Today’s post continues my ‘Highlights of 2013’ series, this time focusing on the summer time releases. We’ll be looking at the best of the pieces and collections released across the summer months – and there were plenty of gorgeous pieces to choose from. Don’t forget to read Part One first!
The Pandora Bangle
The pinnacle of the summer releases, for me, was the introduction of the Pandora charm bangle. The bangle offers a fashionable hybrid, allowing you to meld the current trend for bangles with your traditional charm bracelet. You can wear it plain or fill it up with charms, just like the regular Pandora bracelet, so you can pretty much make what you want of it.
It’s simply a beautiful piece, and fits in well with the current trend for stacking jewellery – it looks beautiful stacked with other bangles, or the Essence bracelets especially.
In my opinion, the bangle shows that Pandora are considering their longevity as a brand, and are investing in beautiful fashion pieces that aren’t solely about their traditional charm bracelet.
I don’t own a Pandora bangle myself, although I have tried one in store, and loved the feel of it. It’s on my wish list for sure, and it just depends on whether I can get myself to stop buying charms and buy a new bracelet instead! ;)
I’ve just published an FAQ-type post on the bangle, so do check that out for more info :).
By The Sea collection
This summer collection debuted to rave reviews from collectors. It really beautifully expanded Pandora’s range of sea and beach-themed charms, with the delightful Splish Splash charm, the Happy Crab and One of a Kind Pearl. The collection was fun and perfectly captured the beach holiday feel of summer.
I didn’t actually buy any of this collection, bar the Sea Glass murano. I was tempted to buy the One of a Kind clam shell pearl charm as a memento of my trip to Antigua, but ended up with the Sea Glass instead, seeing as I couldn’t get it in the UK!
This is not to say that I wasn’t a fan of the summer collections; however, they just didn’t have as much meaning to me as some of the other releases from this year, and consequently I haven’t purchased as much from it.
I love the vibrancy of the two new colours of faceted muranos that came out: the teal and aqua. The teal in particular is stunning, and is perfect for a variety of bracelet themes, not just the nautical ones.
All Wrapped up in Pandora
The All Wrapped up in Pandora charm did come out for summer here in the UK, so I’ve included that in this part:
This charm was a highlight for me: I think it shows the development of Pandora’s designs very nicely. If we compare it to the original present charm, it is a much more sophisticated design. However, having said that, I do still appreciate the simplicity of design in the original Pandora present charm.
I love the little heart tag that comes with this charm. It’s worth noting that the tag problem that some people experienced with the red Black Friday version of this charm has been fixed with the pink version. It’s soldered securely on and shouldn’t fall off. The shape of the heart also means that it is less likely to slip free of the ring.
US readers will be getting this charm in January 2014, as it is being released with the Valentine’s collection. It was probably wise to wait a while after the Black Friday ‘A Precious Gift’ charm was released.
The final edition of my Highlights series will cover the Autumn/Fall and Winter collections – and there is so much to love from these! Look out for that in a week or so. :D
Did you buy anything from the Summer collections? What were your favourite pieces?