“Pearls,” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis famously remarked, “are always appropriate” — and, she might have added, never more so than when it comes to weddings. Pearls have graced the throats of brides for millennia, ever since the ancient Greeks embraced them as emblems of love and marriage.
Somewhat more recently, they’ve been the favored wedding accessories of celebrated brides from Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, and actress-turned-princess Grace Kelly to modern royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle to pop culture royalty including Emma Stone, Jennifer Lopez, and Ariana Grande. Diamonds may sparkle, but pearls glow, as if inhabited by some otherworldly light.
That glow, known in the trade as luster, derives from pearls’ unlikely origin in a gritty biological process: When a mollusk like an oyster is invaded by a shell fragment or some other irritant, it secretes layer after layer of a substance called nacre to protect itself. And so, a process that begins in the gland of a bivalve yields a gem that, until about 1920, was one of the rarest — and costliest — in the world.
Enter Kokichi Mikimoto, a Japanese entrepreneur, who in the early days of the 20th century developed a process for farming — or “culturing” — pearls. By seeding an oyster with a small, rounded bead made from a freshwater mussel shell, he was able to jump-start the oyster’s production of nacre to create, over time, a pearl that looked exactly like those produced in nature. In fact, says Reema Farooqi, executive director of the Pearl Association of America, “to tell whether a pearl is cultured, you’d need an Xray machine to see if there’s a bead inside it.”
Prized for their rarity, natural pearls tend to be far more expensive than cultured. In fact, notes Kentaro Nishimura, president and CEO of Mikimoto America (the company founded by Kokichi Mikimoto), “natural pearls are primarily found in museum collections and among specialized collectors.”
Today, the vast majority of pearls sold — including those purchased by brides (and occasionally, by grooms) — are cultured. According to Ruby Autore, founder of the Australian pearl house Autore Moda, their popularity as a bridal accessory is actually growing. “Pearls have evolved from something purely traditional,” she says, “into something effortlessly modern and deeply personal.”
In addition to the conventional string of pearls, brides are incorporating pearls as earrings, charm necklaces, hair accessories, and gown embellishments, and grooms are sporting them in brooches. “Layering and mixing styles have also become increasingly popular,” notes Nishimura. Pearls have even found their way into engagement rings, accompanying or replacing diamonds. In actress Emma Stone’s ring, for instance, an eye-poppingly large pearl is the star (or, in the parlance of the trade, the hero stone), surrounded by a supporting cast of small diamonds.
Shopping for Pearls: The Five S’s to Know
If you plan to make pearls a part of your big day, you’ll need to be cognizant of what Autore calls the Five S’s:
- The soul — or the luster — of the pearl. It’s by far the most important factor to consider when you’re casting your net for pearls, the most lustrous of which are graded AAA or AAAA and carry a luster rating of High to Very High. “Luster, says Nishimura, “defines the pearl’s beauty and depth.” You can actually see your reflection in a high-quality pearl, and the sharper the image, the more lustrous the pearl.
- The surface. You’re looking for a smooth surface, largely free of bumps and/or pits. “Pearls with fewe surface blemishes are always much more desirable than a pearl that is blemished because blemishes make the pearl duller,” notes Farooqi.
- The shape. “A perfectly round shape is rare,” says Autore, but the rounder the pearl, the more desirable it is — with a caveat. So-called baroque pearls, with their unique, organic shapes, are becoming increasingly popular.
- The size. Large pearls are having their day, and all things being equal, the largest pearls will command the highest prices, with a caveat: “A perfectly proportioned, luminous pearl can be more desirable than a larger but less radiant one,” says Nishimura.
- Shade. Say “pearl,” and most people think white. But in fact, pearls come in a dazzling variety of colors, including pink, gold, and black. “Color is always a personal preference,” says Farooqi, who nevertheless notes that most brides choose white pearls or white with a pink overtone. In fact, the latter are more valuable than purely white pearls; you’ll find them marketed under names like Rosé and Rosé Premium.
And then there’s craftsmanship. If you’re buying strands or earrings, you’ll want to see how well the pearls match, advises Nishimura.
The Price of Pearls
Real pearls span price points per strand from a few hundred dollars to well over a million. Generally on the lower end are freshwater pearls. “You can find a lowerquality freshwater strand in the hundreds of dollars,” says Farooqi. Higher-quality freshwater strands tend to go for $500 to $1,000, while those of the best quality sell for $1,500 and more.
A strand of small akoya pearls will likely fetch between $300 and $500; strands composed of 7- to 8-mm pearls, on the other hand, will cost you $800 to $2,000, and a strand of 8.5- to 9-mm akoyas is likely to go for $3,000 to $6,000. Expect strands of even larger akoyas to fetch $5,000 to $10,000 and up.
Tahitian pearls tend to be slightly more expensive than akoyas. You can get a lower-quality strand for several hundred dollars, but those of higher quality can range from $1,500 to $3,000, with best quality examples usually running from $10,000 to $20,000.
South Sea pearls are, in general, the costliest among the four pearl categories. Autore notes that “high-quality South Sea pearl jewelry can range from $300 to well over $300,000.” Expect to pay between $1,500 and $30,000 (and up) for a strand of 9- to 15-mm South Sea pearls and even more for those with a golden hue.
Got your heart set on natural pearls? Plan to dig deep: The least valuable strand will cost you about $10,000, and top-quality natural pearls can set you
back millions.
Whatever your final choice, keep in mind, Autore advises, that “a bridal pearl piece is often an investment — something you’ll wear far beyond your wedding day.”
Diving Deeper
Pearls are also classified according to their place of origin. Most broadly, they’re either freshwater or saltwater. The majority of freshwater pearls — which are usually cultured in mussels as opposed to oysters — are developed in the lakes and rivers of China, though some are farmed in the U.S. and Japan. They’re often less rounded than saltwater pearls, but unlike the latter, they’re frequently valued for their irregular shapes.
A relatively new freshwater product, known as Edison pearls, come in an unprecedented variety of metallic colors, including deep purple, baby pink, peach, and copper.
Among the saltwater pearls there are three distinct categories:
- Akoya: That perfect pearl you see when you close your eyes? It’s probably an akoya: “It’s round, it’s white, it’s lustrous; it has beautiful nacre,” says Farooqi. Akoyas include those bridefavored white pearls with pink overtones.
- South Sea: These pearls are cultured in and around the South China Sea, in northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and parts of Myanmar. “The rarest and most luxurious of cultured pearls,” says Autore, “they’re known for their large size and rich luster and represent the pinnacle of pearl craftsmanship.” South Sea pearls come in shades of white and gold.
- Tahitian: Farmed predominantly in French Polynesia, Tahitian pearls are naturally dark, with striking overtones in shades of green, peacock, and dark purple.
While most of the saltwater pearls you’ll find in jewelry stores had their start in an oyster, many mollusks produce pearls, and some of them are quite sought-after, though, as Nishimura notes, “they’re non-nacreous, often displaying flamelike structures or iridescent colors.” Conch pearls, for instance, are loved for their range of pinks. Clam pearls, which can either be round or organically shaped, have the look of porcelain; inside each of them is a small flame pattern that moves when the light hits it, like a star sapphire. And the most valuable pearl of all doesn’t hail from an oyster but from a black and white sea snail in an orange shell known as the melo melo.
Its large, round pearls, the most desirable of which are a deep orange, take decades to grow, and if you were inclined to go diving for one, odds are you’d have to look through several thousand melo melos before hitting the jackpot.
Conch, clam, and melo melo pearls occur naturally, meaning they’re incredibly rare. But what they share with all pearls is their transformation, through a natural act of self-protection, into a small but glorious miracle of nature.
It’s a long-held story that you can tell a real pearl from a fake by rubbing it against your teeth. A fake, in theory, will feel smooth, while the real thing will, ironically, feel rough against your teeth. In fact, the story’s true — though you’d be better off shopping for pearls at a reputable jeweler than putting them in your mouth.
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