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"  All month long, jewelry designer Pamela Love will be penning a guest column for the BAZAAR Report about destinations that inspire her. Look for her posts every Monday in April.  I&amp;#039;ve taken a lot of inspiration for my collections from India&amp;#039;s jewelry culture and its rich history. I really like the idea of jewelry forms evolving from an ancient tradition and carrying that cultural inheritance forward, as opposed to fads that pop up only to disappear months later. While many Western empires have waxed and waned (each popularizing different styles and customs during their reign), traditional Indian jewelry-making has continued to evolve uninterrupted from its ancient origins. As early as 1500 BC, local civilizations wore beads in their hair and around their necks as well as bangles and ornaments made out of metal, glass, seeds, bones, claws, and even teeth. Each aspect of the jewelry created held a specific meaning. Combining precious metals like gold, bronze, and silver was believed to provide strength. Production methods, designs, and materials could all hold spiritual meaning \u2014 many pieces were believed to wield mystical powers of protection. A lot of the natural patterns and components of current Indian jewelry represent the same traditional meanings they did thousands of years ago. I love that traditional Indian jewelry tells a story about its wearer: their religion, marital status, beliefs, and more. Widowed women, for example, wear no jewelry (can you imagine?!) In current Western culture, jewelry is rarely considered to hold meaning beyond simple decoration. But even simple decorative jewelry provides information about the wearer \u2014 if nothing more than taste and social status. Many women feel naked without certain pieces of jewelry \u2014 their wedding ring, an heirloom pendant, a watch they never take off. But for some Indian women, jewelry is even more of a necessity. Until recent years Indian women were not allowed to own land, so their dowry and means of security were based solely on the jewels they owned. Imagine not being accepted as a wife or into a community without the right accessories! Are there more cultural parallels than we realized between Manhattan and India? To see more from Pamela Love&amp;#039;s column, read her essay on Mexico.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/travel-dining/advice/a6807/pamela-love-india-041111/>