_The Bead Necklace_ For thousands of years the lapidaries of India have painstakingly, by hand, cut, polished and pierced rubies to fashion them into beads for necklaces. The often uneven shape is preserved so that the slight irregularity of the beads both stresses their preciousness and adds to their charm. Ruby beads are usually strung on silk or on platinum wire, as are beads of emeralds and sapphires. The beautiful glow of these precious stones is soft and flattering, no less so when interspersed with motifs of brilliant diamonds and baguettes. Such an array of rubies or deep sapphires, directly touching the radiant skin, is a breathtaking sight. _Fashions From India_ The Indian Maharanees, visiting the leading fashion centers of the world less than a century ago, came with large assortments of these precious gems. The many-stranded necklace, first seen in the gorgeous costuming of the Eastern lands, created a new fashion in the western world. Today every elegant occasion is sure to be graced with some of these necklaces of rare and exquisite beauty. I once had the pleasure of designing for Her Highness Indira Dewi, the Maharanee of Cooch-Behar, a parure of ruby beads: earrings, necklace, bracelet and ring of enormous stones, all combined with diamonds. My first visit with Her Highness held me amazed. She opened a great cowhide coffer which contained an unforgettable assortment of pouches made of the finest gold brocade; they held a veritable dream of riches. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds poured forth—thousands of carats in each pouch. I watched, as though in a vision of Aladdin’s cave, while this glimpse of the Orient was spread before me. It was much as the Elizabethan poet Christopher Marlowe pictured in his dream of the Orient splendor: Give me the merchants of the Indian mines, That trade in metal of the purest mould; The wealthy Moor, that in the eastern rocks Without control can pick his riches up And in his house heap pearls like pebble-stones, Receive them free, and sell them by the weight; Bags of fiery opals, sapphires, emeralds, Beauteous rubies, sparkling diamonds, And seld-seen costly stones of so great price As one of them indifferently rated And of a carat of this quantity May serve in peril of calamity To ransom great kings from captivity ... Infinite riches in a little room. _Other Necklace Jewels_ Necklaces are, of course, wrought with many other stones. There are soft and Battering shades of aquamarine, turquoise, amethyst, lapis lazuli, the frequent coral and the aristocratic jade—to name but a few—that look superb on a proud neck. Earclips and rings may usually be worn to match. Such parures and semiprecious stones make ideal sets for daytime wear, especially, since they combine delightfully with cotton and with chintz, for a young, fresh, summertime effect.