That familiar feeling
Choosing jewellery that is personal and layered with meaning is a way of finding comfort in uncomfortable times, says Marie Kelly.
Sex no longer sells. These days it’s sentiment that’s driving consumerism, at least with regard to jewellery. This is not to be mistaken for nostalgia. In turbulent times, shoppers have always leaned into the past, looking for poignant triggers of simpler, less stressful times, and certainly fashion, as well as popular culture, has dealt with the apocalyptic, impending sense of doom brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic with a cocooning comfort blanket of Y2K and Regencycore. From And Just Like That… to Bridgerton, we have been cradled by experiences we knew would not let us down.
Nostalgia has always provided a safe emotional space, but it can only nurse us for so long before we begin to feel that the “wistful…yearning for…some past period or irrevocable condition” – as the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it – feels like regression rather than light relief. As the Indian poet Gulzar said, “Nostalgia is a sweet place for a poet and writer to be in. But it’s an indulgence; a distraction. You can’t live in a distraction.” Sentimentality, however, looks less like backsliding. It signifies a precious memory or association valued in the present, not a head-in-the-sand longing for the past. It’s about intimate connection, and leaning into the familiar rather than relying on formerly good times.
Choosing jewellery that is personal and layered with meaning is a way of finding comfort in uncomfortable times. Perhaps the most marked example of this is Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle’s jewellery choices during the UK’s mourning period for the late Queen Elizabeth. Kate chose a diamond-and-pearl brooch in the shape of three leaves worn by the late monarch on her 73rd birthday and then passed onto the now Princess of Wales, while the Duchess of Sussex chose classic pearl and diamond studs given to her by the late Queen and worn during her only solo engagement with the former monarch in 2018. Passed-down pieces like these connect the wearer with home, family and history – all of the ‘securities’ we seek out when we’re surrounded by uncertainty.
This season more than any other, jewellery has become a profoundly personal purchase. So while runway reports may offer jazz-hands accounts of elaborate sculptural cuffs, decorative piled-on pearls and ornamental stacked rings, the only trend resonating with consumers right now is the one that offers, not fashion credibility, but a private sensibility. The pandemic itself may have passed (we hope), but the celebratory Roaring Twenties-style afterparty we were promised has been a washout in the face of war in Europe and an energy crisis the likes of which this generation has never known. The existential angst of the past two years has not receded and so shoppers are finding little comfort in the thrill of the new. It’s the poignancy of the personal that’s providing a soothing balm.
The only trend resonating with consumers right now is the one that offers, not fashion credibility, but a private sensibility.
There’s been a significant shift in values in the past two and a half years. A piece of jewellery is no longer just about aesthetics; it reflects a state of mind, a type of consciousness. In 2020, Forbes predicted that post-Covid, consumers would have less of an appetite for seasonal, ready-to-wear jewellery and more of a focus on homegrown expertise and design. Earlier this year, Business of Fashion reported that jewellers are seeing an increased appetite for custom pieces that rework family heirlooms and old gemstones. Ann Chapman of Stonechat jewellers in Dublin’s Westbury Mall has built a significant chunk of her business around refashioning family heirlooms to suit modern tastes. While she accepted her first commission by chance seven years ago, the service has snowballed in the past couple of years.
“Jewellery is weighted with meaning,” she explains. “Customers don’t want to store away heirlooms as keepsakes. They want to be able to wear them and honour the relationship represented by them, but sometimes that’s in another guise.” She loves the process of redesigning existing heirlooms into future family treasures, and she works closely with each client to come up with a meaningful design. Chapman believes the value for customers lies not just in the finished product, but in the creative and emotional engagement they enjoy throughout the process. These days, the concept of ownership is layered; it’s about more than simply handing over money. There’s an intangible element to new notions around possession. It may sound abstract, but taking ownership of a piece of jewellery is about inhabiting it, not just dazzling with it.
Irish goldsmith Síne Vasquez agrees. She’s had to stop taking on bespoke commissions until early next year because business is so brisk. “The jewellery market, like the wider fashion industry, has become so saturated with mass-produced offerings that people have grown tired of the generic nature of what’s on offer. Craftsmanship, and owning a piece that’s been handmade especially for you, is what constitutes luxury today. Customers want a point of difference, but not simply for the sake of it. That difference must reflect their own narrative,” she explains. Vasquez also accepts commissions to remodel existing pieces and explains: “So many people have unworn or inherited gold jewellery sitting in a drawer. Having it remodelled into a new heirloom piece is a wonderful way of honouring the sentiment it represents.”
While not everyone has a treasured family heirloom to refashion or the funds to buy bespoke, the passion for jewellery that embodies a personal mystique has filtered down to the high street in the form of heirloom-inspired items characterised by charms and pendants, nameplates and initials. Celestial symbols, zodiac motifs and birth crystals are also proving popular, in part because of their comforting associations with universality and community, but also because they tell an individual’s own story, tying them back to his or her roots. Celestial symbols and crystals are also thought to act as talismanic keepsakes or protective amulets, engendering strength and confidence, and thereby acting as a foil to existential fears. More than simply adornment, they’re a form of empowerment, so it’s not surprising that Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle emporium Goop stocks several such mystical pieces.
Signet rings, too, are selling extremely well because of their traditional associations with family heritage. Demi-fine jewellery brand Missoma’s gold signet ring is one of the most popular, having been spotted on Meghan Markle back in 2018. According to the UK jewellers, the open heart engraving, set with a white cubic zirconia “is a symbol representing emotions of love, passion and friendship. One to wear close to the heart”.
Similarly, the Toi et Moi ring (translated as ‘You and Me’) has captured the imagination of consumers in search of more than just attractive, disposable trinkets. Its rich heritage includes being gifted by Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796. The ring, which consists of a coiled band with two gemstones nestled side by side where it meets around the finger, symbolises love and connection and has been spotted on celebrities from Emily Ratajkowski to Megan Fox, the latter of whom received an engagement ring in this style from her husband-to-be featuring his and her birthstones. The ease with which the Moi et Toi can be customised to reflect each wearer’s own mythology has elevated it from something beautiful with a backstory to a precious modern memento piece.
Bonaparte’s choice was a two-stoned diamond and sapphire ring, while during the Victorian era, the piece often included a ruby and a diamond to represent love, prosperity, passion and devotion, and in the Edwardian era, the traditional combination was a diamond and a pearl, to represent strength, purity and everlasting love. Singer Ariana Grande wears a Moi et Toi ring made up of a delicate pearl and an oval-cut diamond. The tiny pearl is believed to have been taken from her grandfather’s tie-pin, layering the piece with even greater resonance. The Moi et Toi is not strictly an engagement ring, though. Kylie Jenner and her daughter were both presented with one by Travis Scott to represent the everlasting bond between mother and daughter.
Chapman says she’s designed several of these rings for customers, as jewellery buyers strive to imbue their pieces with a sense of where they’ve been as well as where they are now. It reminds me of actor Timothée Chalamet’s miniature Eiffel Tower keychain, which he gripped at the Paris premiere of Little Women in 2019. While he confessed it wasn’t intended as any kind of tribute to his French heritage but was handed to him by a fan earlier that night, he nonetheless reportedly carried it with him all evening and it garnered more editorial coverage than his purple womenswear Stella McCartney suit. It became an unforgettable red carpet moment, and that had everything to do with the fact that it told a little bit of Chalamet’s personal story.
Three years on, it’s a fashion moment that resonates more than it did in real time, because this season more than ever, jewellery is biography.
This article originally appeared in Irish Tatler, October 2022