FASHION

The best pearl jewellery to buy now

They used to be worn with a twinset, but the new pearls are oversized and playful

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wearing earrings, £850, By Pariah; earrings, £195 from August 10, Monica Vinader x Doina; necklace, £325, Missoma

Charlie Gowans-Eglinton

Tuesday August 03 2021, 5.00pm, The Times

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The last time I wore a strand of pearls was also the first. Invited by a new friend from university to the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, my mum and I were stumped by how to translate that rigidly conservative dress code to suit a 19-year-old. I can’t remember too much about the dress, hat or shoes (probably for the best) but suffice it to say that the pearls were the nail in my dress code coffin.

Pearls are classic. For the past few decades, pearls have been too classic for many of us. Too grown up for me, now aged 33, and too grown up for my mother, 64, who remembers her own mother wearing a strand every day. Elegant, timeless — yes, but also a bit dated.

Not the latest iterations, though. I am not sure what my grandmother Margaret would have made of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s 6in long baroque pearl lariat earrings, but I’d be willing to put in considerable time oyster shucking for these (they’re made to order by the brilliant British brand By Pariah, £850, bypariah.com). Yes, they’re pearls, but not at all traditional — each one is organic in shape, so avoid feeling at all prim.

Necklaces, £140, Pebble & Loop and £165, Missoma

The “everyday fine jewellery” brand Mejuri’s Bold Pearl Hoops are some miles from a classic pearl earring, and all the more versatile and wearable for it (£85, mejuri.com).

The sustainable London brand Completedworks mixes pearls of different sizes, from minute to whopping, to create stunning pieces that really celebrate the pearl. I love the Tra-la-la earrings (the design name, but also the response they inspire in me), a large baroque pearl topped with a cluster of small freshwater ones (£235, completedworks.com). Los Angeles brand Sophie Buhai’s are almost sculptural: I’d wear the small pearl drop earrings with jeans or a cocktail dress (£269, sophiebuhai.com).

At Missoma, you could reimagine a double or triple strand by layering a seed pearl choker with a half pearl, half chain-link necklace and a single grey pearl on a fine chain (from £82, uk.missoma.com). Launching next week, Monica Vinader’s latest collection in collaboration with the influencer Doina mixes big baroque pearls with statement gold chain for stand-out partywear (from £95, monicavinader.com).

Chanel’s spring/summer 2021 reinvented the house codes with youthfulness (and a big dose of the 1980s) in mind: classic pearls were worn on earlobes, wrists and necks, but they were spliced with neon pink crystals.

Earrings, £235, Completedworks; hoop earrings, £85, Mejuri; necklace, £175, Missoma

Are the youth quaking? My twentysomething colleague’s favourite gift from her latest birthday was a pearl necklace — not a classic strand handed down by her parents, but odd-sized pearls mixed with brightly coloured beads and lengths of gold chain by Pebble & Loop, a small British brand that her boyfriend discovered on Instagram (from £40, pebbleandloop.co.uk).

The latest obsession of social media platform TikTok is another 1980s take on the pearl — a Vivienne Westwood pearl choker necklace, set with Westwood’s signature orb logo, which has recently been worn by Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa and Janelle Monáe, the last two with corsets that suggest that they tuned into Netflix’s Bridgerton.

The necklace dates from 1987, but since Westwood has always been about subverting the classics, there’s nothing classic traditional about it. Rihanna’s pearls — multiple strands worn looped and hanging almost to the hem of her black minidress — nod to the 1980s too.

Tamara von Nayhauss wearing gold logo earrings with pearls by Chanel

STREETSTYLESHOOTERS/GETTY IMAGES

Looking ahead to autumn/winter 2021, London Fashion Week designer Simone Rocha showed oversized pearl earrings, but also liberally applied clusters of pearls in hair, on shirt collars, even interwoven with the shoelaces of winter boots.

Fifteen years on from my first pearls, I am tempted again. Not by perfectly round, perfectly matched pearls in endless strands worn with a cashmere twinset, but by stonking great lozenge-sized baroque pearls, no two the same, with that beautiful iridescence that makes skin gleam. Or by a single pearl dangling from just one ear — asymmetry seems modern, but you could hardly call Vermeer that. Or even by that classic strand of pearls, in the right context, worn with a utilitarian jumpsuit or a black knit and leather trousers — not my grandmother’s skirt suit.