Put A (Men’s Fashion) Ring On It

By Victoria Gomelsky | November 14, 2022

Once perceived as flashy, perhaps even gaudy, men’s rings of the non-bridal variety—signets, dome styles, knuckle-dusters, even pinky rings—used to evoke images of a casino pit boss draped in gold chains or a used car salesman flashing his wares.

Not anymore. Today, men’s fashion rings are growing in popularity among men of all ages and backgrounds for two major reasons.

First and foremost, men are wearing more jewelry in general, and not just millennials and Gen Z. Even men in their 40s and 50s are taking cues from the zeitgeist and indulging their, in some cases, long-suppressed urge to adorn themselves.

And two, designers are responding to that demand and then some, funneling stellar new designs into the marketplace (quite literally: Check out Alison Lou’s Stellar Letter ring at top), expanding the selection, and, in a perfectly ringlike virtuous circle, seducing even more shoppers.

While pendants and bracelets are geared to newbies to men’s fashion jewelry, rings are for the unapologetic jewelry lovers, guys who want to take their look up a notch, or three.

The options range from colorful, neo-groovy statement pieces (where the Italian brand EÉRA excels) to chunky masculine silver rings (the Gamber by “the French Guy,” aka the Paris-based designer Benny Reinhold, is an archetypal style) to sleek gold pieces for the minimalist types (i.e., Shay’s emerald-set stunner). What they have in common is a refreshingly 21st- century approach to male adornment, in which anything—truly, anything—goes.