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A 'rhinestone' or 'paste' is a diamond simulant made from rock crystal, glass or acrylic. Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine, but their availability was greatly increased when the Alsatian jeweller Georg Friedrich Strass had the idea to coat the lower side of glass with metal powder around 1775, imitating diamonds. Hence, rhinestones are called ''Strass'' in the German language.
Aurora borealis (AB) crystal tends to reflect whatever color is worn near it. The AB stone is named after the Northern Lights in Alaska also known as Aurora Borealis.
Rhinestones make excellent imitations of diamonds, and good manufacturers even capture the glistening effect that real diamonds have in the sun.
In 1955, the "Aurora Borealis" or "Aqua aura", a thin, vacuum-sputtered metallic coating applied to crystal stones to produce an iridescent effect, was introduced. Today, crystal rhinestones are primarily used on costumes, apparel and jewelry. They are produced mainly in Austria by Swarovski and the Czech Republic by Preciosa[1], while acrylic rhinestones are manufactured in several countries.
Heavy use of rhinestones is often associated with country music singers, as well as with Elvis Presley and Liberace. The rhinestone-studded Nudie suit was invented by Nudie Cohn in the 1940s, an Americanization of the matador's "suit of lights". Glen Campbell released an album named, and subsequently became known as, the Rhinestone Cowboy.