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Three Big Jewelry Trends To Put On Your Radar Screen Now | August 28, 2019 (4 comments)
New York, NY—While fashion cycles move much faster than jewelry cycles (think “revolution” vs. “evolution,”), some emerging jewelry trends are worth keeping top-of-mind because customers are going to be seeing them and asking about them. (Left: A collection of chains from Midas.)
Fashion site WhoWhatWear is the latest to come out with an In/Out jewelry list. Now, in/out lists of any kind always should be taken with a grain of salt. Often (as you’ll see here) something that’s proclaimed “out” makes an appearance in the exact same issue of the publication producing the list. Sometimes, as is the case with the WhoWhatWear piece, it’s even in the same article! Go figure.
But the WhoWhatWear site does have a pretty big following, enough so to warrant collaboration for a branded apparel collection at Target. So if their editors say something is trending in, you probably will want to consider having at least a few pieces of that style.
Here’s WhoWhatWear’s list (with, of course, my own take on it):
In: chunky necklaces. This isn’t a huge surprise—we’ve been talking about this all summer and, how, if you haven’t already melted down old ‘80s merchandise, this could be your chance to monetize it as layering it looks fresh and new.
A super-big link chain from Alexis Bittar.
Related: Editorial: The Trend You Should Be Jumping On—Or At Least Seriously Considering
Out: delicate necklaces. Sorry, WhoWhatWear, but I would argue this proclamation. We’re still seeing far too many of them in fashion ads, not to mention that there are many women who either can’t carry off big jewelry or simply don’t like it. The key here, however, is layering (again). And mixing delicate with chunky looks especially current. See the Midas chain photo above, or note the right-hand model on this page from Nordstrom's famed Anniversary Sale catalog, below:
In: sculptural earrings. WhoWhatWear is showing doorknockers, teardrops, buttons, shells, and other formerly popular shapes and sizes. Time to raid the safe again or explore some of the latest iterations such as these from Hulchi Belluni:
Out: basic hoops. Again, I call you-know-what on this, especially since another photo in the very same article shows a model wearing exactly that!
Just a quick scroll down the page from where WhoWhatWear proclaimed that basic hoops are "out," this photo in the silver jewelry section showed a model wearing--wait for it--basic hoops.
Basic hoops are never out. Sometimes they’re more “in” than other times, and sometimes they’re going to be textured, twisted, bigger, smaller, fatter, thinner, or otherwise tweaked, but they’re always going to be a perennial seller. Period.
In: silver. Yellow gold is still the darling of the fashion set, but more-affordable silver is “inching in,” say WhoWhatWear’s editors. This is good to know, especially if chunky is going to stick around for a while. But they’re also proclaiming rose gold is out, another proclamation I don’t believe is entirely accurate.
Silver necklace from Breuning.
Here’s a good way to gauge: look at other categories ranging from home décor to automobiles. We’ve been seeing lots of copper in home accessories and rose-gold tones for hardware in the home. We’re even seeing copper-colored cars!
Literally in the middle of writing this article, I went out for lunch and saw this car in the restaurant parking lot. Below, rose gold is still popular for kitchen cabinet hardware.
I will concede that the rose-gold trend may have hit its peak but I would argue it’s still far from a has-been and especially has a lot of life in the bridal sector, where it’s particularly flattering for rose-cut diamonds. At the very least, rose gold always plays well layered (of course!) with both yellow and white metals.