Whilst browsing Pinterest, I saw someone posted a fabulous piece by Alexis Bittar, who has been described as " One of the greatest jewelry designers of the 21st century"*. His website has a very lovely life story describing his journey from selling his designs on the streets of New York to getting into department stores, designing for and with Burburry, Micheal Kors, and Jason Wu, not to mention designing Lucite masks for Lady Gaga and having the first Lady, Micheal Obama wear numerous pieces during interviews, etc.
While the pieces are very glamorous and have a vintage feel ( an inspiration when first designing), they are also very affordable while remaining luxurious.
Here are a couple of my favorite pieces form his website
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Also check out Bittars blog, to find out about sample sales, new pieces he is working on, films and people he is collaborating with, etc, etc,
*http://www.alexisbittar.com/pages.php?pageid=8