Something’s caught my eye recently – men around town are wearing lots of jewellery. TikTok and Instagram are full of it. Love Island Lotharios in pearls! Timothée Chalamet in a Cartier candy-inspired necklace! Good lord, Jacob Elordi’s thermometer-busting eyebrow piercing in Saltburn.
All roads lead back to Harry Styles, with his rock star rings and grandmother trinkets. As well as former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who set fashion’s mood music for years while wearing multiple rings. More recently, Harry from The Traitors, with his dangling crosses, has been having a word in all our ears. You wouldn’t know we’re in a recession, from the gold and ice in these streets. But can any man jump on the trend – and should they?
I never wear jewellery. When I do, I feel as if I’ve raided the party box. If I try on a ring, I immediately panic about not being able to take it off. (Who do you call to cut off a finger? Locum? Locksmith? Loan shark?) The recent trend for welded cuffs – a BFF chain taken to the next level, in which a jeweller seals one permanently around your wrist or ankle – fills me with horror. Jewellery-wearing men often strike me as self-loving, but in a bad way. Yet secretly … I think they look good. It’s time I tried this trend. So I spoke to an expert, to rid me of this sartorial conservatism.
“Social media has given men the confidence to wear jewellery more,” says Peter Bevan, a fashion stylist and writer, who shows me how to wear it. Drinking cappuccino at a plant nursery, Bevan wears gold rings and three necklaces, stacked at different lengths. He essays a thrown-together elegance. If I was wearing the same, I suspect I’d look like a five-year-old cosplaying as Mr T. Jewellery makes me feel lopsided, I confess. “I feel the same!” smiles Bevan. “If I wear more rings on one hand, I’ll wear a ring and bracelet on the other.”
It is all about balance and authenticity, advises Bevan. I should think about visually tying pieces together, by design, weight or material. A silver ring and chain, for example. Yet jewellery should express your personality, and rules get in the way of that. Mixing metals was once a fashion faux-pas, “but silver and gold can look great together”, he says. Don’t think about “dressing up”. Jewellery elevates any look, from a wedding suit to a simple T-shirt. Even a slim bracelet adds value to an outfit. Looking at Bevan, I start to get it.
Watching the Netflix romcom One Day, I’ve been admiring the signet ring that handsome lead actor Leo Woodall wears. Woodall’s ring looks set to be this year’s Connell’s chain – the simple chain worn by sensitive beefcake Paul Mescal in the BBC adaptation of Normal People that became a cultural phenomenon in 2020. It inspired a song, its own Instagram account, and still shines as a symbol of our lockdown thirst. I want some of that. “A pinky signet might be the place to start?” suggests Bevan. But I go all in, picking out a chunky number by Missoma, which I decide to wear for a week.
I manage, well, one day. The signet makes my hands look sausage-y. It also – and this may be the least impressive thing I’ve ever written – hurts my fingers. My typing degrades significantly. One evening, I lose my grip on a pot, spilling partly cooked brown rice over the floor. Historically, signet rings were engraved with crests, used by kings and pharaohs to imprint wax seals on state documents. Wearing one at moments like this feels like taking the piss out of myself.