Forces of Nacre

Perfectly imperfect keshi and baroque pearls add a splash of personality to fine jewelry.

Take a look at beauty blogs or lingerie ad campaigns, and it’s clear that our definition of beauty is changing. Perfection as beauty is a social construct we are shrugging off, and in the jewelry world, this is being mirrored in pearls.

For generations, the ideal pearl was round, lustrous, and as big as decency allowed. Now, though, it is not the painstakingly matched string — a seemingly simplistic swipe of uniformity that might have taken a jeweler years to collate — but the irregular, asymmetrical wobbles of baroque and keshi pearls that have hearts aflutter.

Once the rejects of pearl farms (the pebble-like keshi is formed when an oyster literally rejects a nucleus), these organically shaped pearls are being celebrated for their natural quirks. Uneven nacre deposition resulting in a bulbous baroque? No longer a problem.

This trend really took hold in fashion jewelry last summer, when baroque pearl earrings matched with yellow gold became a cool-girl staple thanks to an army of influencers picking up on styles from brands like Alighieri. A year on, and these looks show no sign of waning, either in the fashion world or in fine jewelry. Designers are simply getting more creative: inlaying them with diamonds, setting them center stage to add drama, substituting them in the classic strand for a fresh take. However baroque and keshi pearls are used, this trend is about seeing imperfection and celebrating it.