Diamonds & Pearls

Oh my good God. Diamonds and Pearls renders me a little bit speechless, which is pretty unusual. Imagine, if you will, Claires Accessories deciding that they were going to go all classy and sophisticated, and then paired up with QVC. The result would be Diamonds and Pearls.
This shop landed in Kingston a few months ago, and I checked it out last week. And let me tell you girls, have I got some Christmas pressies for you! May I tempt you in some diamanté? Some sparkly plastic jewellery that looks like it came from down the market? Hello? girls?
Some bright spark has decided that the jewellery is going to be colour coordinated in the shop, so instead of saying, ‘I fancy some earrings’, you can say ‘I fancy some pink jewellery’. Well, it’s an inspired idea, if nothing else. I’m sorry, and if the owners are reading this, I don’t mean it personally, but please, this is tat! And I know that there is always a time and place for tat, but I am struggling to find a place for this.

If bling is your thing, then this is the shop for you. At the lower end of the price spectrum, there’s plenty of sparkle for those on a budget, perfect for glittery little impulse purchases.
Although much on display here was too in-​your-​face for me, I thought the heart shaped ‘gem’-style key-​rings were pretty (I was quite tempted to see how they would work transformed into a pendant). I also liked the pretty crystal encrusted mirror compacts and key-​rings.
There’s plenty of room to browse in this busy new outlet — useful for gift-​shopping — highly appealing for youthful pocket money purchases and super-​tempting for imploring twinkling favours from parents.