




I was lucky enough to spend the day yesterday with Jan Fisher, AICI FLC a New Zealand based image consultant who you have met before here and here with her ideas for dressing women of a certain age.
We went out for lunch and dropped into a local boutique and discovered this great necklace, which she had to take home. I though it appropriate that I take her photo to share with you some ideas on wearing long necklaces and also about the scale of the necklace.
Upscaling jewellery to match personality and scale.
The benefits of a long necklace is that they feel casual and fun. Jan loves a distinctive piece. She has large eyes and a generous mouth, large beads work for her scale. She also has a dramatic personality. For those of you who haven’t met her before, she’s also 60 years old, but always comes across as much younger. Her attitude to life is youthful, and so is her dress, yet there isn’t a scerick of mutton dressed as lamb is there?

What Jan did with picking this piece is that she pulled the colours out of her outfit, they are not exactly the same, but there is a reminiscence of the colours, the red is not exactly the same the cardigan and top, the brown beads go with the boots, the yellow that work with Jan’s hair and the silver spacers make the piece more casual than gold would, and make it feel less heavy.
Jan’s body shape is very H, and the dominant beads are a similar shape to her body shape, they are long soft rectangular shapes.
The long necklace also creates nice slimming verticals through Jan’s middle, which is where she carries her weight.
Longer necklaces often work better with higher necklines and can be more difficult to carry off with a larger bust. If you have a larger bust you’d want a shorter one that doesn’t droop over the end of your bust peak (otherwise they tend to flap).
What a great hero this necklace is, it makes her otherwise plainer outfit pop, but without feeling fussy or overdone.
Have to apologise for the quality of the photo – my camera died yesterday and I had to take this with my mobile phone.






So true, what you wrote. The long, showy necklace snatches colors from her outfit nicely, making her actually glow! However, as much as I have liked these hero necklaces ( I have had shorter versions though ), I suddenly came to a point, when I realized, that I only wish to wear " real" ones. And with real ones, I don´t mean that they have to be pearls,gold nor silver. My last purchase was a mix of ceramic beads, which I can wear in different ways.
It is a great hero piece and I especially like how you describe the colors as reminiscent of the colors she is wearing. I love necklaces like that but usually find them overwhelming on my frame. I'll have to give them another look. Do you think that you have to be a certain height to wear a piece that long?
great post, I love it when Jan shows up in your posts. I can totally identify with her. As a matter of fact,I made a copy of one of her Hero-pieces. The red coat with the taupe lapel. I hope she doesn't mind, us showing up at the same event is quite impossible I think 😉
sorry, forgot to mention my name in the previous comment!
Ann-Marie NL
When I get dressed these days I think of you. I'll be adding this tip when I think about what accessories to add to my outfit.
I find that pearls (surprise!) are brilliant b/c you can knot a long rope to take the eye where you want: up toward the throat or lower on the torso if your bust is average to small. Or leave them long and swingy. Big beads + big bust look very dowagerish.