How do you choose and style jewellery to complement yourself and your wardrobe? And how do you make best use of your jewellery collection without being boring? The answers aren’t always obvious. Never fear: we’ve come up with our 15 top jewellery style tips to help you be your fashionable best.
Does this sound familiar:
You’ve got an overflowing jewellery collection filled with pieces you love (or have forgotten you love), but you’re really not making the most of it and you’re not sure where to start. Or maybe you’re just not confident about which pieces to shop for to work with each other and for you.
We’ve all been there.
The good news is that we’ve assembled a bunch of handy jewellery style and fashion tips and tricks to help you wear fine, fashion and costume jewellery that complements your sense of style, personality and wardrobe.
As Who What Wear says: “incorporating jewellery into your look is always a good idea.” And as an Australian jeweller, who am I to disagree?
1. Create layers with rings, necklaces or bangles
Why not start with something fun? Experiment with contrasting lengths, shapes, textures and colours to make appealing layers with rings, necklaces, bangles and even in some cases earrings.
If you’re layering necklaces then go for different lengths to draw the eye up to your face. Different shapes, colours and textures will often work a treat. To help with this you should read our necklace length & style guide.
You can even experiment with wearing multiple earring styles if you have more than one pair of ear piercings or want to combine ear cuffs with other earrings. Take a look at our dangle & drop earrings, along with our stud earrings.
Layering and stacking is easy: simply gather together a collection of necklaces and pendants of different lengths, textures and designs and try them on in different combinations to see what works. Make a note of the combinations you like so you’ll remember them later.
Rinse and repeat with with other jewellery types to up your layering game.
2. Know when to stop
You know how it is: sometimes too much is, well, too much.
If you’re drawing attention to your face and neckline with layered necklaces or a statement necklace, perhaps you don’t really need an armful of bangles to be competing for attention.
Or if you’re wearing a bold pair of statement earrings, then perhaps your necklace could be more subtle or even not there at all (on the other hand, a bold pair of earrings with a matching necklace can sometimes work beautifully).
If you’ve accessorised with multiple pieces then consider taking a leaf out of Coco Chanel’s book: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory”1.
Or not, as the case may be: do what works for you and the occasion you’re dressing for.
3. Accessorise to complement your clothing
This sounds straight forward enough, doesn’t it? But I know myself that it doesn’t always happen.
Before you start dressing have a think about what item you most want to wear to wherever you’re going.
You might decide you really want to wear a specific piece of jewellery to an outing, in which case you should choose your clothing and other accessories to work with it. Otherwise you might pick the outfit first and then match the jewellery and accessories to it.
Either way works. If you’ve spent some time getting the combination right you should look stylish and well put together.