When the cock­tail hour became a social fix­ture dur­ing the 1940s, it was more about the dress ring than dress code. Mas­sive, bold, important—whatever word you want to use to describe them, they require very lit­tle expla­na­tion. And they are straight-up sexy.

There’s some­thing inher­ently provoca­tive about a gem-intense ring, when you look at it, it speaks to you in a hyp­notic sort of way. I’m not even sure that what you wear with it really mat­ters. It dresses up every­thing, even Bermuda shorts (paired with a lovely white button-down scoop neck blouse, the whole look is kind of quirky-lyrical and very Thom Browne for Brooks Brothers).

This first exam­ple is from Sotheby’s upcom­ing April 24^th sale. The emer­ald in this ring is one of those rare, dreamy gem­stones that when you see it, you never for­get it. This jewel is a learn­ing expe­ri­ence and illus­trates the power of a sim­ple state­ment. Of course few can afford this par­tic­u­lar lux­ury and as this post explains fur­ther, you will real­ize that there are more acces­si­ble options.

These are arti­san exam­ples from Aaron Faber Gallery in New York and they have a dynamic pres­ence. I like the way they greet you with a Renaissance-meets-the-modern-world aesthetic.

Anthony Nak takes this spin and wraps their jew­els in medieval chain maille. Because of the way their cen­ter stones are cut, both ver­sions below have a mes­mer­iz­ing oceanic quality.

Not all dress rings have tra­di­tion­ally cut gems or a swathe of bril­liants. An off-center sil­hou­ette, like a rose cut, offers scads of charm and exu­ber­ance. The heft of your knuckle-duster should reflect your per­son­al­ity, not the size of your bank account.

To that end I will leave you with some friv­o­lously fun repro­duc­tions from The Hol­ly­wood Col­lec­tion (www.thehollywoodcollection.stores.yahoo).
These are rings based on those worn by Hol­ly­wood leg­ends. The ring called Bette’s Sun­set Sap­phire expresses the magic of Pad­paracha sap­phire.

Of course this is the faux ver­sion but the color alone is enough to make you smile. And for those of you who yearn for the emer­ald ring above, alas, there is only one in the world. How­ever if you must live the fan­tasy, there’s always Claudette’s (as in Col­bert) Emer­ald Fancy. At $70, its a dress ring to wear for any party, cock­tail or otherwise.