Hi Y’all,

Today was a good day I hope I have me a great night. I won’t even let Orlando’s win over Lakers keep me down. It’s all good. I was supposed to post a little something on the bling for a good minute now, but have just not got around to do so.

There have been quite a few articles advocating the effect recession has had on bling culture. Sources are saying people are no longer rocking VVS’s and have switched from 18k gold to 12k gold jewelry. Some are even maintaining the icy look with synthetic diamonds. Everyone can do their own judgement on who’s rocking a real deal and who not. (Note: I am not implying there is anything wrong with Yung Joc’s chain, heh. As per what I heard the chain uses industrial clasp to keep the chain intact due to the excessive weight. For those who might be interested, haha)

The bling has become such an important aspect of a rapper’s image that he/she feels the need to be able to portray the image public expects to see by any means necessary.  Even if this requires rocking less karats and smokey diamonds. But as long as there is demand, there will be supply. It is also concerning to hear about jewelers trading shakey gold alloys as real deal. This was (and still is) a huge concern of many professional  jewelers in Asia back in 2006 and 2007 when the gold prices had started their climb to 1000 USD per ounce. Many “artists” thus look for profit selling jewelry at high prices when the actual alloy does not actually even contain enough gold to match the selling price.

To quote Miguel Bustillo’s article Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth as the Recession Melts Rappers’ Ice, “A lot of these rappers simply don’t have the money for real stuff anymore,” says Jason Arasheben, who crafts custom jewelry for wealthy clientele, including Saudi royals and Hollywood movie stars, at his California boutique called Jason of Beverly Hills. “It’s to the point where they are wearing imitation jewelry, and that’s ridiculous.”

The jewelry market just like fashion industry needs to match the consumer’s demand. And when the demand is for flashy ice-pieces and chains the jewelers will produce these, the problem is that some of the consumers can not differentiate between low quality diamonds and the high quality ones as their main objective is just to achieve the shine no matter what.

This is not only evident in jewelry but in the denim market as well. Recently commercial brands such as Gap, Topshop and Jack & Jones have introduced their selvedge jeans lines to meet up with public’s increasing interest over selvedge jeans. Seems that everyone is jumping on the selvedge bandwagon and can you blame them? I guess it’s a good thing these products are available for public as long as the quality meets everyone’s expectations. But what many may miss is that selvedge alone does not equal high quality. Although the jeans are selvedge, majority are mass produced and unfortunately often do not meet the artisan quality of premium denim produced with vintage shuttle looms.

Again, high quality shuttle loom selvedge denim alone is just one part of making a great pair of jeans. The jeans can be produced by artisans using the vintage equipment or mass produced. But it’s the combination of vintage tools, artisan spirit, time and effort put to making a pair of jeans that make the jeans or jewelry special.

You can check out Miguel Bustillo’s article after the jump.
Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth as the Recession Melts Rappers’ Ice

Well that’s all for now. Stay posted on updates, check out the Momotaro competition in collaboration with Kitmeout and the KIKS TYO promotion is still on as well.

With respect to today’s bling edition, I thus leave you with a list that sure made me smile, Top 10 most ridiculous rapper chains.

Keep grinding y’all. I’m out…