THE LOVE ISLAND EFFECT: ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH FOR JEWELLERY?
Contestants on the TV show wore their trinkets with aplomb – but can you, asks Stephen Doig
Who or what is a “love island”? It’s a question that hung in the air in many an office this summer, for the few among us who aren’t devotees of the reality TV show that seems to involve photogenic millennials performing elaborating mating dances in the sun. If, like me, you’re in the 0.01per cent of the populace for whom “love island” calls to mind a lurid cocktail at Nikki Beach, rather than a TV show, it might come as a surprise that its popularity has had a knock-on effect on sales of the clothing and accessories the contestants wear.
An online jewellery retailer has reported a 500 per cent rise in men buying necklaces since the show aired, thanks to two chiselled male contestants wearing them nestled on their bronzed pectorals. While we’d never recommend aping the sartorial nous of someone whose style is defined by the shade of their bronzer, it raises the question of whether jewellery is acceptable on a man. A wedding band is de rigueur but, often, men feel uncomfortable about the idea of adorning themselves in trinketry.
While the standard dog-tag necklace appeared on the show, perhaps it’s an item best left to the military. One need only look around Pitti Uomo, the biannual Florentine men’s fashion trade fair that attracts the world’s most flamboyant peacocks, to note that jewellery forms a big part of some men’s looks. Historically, jewellery for men evolved as a signal of aristocratic adornment, as well as a sign of familial bond; signet rings passed from father to son, for example.
Culturally, the skinhead movement in the Seventies and Eighties and their knuckle-duster rings and heavy-duty chains did lasting damage to the idea of jewellery on men.
Perhaps the easiest “in” isn’t the necklace – too affected and youthcentric – but other trinkets. I have a stylish friend who works in the banking industry, who pairs his pinsharp suits with a cluster of signet rings, discreetly adding a touch of the personal (in the truest sense of the word given that jewellery is more imbued with sentiment) to otherwise corporate attire. Rings are an entry point into men’s jewellery; discreet, masculine, great for gifting and – at a jeweller like Alex Orso – precious stones can be hidden on the ends or insides, so that the special element is kept just for you.
Bracelets are another easy way to explore the world of men’s jewellery; leave the braided, woven, straggled version to the gap-year contingent and, instead, look at something like a neat sterling silver option from Le Gramme, which is designed to look like cable wire. Minimal, cool and individual; and not a teeth-whitening kit or a body bronzer in sight.