Beads are a fashion statement this year, with women sporting necklaces of precious stones and pearls to chunky ones made of wood or plastic in myriad colours and shapes.

At the Vivaha 2005 beads were much in vogue. If it was rubies, they were teardrop-shaped and magnificently large; if it was pearls, they too were large spherical creations that rested well on the satin silk they lay against.

"This year we have a lot of orders for pearls, rubies and emeralds just strung as beads from Dubai, Oman and the stores in the West," a dealer just back from Dubai told.

In India, the trend is of sporting beads as an everyday wear fashion accessory. They are not too expensive and also look good.

"I picked up these beads from Sarojini Nagar (in Delhi) for Rs.10," says Madhuri, a young girl who visited Dublin for the Bel Tini vodka festival. She said the turquoise beads she had worn around her neck looked good on her.

At Ritu's in Haus Khas, a mannequin has a string of huge beads around the neck.

"Beads were one of this spring's major trends," says Ritu Kumar, who hunts for different colours and textures in the spherical mould each time she has a show.

Shoppers in Delhi seem to prefer beads. This summer one got to see many sporting shiny, long strands of beads in the city.

In Washington, the preference in beads ranged from lacquered wooden spheres by French designer Costes for $200 to their $10 cousins at Claire's.

So, will the beaded necklace still be fashionable this fall?

At the Lakme India Fashion Week this year lots of young people wore beads to set off their blacks and crimsons.

"I think beads never age," says Purabi Kanwar, who retails outfits for Khazana at Taj outlets in the country. "What has changed is the size of the beads that customers want to wear. I remember the rudraksha became a trend piece of jewellery two years ago and you saw everyone from Richard Gere to the girl next door wearing it."

To some, it may seem as though this trend just got started. Earlier it used to take months for runaway styles to wend their way into the fashion markets, but during the last several years trend trickledown has turned into a gush.

Regular magazines such as Femina and Elle devote pages to dissecting the fine points of wearable jewellery. In India, too, we have many ordinary versions of Hennes and Mauritz fashion company that can manufacture their take on a trend-setting design in as few as six weeks - making them able to sell the imitation before the original arrives in stores.

As utilitarian as that notion may seem, some trend watchers think that the fashion-for-everyone whirlwind comes at a cost.

"Cool has become formulaic," says Ritu Kumar. "You can walk into stores today, and it's all there: Anyone can buy what's perceived as cool."

The result, she says, is that accessorizing is currently less about being creative than following rules established by others.

Louis Vuitton's elaborate velvet-trimmed necklaces, for example, rely on the kind of attention to detail that doesn't come cheap. If the beaded necklace is becoming ubiquitous, it's partly because it is inexpensive to create beads out of wood or plastic - and, from a design standpoint, easy to make them look good for less.

Trade sources say the Louis Vuitton's beads were sourced from various places all over the world.

"You're not talking about semi-precious stones," says Madhavi who lives in New Delhi and loves wearing beads.

"Beads are for everyone - they make a statement and it is simply a case of a status-minded personal positioning, more trendy than any trend.

"Even in the West beads are the next big thing," she says.

Some retailers say beaded necklaces have considerable staying power. "Even in Mumbai and Kolkata with the yuppies and with the crowds going in for trends beads are in," says Ambika, an art collector.

"It's not going away, it's a trend that will be around for some time," she says, noting that beaded styles will comprise approximately 70 percent of the necklaces that are being exported from India.

"Beaded necklaces have transformed jewellery because they are considered stylish by customers of different ages and fashion sensibilities," says Madhulika, a public relations director.

"They're really timeless," she says. "Women in India aren't slaves to fashion like in the West. Beads are all about a person's signature, it translates what works for them."