By Nadine Kam

This butterfly necklace is the result of a collaboration
between Jade by Nikolai and Shanghai Tang.

Nikolai Tsang of Jade by Nikolai hosted a Tea Party and Earring Event Aug. 25 at Kilohana Square, where women could try on her jade, pearl and gemstone creations while sipping tea, guava champagne and enjoying a light lunch and desserts from Kelvin Ro’s Diamond Head Market & Grill, plus mousse and baked confections from Sugar Rush by Francis. Guests also admired the table centerpiece, an arrangement by Rainforest, that incorporated the exotic, carnivorous pitcher plant. Though deadly to insects, it’s lovely to behold.

Nikolai, right, and her mother Alice Tsang.

The last time I saw Nikolai, she was sporting dramatic red tresses. This time, her hair was colored a doll-like lilac. She also wore a stunning hand-dyed wrap by Burgundy, of Shibori by Burgundy. Nikolai accessorized with a butterfly brooch of her own design.

New to the Jade by Nikolai collections are purse charms of carved jade and other semi-precious stones. Colleen Furuya-Smithson attached one to her Louis Vuitton purse and kept it on for the entire event, while she tried to make a decision.

Of special interest were limited-edition collaborative necklaces made for Shanghai Tang’s New York, Singapore and Malaysia markets. Imagine a larger version of Chinese silk “frog” closures as the necklace centerpiece, which is then surrounded by a mix of jade and gemstones. Susan Kodani tried on the two on display, one red, the other yellow. The yellow was a perfect match for the blouse she was wearing, and upon seeing her pass by, News 8’s Sharie Shima went after her, saying something along the lines of, “Excuse me, I have to go follow her. She has the necklace I want.”

Susan Kodani tries on the necklace at the top of the page. Sharie Shima followed her, hoping she would put it back, before trying on the dragonfly necklace shown below. Kodani took home a red version of the necklace instead.

Gay Wong, of Mutual Publishing, intervened, showing Shari a necklace of black stones incorporating a dragonfly pendant. In the end, Shari left with three jade bracelets, while Gay, who was on her way to Holokai Grill for Mutual’s release of Mark Sullivan’s book, “Hawaiian Tropical Cocktails Created with the Fruits of the Islands,” reminded her, “Hey, this is supposed to be an earring event.”

Oddly enough, the only one who couldn’t get into the earrings was Nikolai, who still doesn’t have pierced ears. “That’s OK,” she said, “I have other things to wear.”

Shibori by Burgundy will be in New York Sept. 16 to 18 for the tail-end of Fashion Week(s). And there’ll be more jewelry to share when Nikolai hosts a day of pre-holiday shopping and pampering at Ko’olani in late October. Keep your eye on my Thursday Style pages for details as we get closer to the date.

In the foreground is a Jade by Nikolai necklace of branch coral, Tahitian pearls, moonstones and jadeite. Also shown is the Rainforest arrangement incorporating a couple of pitcher plants.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Jewels, Beautiful objects, Shop, Shopping events, Parties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.