When current events reach the level of crazy we’re seeing in today’s headlines, accessories should minimize the drama. That helps explain why the season’s most prominent jewelry trends are best described as background styles, designed to deflect rather than steal the spotlight—from small yet chic studs to (often basic) necklaces designed to be heaped one on top of another.
Below, we summarize three jewelry styles in vogue during one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory.
Celestial Motifs
Jewelers have drawn inspiration from the cosmos since at least the Victorian era, when jewels bearing stars and crescent-shape moons rendered in diamonds, gemstones, and blackened sterling silver captured the public imagination. Contemporary jewelers have revived the look using a wider selection of materials, from karat gold to gemstones and lab-grown diamonds. At its core, however, the trend reflects something timeless: humanity’s eternal fascination with the heavens.
Piercing Styles
The ubiquity of piercing parties—and collections designed for newly pierced ears—is one of the biggest jewelry stories of the past year. Retailers have embraced the trend for obvious reasons—more piercings equal more opportunities for sales. There is, however, another, more fundamental reason for the success of piercing events: Few things beat the prospect of buying jewelry on what is, essentially, a date with friends.
Layering Pendants
The year’s other big jewelry story is the proliferation of necklaces designed to be worn in a more-is-more mash-up, also know as a #neckmess. While each pendant may not make all that big a statement on its own, the look—when layered with other pieces in complementary lengths and styles—captures gestalt theory in action: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Top: Star diamond pavé stud earrings in 14k gold, $585; Lark & Berry
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