the electric turquoise color, offset by the strappy low-cut back. As soon as I bought the coin necklace I knew it was going to be perfect with this suit.
Harkening back to my swimwear-as-daywear feature from a couple of weeks ago, the turquoise suit will be in rotation once hotter weather arrives. Because it really needs to be worn with the back exposed, obv.
This morning I saw a merci c’est vintage story about a beaded necklace with statement medallion.
It made me smile that my little jasper / coin experiment was so closely aligned with the design aesthetic in this beautiful piece.
the jasper set, as seen at my dentist appointment. paired with their fabulous orange wayfarers.
signing off with a very similar sterling coin pendant that could go on an existing chain.
If there’s something sitting in your cart, in your favs, in your bookmarks bar — maybe it’s the right time to just do it and let it morph your style energy into the expansion it’s waiting to experience. Have a beautiful weekend!
xo, geo
Beauty