One of the most famous quotes about jewelry is a quote by Sonja Henie, a figure skating icon from the 40s that says, “Jewelry takes people’s minds off your wrinkles.” This quote accurately represents the way we as a society have viewed aging in this negative light probably because of the fear of our own mortality. For the longest time, the fashion world and the advertising world have shunned life’s one guarantee, our mortality by bombarding us with images of young flawless people, who more often than not know nothing of life. While the older, mostly wiser people are cast into the shadow where they are to be forgotten. With this I emphatically disagree. Allow me to present to you – Betsy “Queen of Beads” When I started working at John Bead as a photographer I noticed this lady who came into the office 3 times a week. She walked around and everyone loved her. I later learned she was the founder of John Bead. To make it crazier she was 93 years old. Time went by and I continued to be amazed at how much energy she had. She barely used a walking cane, her hearing was just fine and she had the loudest laugh in the building. What really caught my eye however, was her sense of style. I’d see her put together clothing and jewelry in a way I had been led to believe was reserved for younger more adventurous people. It made me challenge the notion that fashion is for the young. We have so many couture pieces of jewelry that were commissioned by John Bead to great jewelers from Canada and around the world that had never really been showcased in a high end fashion sense. So I decided to use the most secretly stylish person I knew to make this happen.
