An old favorite is making a comeback, but this year’s hottest jewelry trend is not your mother’s charm bracelet.
About the same time Barack Obama took the oath of office the first time, jewelry lovers around the world were making their own pledge of allegiance — to charms. Though not a new concept, brands such as Pandora, Trollbeads and Thomas Sabo reinvented the charm bracelet for the modern age and created global campaigns that whipped us into a frenzy over the stockpiling of tiny silver charms to mark every milestone and love affair.
Like all white-hot trends, it reached a critical mass. The cool kids quickly turned their backs on this new hobby, leaving teens and their middle-aged moms free to agonize over the symbolism of a high-heel versus a red-lipstick charm. Which was more them?
Though sales have continued to be strong — leader of the pack Pandora boasts annual sales of more than $3 billion through its 8,000 stores on six continents — fashion moved on, and the romance with the charm bracelet became a mere flirtation. Until now, that it is.
Anything goes
Looking at the spring/summer 2018 Fashion Week runways, it seems charms are making a comeback. Necklaces jingled with silver daisies, anchors and red-lacquer cherries over pretty, floral dresses at Miu Miu. Alexander McQueen’s pearl chokers dripped with faux gemstone charms. Balenciaga created Paris-inspired jewelry charm belts, as did Versace, though it chose oversized, golden, seaside-motif charms.
But the charm is not the collectible trend it once was. This is a nostalgic look back, and the suggestion of a treasured collection of trinkets is more important than its authenticity. More often than not, these new charm bracelets will have fixed charms, with an eclectic assortment pre-selected. Some might not even be real charms, but simply embellishments or gemstones spaced just so along a chain so that they look as though they should be charms, like the Itty Bitty gold-and-diamond pavé bracelets by Zoe Chicco.
Charms are no longer restricted to the wrist, either, but can be affixed to necklaces, chokers and hoop earrings. Long, versatile chains, like those from David Yurman’s neon-bright Bel Aire line, could even double as both wrist and neck adornment. Just as collecting individual charms for your Pandora bracelet was about building your own story, this is too, but it’s a tale of individual style rather than of babies, boyfriends and vacations.
Just as collecting individual charms for your Pandora bracelet was about building your own story, this is too, but it’s a tale of individual style rather than of babies, boyfriends and vacations
Style over sentiment
When a traditional charm bracelet is done right, it can be both timeless and ultra-hip, as a new collaboration between dress label The Vampire’s Wife and British jewelry brand Annoushka proves. Susie Cave, founder of The Vampire’s Wife and spouse of singer Nick Cave, has worked with jeweler Annoushka Ducas to create intricate precious charms that reference lyrics from a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds song. Cave describes it as “a strange, wholly original and gently subversive charm bracelet.”
Though it comes closest to the concept of a traditional charm bracelet, you are, of course, collecting the Caves’ life stories rather than your own, which is in keeping with this newest evolution of the charm trend that favors style over sentiment.
Main image: The Vampire’s Wife x Annoushka. 18-karat gold Charm Bracelet.
Comments are closed.