Pearls are back (but no twinsets please!)
NOW is the time to open up your jewellery box and take a good look at anything you own that might involve pearls. After a long time in fashion exile, they’re back in circulation. This time, however, the good girls’ jewellery of choice is behaving a lot less primly.
You’ll find pearls scattered all over the place, decorating clothes, on knitwear, fancying up bags and even embedded in heels and decorating the toes of shoes.
In fact, the only place they are definitely not being resurrected is for the ‘Girls in Pearls’ type — those Sloaney sorts in Country Life. Or, God forbid, as Eighties button earrings.
By sheer coincidence, as of last week, we’re being exposed to plenty of pearls worn in the old-fashioned way in The Crown, the Netflix TV extravaganza about the life of our reigning monarch.
The Queen has been wearing strands of pearls as part of her uniform ever since her grandfather, George V, gave her a necklace in 1935.
But that’s not the way that fashion is using them this winter. These adornments aren’t supposed to look heirloom or English establishment in any way.
The new look has the emphasis squarely on pretty rather than precious.
ThE backstory to this pearly outbreak began in the fashion collections just a couple of seasons ago, when designers including Simone Rocha, Gucci and Nicholas Kirkwood started playing with fake pearls to pretty up practical flats.
The trend has rolled onto the high Street since then, turning up as an embellishment on patent, block-heeled loafers, embroidered collars and bag details.
I particularly like the Lili pearl decorated flat (£28) from Asos.com and also the label’s pearl collar shirt for £12.
If you want to invest a little more heavily in the look, L.K. Bennett’s Ellena pearl suede sandals (£295, lkbennett.com) are worth a look.
Nice, but you do have to take it carefully. Last week, I was at W magazine fashion director Edward Enninful’s OBE party when who should come up the stairs but Madonna, wearing a pearl-swathed black leather cap, a black lace bodysuit and biker jacket.
‘Oh,’ blurted out someone standing next to me. ‘It’s the Pearly Queen!’
As always, there’s a fine line between nodding to the trend and overstepping it.
Questions of context inevitably arise. Pearls stitched into a beanie hat? I’d advise against it for the grown-up.
At the other end of the age spectrum, too much pink or fussiness as a background to your pearls and you’re into Queen Mother territory — not a place, with the greatest of respect, into which anyone older wants to stray.
The recipe for keeping the look modern and fresh is nine parts plain to one part extravagant. In practice, that means teaming pearl-studded loafers with jeans, and a decorative collar with a sweatshirt.
Thus, day clothes are upgraded with a shot of something unusual, while novelty wild-card accessories are civilised by association with practical classics.
While we’re on the subject of pearl jewellery, I’m all for impulse buying if you fall in love with something, but I bet you already own plenty of pearl-related adornments.
Most of us never clear out our jewellery boxes even though the contents can be upcycled with a little imagination.
Come to think of it, I could do a whole fashion Antiques Roadshow on this very subject.
When I looked through mine the other day, I realised all the pearls I’ve accumulated were Madonna-related, but from her Like A Virgin phase, which would make it 1984.
Ah, memories! Never to be repeated, obviously — let alone with the lashings of cheap, white, synthetic lace that she also turned into the teen fashion of the time.
Still, I’m glad I looked. Lurking beneath the tangle of necklaces, I found a pearl brooch and a pair of dangly pearl earrings, which I bought in vintage markets I can’t remember when.
They’re back in circulation now. A pearl brooch turns out to be just the thing to pin in the neck of a frill-front Victoriana blouse and the earrings are enough to transform a black day dress into an instant evening look.
Scan the shops by all means, but my tip for a woman of the world: check out your own hidden gems first.