Lapis lazuli's reception in Europe through the Silk Road trade established a prestige that was maintained consistently across centuries. Reserved for sacred art and royal jewelry in the medieval and Renaissance periods, it later appeared in Catherine the Great's room-scale lapis panel installations, the most ambitious application of any gemstone material in architectural history.
Visually Speaking
What makes a layered necklace read as a deliberate stack rather than overlapping chains is length separation. The strands should be spaced far enough apart for each to each occupy a distinct visual plane, producing the curated effect. Insufficient differentiation causes the layers to merge and lose the design logic.
Value & Quality
Beautiful, well-made, and attainable. That's the idea Ross-Simons was founded on, and it hasn't shifted in over seventy years. The consistency matters because it means the collection was never built around a different set of priorities that got rebranded later.
