A couple of millennia ago fashion changed very slowly, almost imperceptibly. In a lifetime you could expect to wear the same fashion as your grandparents. In Roman times, most people dressed in white. If you had a higher income level you could afford to wear red, which was much more expensive. And the very wealthy wore purple. Purple dye was very expensive. Naturally, if you wore white you aspired to one day wear red. And, likewise, if you wore red, you aspired to clothe yourself in purple. Fashion was, and is, a statement about your wealth or status.
As the average income of the population rose, more and more people could afford more expensive clothing. Fashions became much more elaborate and expensive in the Middle Ages; for example: using fancy laces, silver threads, crisply tailored clothes, and of course jewelry. But still fashion tended to remain constant over a lifetime.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, materials could be made cheaper and in mass volumes so that almost everyone could afford what once were considered expensive clothes. So, the rich, began to change fashions, making it expensive to keep up with new styles and designs. At first this was a yearly process, but eventually it became seasonal. With the introduction of ready-to-wear, fashion would change four times a year.
At Pat Areias Sterling, design follows two opposing, but complementary philosophies regarding fashion. One: is to change seasonally, so there is a continuous introduction of sterling silver, hand fabricated accessories. And two: design accessories that are so elegant and timeless they can be worn for a lifetime.