What is a sautoir and how to wear it? (from beads, pearls, natural stones)

A sautoir is a woman's jewelry in the form of an elongated necklace with a hanging pendant. An original and elegant accessory is very popular among women who prefer classic, business, romantic, vintage and linen clothing styles. Also, some jewelry can be combined with a retro, casual, boho, eco, urban chic look. Sautoir - what does such jewelry bring to a woman’s image and why is it remarkable? Long chains or threads with beautiful beads are worn both on the neck and on the shoulders and even on the back. Whether it’s a shirtdress, a turtleneck or a sundress with thin straps, an ultra-long design made of precious or semi-precious stones, casually thrown over the shoulder or around the neck, instantly transforms the entire look, giving it additional charm and originality.

What is a sautoir

The beautiful decoration of the sautoir necklace came to us from France, where back in the 20s of the twentieth century, girls emphasized their thin long neck, graceful décolleté or back with the help of elongated strands of beads or chains with stones. Precious and semi-precious stones, jewelry, large rhinestones, and tassels can be used as pendants on threads. The minimum length of a sautoir is 80 cm, but the longer the jewelry, the more options there are for wearing it.

What is a sautoir and how to wear it is suggested by designers, who every season expand the line of fashionable jewelry so that girls have the opportunity to emphasize their femininity and sophistication. The sautoir is relevant this season in various variations. Beaded threads, multi-tiered chains and long beads with tassels at the ends look incredibly romantic and elegant. In modern fashion, designers recommend the following compositions of accessories and clothing:

Wear multi-colored colorful elongated beads under a bright dress or suit. An extravagant image will always allow you to stand out and outshine everyone around you with its effectiveness. And large massive beads up to the waist line are in amazing harmony with the colorful color scheme. When choosing a necklace, you should consider that the shades of the stones match the colors of the fabrics.
Black and white image. Strict men's suits with elegant white blouses remain at the peak of popularity. A few turns of a pearl necklace around the neck will highlight the feminine silhouette and contours of the figure.
We decorate a casual outfit: a sophisticated sautoir with a tassel or chains with rhinestones will perfectly complement a plain turtleneck, a golf dress, or a simple-cut jacket.

The sautoir has long ceased to be exclusively an evening accessory. The runway collections of leading stylists actively demonstrate how you can complement any look with exquisite jewelry.

From past eras

Some women have very special jewelry boxes. Such treasures are unlikely to contain fashionable new items, but grandma’s amber beads from the 50s or coral earrings that mom wore in the 70s - yes. Is there, among other things, a long string of pearls that can be wrapped around your neck 2-3 times? Or, say, a chain with a pendant hanging almost to the waist is not hidden there? Or maybe there’s a beaded thread curled up in the corner that you can wrap around from head to toe? If you are lucky enough to find something like this in your bins, rejoice! This is the sautoir. You might not know what it is, but you’ve probably seen it before, and maybe even worn it. The word just seemed unusual. This happens quite often. The fact is that the sautoir is not a new phenomenon, and today it is not experiencing its first or even second youth. The world has already gone crazy for this accessory, and now it’s time for it to return to jewelry boxes.

Well, if you are not lucky enough to find this accessory among your favorite and half-forgotten jewelry, you should not be upset. You can do it yourself. Yes, such that everyone will simply gasp!

Story

An elegant women's necklace gets its name from the French expression “porter en sautoire” - to throw over your shoulder or hang on your back. A sautoir is a long, multi-layered piece of jewelry, beads or threads with pendants; in the 20s of the 20th century it was originally worn this way - thrown over one shoulder or hung as a pendant on the back. The fashion featured a relaxed style that showed a woman's relaxed and sensuality. Sautoirs made of natural stones were casually thrown over a jacket or dress over the shoulder, or wrapped around the neck or wrist, emphasizing the girl’s liberation.

Since making a long thread of precious stones or metals required a lot of materials, and such jewelry was expensive, ordinary women could not afford them. Then the masters came up with the idea of using artificial pearls instead of natural ones, and replacing precious stones with costume jewelry. However, the effect of the decoration remained the same - an emphasized neck, décolleté line or a seductive curve of the back.

Certain types of jewelry have their own names. Thus, a sautoir made of pearls with a tassel at the end is called a bayadère. The unsurpassed Coco Chanel often used it when going out. Later, this type of decoration became the hallmark of the Chanel fashion house.

In the 40s of the twentieth century in America, women decorated their evening look with a string of pearls or elongated chains. At the ends, sautoirs often had a large diamond or other precious stone, a gold lock or a tassel made of natural fibers. The popular decoration in the era of retro style gradually lost its relevance.

And this accessory was remembered again in 2012, when stylists were developing images for the film adaptation of the novel Anna Karenina. Later, the film “The Great Gatsby” strengthened the fashion for an exquisite necklace. The film was an incredible success, and since the sautoir often appeared in the outfits of almost all the heroines, many fans of the film wore the vintage accessory in everyday life.

These days, the fashion brands Dsquared2 and Tiffany produce sautoirs of various styles that look great with both a cocktail dress and jeans.

What sautoirs are in fashion now?

The sautoirs are still relevant today. Sautoirs consisting of multi-tiered chains or beads are fashionable. Tassels and numerous gold threads have not lost their popularity.

Jewelry made in ethnic style deserves special attention. Casual Indian sautoirs with large colored beads, sea shells and corals are the perfect complement to cocktail dresses.

But pearl sautoirs remain an absolute hit for all time. They go perfectly with any look - from a little black dress to jeans with a T-shirt.

If we talk about how to wear a sautoir in fashion now, there are many options: with low-necked dresses and T-shirts, on the arm in the form of a bracelet, and even as a hair accessory. It all depends on the imagination of the owner of the jewelry.

Types of sautoir

There are a variety of product models in fashion that can elegantly dilute your look and highlight the feminine lines of your figure. The following types of jewelry are considered the most popular:

beaded sautoir decorated with a tassel of silk threads;
a sautoir made of pearls that looks elegant both on the chest and on the back of a woman. Long strands of artificial pearls are worn on the neck, wrist, shoulder, and also decorate a handbag with them;
sautoir with tassel – decoration in the form of a thin chain of precious metal or many chains, exquisitely decorating the neckline or shoulder blades. An integral part of such a necklace is an elegant tassel made of silk or natural bristle;
sautoir made of natural stones - gems can be selected by color, size, shape, or it is possible to combine materials of different shades and sizes;

multi-layered beads in ethno style - large painted beads of various colors complement multi-colored clothes well.
When choosing the right type of decoration, you should start from the general style of the entire image, the time of year and hairstyle.

Sautoir with a tassel: master class

We pass pins through all the beads, not forgetting about the huggers. We round off the tips of the pins with round nose pliers and cut off the excess metal.
Cut the chain into pieces of 3-7 cm.
We connect the chains and pin loops one by one, forming a sautoir.
When the product reaches the desired length, we connect its ends, attach the bead, and fix the tassel to it.

Using the same principle, you can make a sautoir with a tassel not on a chain, but on a thread with beads. And if you know how to knit beaded ropes, this skill can be useful here too. The main condition is that the length of the product must be large enough.

How to wear it

A long necklace is a very feminine accessory, which can also help correct your appearance and change the lines of your silhouette. Modern stylists share their recommendations on how to complement your look with exquisite jewelry:

Girls with long necks are recommended to stylishly highlight their assets with the help of properly selected clothes and jewelry. To create a casual look, you can use a plain shirt or golf and a thin sautoir made of beads or chains. You should avoid deep necklines, which can disrupt the optimal proportions of the entire look.
For those girls who cannot boast of a long neck, you should select your bow especially carefully. It is worth paying attention to clothes with a midline neckline or a deep cutout at the back. Multilayer necklaces made of small beads with a large stone or tassel at the end will optimally complement a romantic look.
Chubby beauties tend to give their facial features more pointed shapes. To do this, you should choose a sweater or blouse with a V-neck, and on top put on a multi-colored long necklace made of square or shaped beads, but not round ones.
To add a festive touch to your business look, you should use a sautoir of bright colors. This accessory will elegantly complement a dark-colored business suit.
Slender girls who are going to shine at a party in a short cocktail dress can also add a special personality to their look by decorating their clothes with a contrasting color sautoir made of beads or stones.

Don't be afraid to try and use original jewelry in any of your looks. Fashion trends do not dictate strict rules regarding the choice of accessories. A stylish, elegant sautoir will help you place the right accents and highlight your figure and expressive facial features.

Use it correctly

How and with what to wear such an interesting piece of jewelry as a fashionable sautoir? The most obvious and popular option is to combine it with a dress. Depending on the design and the location and depth of the neckline, you can place the accessory either in the front of the neckline or in the back on the back.

Modern girls love to experiment and often do it very skillfully, and designers adopt some bold ideas. Therefore, you can try to fit the sautoir into your everyday look and wear it with a top or jumper and jeans, a pencil skirt, or a “new look” style. You can try to put together an interesting set with a blouse: the decoration will somewhat soften the severity of such a thing and emphasize femininity.

There are more original ways. For example, a sautoir wrapped around a hand and gently falling onto the wrist will look no less beautiful and interesting. You can also use this accessory to decorate your handbag by wrapping it around the handle or attaching it to another decorative element. And finally, with your little help, the decoration can turn into a feminine and original belt that will complement any modest dress and make the image playful or luxurious.

Advice: never forget the rule of appropriateness. If at a social event, corporate event, party or date a sautoir will come in very handy and will make you a queen, then it is better not to wear such jewelry to work or important meetings, it will distract from the main thing and contribute to the perception of you as a frivolous and frivolous person.

If you don’t have a fashionable sautoir yet, be sure to buy one and try to combine it with different components of your wardrobe!

Create a sautoir with your own hands!

Long fashionable beads from the last century of the Art Deco era have been successfully transformed into new stylish jewelry. As a rule, they are a beaded rope with a pendant, clusters of beads or chain tassels.

With the easy approach of craftsmen and fans of hand made, the sautoir is becoming increasingly popular as a designer handmade decoration. Many modern needlewomen are fond of creating jewelry with their own hands, because every person can make a sautoir. Perhaps you would like to try it too?

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