The holiday season is always a time of sparkle and color, but this year trendsetters are pulling out all the stops in highlighting the right gems to help brighten clothes and jewelry. If there is one dominant trend for this winter season, according to GIA experts, it is embellishment. Plain, understated styles are not the ones women will be donning this year.

In evening wear, designers put the emphasis on metallic gold, fur and beaded trims, and lush jewel-toned fabrics such as velvet, cashmere, and brocade. Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli, famous for their eccentric styles, based their holiday collections on velvet. Other fashion leaders opted for beaded and fur trims on everything from suits and cocktail dresses to evening bags.

With all these exciting fashion details, how does one slip on the right accessories? Design experts from GIA, the world’s foremost authority in gemology, say fine jewelry is an important finishing touch for any elegant woman. To celebrate the grand return of the chunky cocktail ring, their suggestion is to choose from a wide spectrum of candy-colored gems to complement vibrant holiday styles. Popular varieties this season will be led by irresistible pinks and yellows, such as those seen in pink sapphire, pink tourmaline, and kunzite, or citrine, yellow sapphire, and even yellow diamonds. This colorful array of lush gem choices also ranges from the cool blues of sapphire, tanzanite, and aquamarine, to the vibrant greens of emerald, peridot, and tsavorite garnet.

One of the hottest new accessories for the holiday season is the fur shrug. This elegant wrap is often tied with a ribbon and worn casually over a suit or a strapless dress. How to add the right jewelry to make your own unique statement? One sure way is to add hot, diamond stiletto earrings that shimmer as they reflect those holiday lights. The stiletto, a long drop earring that extends from the earlobe to the shoulder, is the “must-have” item of the season.

The bold, vintage-inspired brooch that caught the media’s attention this fall is stronger than ever for this winter season. Worn in unexpected places like the waistline of a dress, the shoulder of a suit, in the hair, or on a handbag, brooches run the gamut from antique-looking diamonds and gold to over-the-top confections loaded with multicolored gemstones, like those named above. Whether you are gift shopping or buying the perfect jewelry to complete your own holiday attire, the rich palette of gemstones can help to brighten the season’s colors for you.

For additional information about gemstones and jewelry, as well as education opportunities in these fields, click here, or call 800-421-7250.