mercoledì 4 marzo 2015

Kate-Inspired Purchase Review: Nizam of Hyderabad Necklace Repli-Kate from AliExpress

Hello, everyone!
I'm finally back with my latest repli-kate review - I'm sorry this took a long time coming, but it's an incredibly busy time at work, and of course my real-life job has to take precedence.
First of all, this is as much a repli-kate purchase review as it is a repli-Queen (does the word even exist? I don't suppose it does!) review.
As most of you will probably be aware, the Nizam of Hyderabad necklace was, in fact, a wedding present for Princess Elizabeth in 1947 (more background on the necklace in my blog post here).



 
The Queen on the cover of Elizabeth - Reigning in Style by Jane Eastoe, in a 1951 photo by Dorothy Wilding.
 
The necklace was loaned to the Duchess of Cambridge for her appearance at the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait Gala on 11 February 2014.
 


Incidentally, I must say that Jenny Packham gown has been paired with some amazing jewellery so far! Anyway, back to the matter at hand, earlier this year, a link to this great AliExpress find was shared on Facebook (apologies, as now I can't remember where exactly the original link appeared).


As I had a fancy dress Mardi Gras party I planned to attend dressed up as the Queen, I ordered one straight away. The necklace was $10.50 (approximately €9.00 or £7.00), including registered shipping with China Post Air Mail. Other shipping options are available at an extra charge. Using China Post, the necklace took about 3 weeks to arrive.


 
 

 
I was absolutely bowled over with the overall quality of the necklace when I opened the parcel!
The crystal part is amazingly well done and the crystals very sparkly (the photos don't do them justice). The only major difference with the original necklace is that the real Cartier piece has a chain of 38 brilliant-cut diamonds, whereas the AliExpress repli-kate doesn't have a crystal chain, but a faux pearl one.
 

 
This is, in fact, the only part of the necklace that denotes its $10.50 price tag, as you can tell the pearls are of the cheap variety. This would have been an all-round amazing piece had they used the same crystals for the main body of the necklace and the chain, although if you are deft with a pair of round-nose pliers the pearl part looks like it can easily be removed and substitued with something more of your liking.
 



On the whole, this is a purchase I definitely recommend if you like the Nizam necklace.  Very well made (the crystal part can easlily look like a $$$ piece, instead of a $ one), good customer service, tracking was provided...really nothing to complain about! Not sure how much wear you can get out of it except in a fancy dress or summer evening type of occasion, but that really is down to personal preference in terms of style of jewellery etc.
The same AliExpress store I ordered from has a version with blue stones and one with red, and I'll be ordering the blue one to wear in the summer - for $10.50, you can hardly go wrong!

And finally, this is me in full on regalia dressed up as HM for my fancy dress party! :)



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