INVEST IN GOLD JEWELLERY
SAYS ESQUIRE'S FINLAY RENWICK,WHO MIGHT PLUCK UP THE COURAGE TO DO THE SAME
A spring ritual as certain as daffodils blooming, swallows migrating and rugby boys sporting gym shorts and flipflops (why do they do that?), I look down at my fingers and wrists, unadorned, and think: can I get away with wearing jewellery yet? Not a watch; jewellery, specifically gold: rings, bracelets and necklaces.
While the rules around men’s fashionable expression continue to loosen and blur, jewellery beyond a watch and a no-nonsense wedding band is still seen as questionable, even taboo in normal, nonMilanese life. Turn up for work on a Monday with signet rings and count the minutes until you’re asked about your newlyformed crime syndicate or English-themed pub in Marbs. Call it British self-awareness or perennial embarrassment, but reinvention of style often feels like an arduous process.
I don’t own a Brexit pub on the Costa del Sol, but I do harbour dreams of being the kind of raffish, slightly edgy sort who can get away with rings on three fingers and a gold pendant on my neck, especially now that the fashion world is in the grip of an obsession with both the Eighties and ostentation as a whole. Showing off is cool again — minimalism is dead.
Perhaps the trick is to start small: one ring, easy does it. Or maybe it’s a thicker skin and a fuck-you attitude. As with most things clothing (and otherwise), confidence breeds, well, more confidence, in yourself and those around you. Haters included.
Maybe this is my year. Gold in right now, after all. Here goes.