Oversize Jewelry Is a Big Hit With Designers

This spring, the big news in jewelry is, well, big. The bigger the better. Paris designers Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent, and New Yorkers Oscar de La Renta and Isaac Mizrahi, were among those who showed how to handle the oversize effect when they accessorized spring suits or coat and dress ensembles with weighty examples of bright, bold gold.

Wide cuff bracelets are worn in matched or unmatched pairs. Lapel brooches expand to 4 inches across, earrings brush the shoulder or sit on the lobe like massive shields, belt buckles can increase body weight by five pounds.

This look will not pass with summer. Big bold gold pieces were seen in the Milan fall collections and in some of the Paris shows this week.

All of it is obviously costume jewelry and seems to echo Coco Chanel, an early champion of fabulous fakes. Most of it harks back to ancient cultures when real, 24-karat gold was pounded, molded and cast into impressive symbols of wealth, beauty and mystical power.

“It’s the ‘I spent a bundle’ look without actually doing so,” says Los Angeles jewelry sales representative Kathleen Matson. “Women collect jewelry; it gives them a lift. I think this new bolder, bigger jewelry means they want a big lift.”