If you want to make your personality shine, bling jewelry is the best assistant. The main purpose of the sparkling iced-out pieces is to make the person wearing them significant and noticeable. This type of jewelry is meant to make a loud statement about wealth and success of the owner. How would people around you guess that you’re rich, if you don’t have a jewelry item covered in diamonds?
Let’s discuss the terms concerning jewelry with diamonds for the start. The concept “iced-out” means that the jewelry piece – a necklace, pendant, ring, watch, etc. – is covered with diamonds. But the coverage may be different. For example, the “ghost” is said about the diamond jewelry where you can see the metal it is made of among the gems. When the jewelry is referred to as “flooded”, it means that the whole surface is laid with stones. And there’s also the term “dripping” that is often used for the jewelry with precious stones that are set so close to each other that it creates the illusion they’re dripping off the metal that makes its base.
Now that we got acquainted with the diamond jewelry slang, we may proceed to the main topic. How did iced out jewelry became so popular? We won’t get into the depths of history and the jewelry masterpieces that were created for kings and queens, though they were really fond of the trinkets encrusted with gems. Instead, we’ll talk about the iced out jewelry we are used to now. With the rising of rap and hip-hop culture in the 1980s-1990s, jewelry became the initial part of every respective rapper’s image. It all began with simply massive gold chains and pendants, rapidly turning into the over the top ostentatious pieces covered with diamonds and taking the titles of the largest, the heaviest and the priciest jewelry in the Guinness World Records. Different cuts of diamond, known before were chosen to reach the best sparkle and when that was not enough the new types of settings and cuts were invented to get the maximum shine out of the iced-out jewelry.
It all started with the desire of rappers to demonstrate what a simple guy from the street can reach with the help of his talent and will. The more successful the rapper becomes the bigger bling he has to wear. Massive Cuban and Rope chains flooded hip-hop fashion, demanding for the jewelry to become chunkier and more expensive with each item, launching a severe jewelry challenge among rappers. When the gold jewelry exhausted its appeal, there came diamond chains. The pounds of iced-out chains, pendants, bracelets, rings, watches became the significant part of the rap culture of the early 2000s, when the music videos with rap celebrities covered in dazzling jewelry overflowed the MTV and other charts. That was where society got the idea that iced-out jewelry is the synonym of sweet, wealthy and glamorous life. Iced-out jewelry has firmly taken the place of the success’s satellite in the minds of people. Taking into consideration that the expensive jewelry with diamonds was available only to the rich and famous, it resulted in a boom of rhinestones and crystals. First, they were used only in jewelry, but very soon they could be seen all over the clothes, shoes and other accessories. In one moment the world around has suddenly become more shiny and dazzling.
But the brighter the trend the more short-termed it is. Getting tired of flashy images that repeat themselves is in the people’s nature, so the “visual noise” caused by the abundance of glittering and shimmering images bored the audience. The high cost of the iced-out jewelry, the association with not always positive image of rap and hip-hop representatives, the over the top designs that are deprived of practical component and were generally inappropriate in everyday life resulted in the “tacky” label placed on the trend.
The iced-out jewelry has come and go in the mainstream fashion, but nothing has changed much inside the rap culture, though. For them, it’s the integral part of their lifestyle and the way of self-realization. Such celebrities as 50 Сent, Jay-Z and P. Diddy became the icons anyone in those surrounding wish to follow. They are undeniable trendsetters that lead the fashion that thousands follow. They’ve started something that it seems impossible to stop anymore. It’s enough to take a look at the already created iced-out pendants, their size, design and cost. The wildest examples include the Yung Berg’s pendant that’s paying homage to the transformers’ franchise and cost $70 000; the ostentatious Quavo’s “Ratatouille” pendant where he’s pictured holding the famous Remy rat priced $250 000; the scandalous huge flooded “Big Ass Chain” pendant belonging to T-Pain for $410 000; Mike Jones’s “Ice Age” pendant that has already a 7-digit price of $1 000 000; and, of course, Rick Ross’s self-portrait in diamonds known to have the price of $1 500 000! And there’s so much more jewelry that is limited only by the imagination, meaning you can see literally anything dripping in diamonds. In the end, the iced-out jewelry is one of the ways to compensate for the often humble childhood.
That’s clear enough that not everyone is ready to break the bank to get the iced out jewelry for themselves. That’s why there are options that are considerably cheaper without the noticeable change in the look of iced-out jewelry. Cubic zirconia is great for diamond jewelry replicas and is frequently used for flooded items. The composition of cubic zirconia consists of zirconium oxide, making it a rather cheap substitution for diamonds. Another great option is the moissanite. The silicon carbide that makes its foundation provides a higher refractive index than the cubic zirconia. This means that comparing the two diamond replicas we’ll notice that the moissanite is more sparkly than the cubic zirconia, thus having more resemblance with diamonds. The result is the moissanite is more expensive than the cubic zirconia, but less pricey than the diamonds.
With such options to get the iced-out jewelry at a relatively low price in recent years the trend returned the interest in it to people with no relations to show business. Bling jewelry is already a frequent guest at the fashion shows of famous designers and is rapidly returning into mainstream fashion. Rap, hip-hop and R’n’B cultures are making the comeback lately and influence music, TV and fashion greatly. So, if you’re wondering whether it’s appropriate to wear the iced-out jewelry today, the answer is yes. But keep it moderate. Remember, that for rappers it’s the stage image, part of their show, their uniform, if you please. Pounds of gold and diamonds are not very practical in real life. But who’s here to judge if it’s your decision?
The history of every trend has its rise and fall. The fashion moves by the spiral, repeating the twists each time it has nothing new to offer. They say, the new is a well-forgotten old, and it works with the iced-out jewelry as well. Even if it won’t return as a fashion trend it still remains a good money investment, which may become quite handy once.
