Watch your pearls, ladies. The men are coming after them.
Men wear pearl jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings), adding a bolder, tougher twist to the jewelry’s classic feminine elegance.
Gentlemen wear pearls in all kinds of environments.
Major League Baseball players wear pearl necklaces around their necks on the court. Rappers and pop culture icons like Drake and Harry Styles make them popular. They also use Hollywood actors and male models on the runway.
Jewelry dealers say the men’s pearl trend emerged before the pandemic as the fashion industry continues to evolve and embrace gender fluidity. The pandemic has helped reinforce the trend even more.
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“Men’s jewelry started to take off before the pandemic. So when the shutdown took place and we started living in this virtual world, it quickly became about how women can dress up from the neck, just like the quest to find Zoom-worthy Jewels for women,” said Angie Kennedy, vice president. – Head of merchandising for Zales, a division of Signet (SIG), the largest US jewelry store, which also owns Kay Jewelers and Jared stores.
She said men initially sought ways to adorn their necks and play with their faces with hoop earrings, accentuating their look with black and white diamonds.
“Last baseball season, we saw baseball players appear on the field wearing pearl necklaces. It just solidified the trend for us,” Kennedy said.
But these guys aren’t wearing your grandmother’s classic white pearl thread. Fashion is to combine diamonds or add pearls to a gold chain. Some [homens] They also wear a matching bracelet,” Kennedy said.
They also use pearls of different colors such as pink, black or Tahitian pearls, and styles sometimes include design elements such as animal skulls, nails or claws.
While men can wear bolder outfits, Kennedy said they should be gender neutral. “He can wear it to a match on Friday night or Saturday. What used to be worn in a much more formal way can now be worn with t-shirts as well,” he said.
There is another reason why pearls are resurgent in an epidemic.
“When things are scary, people tend to go back to classic or timeless things. Pearls have been around for a while and will continue. They almost somehow represent power,” Kennedy said.
Giving pearls an edge
Japanese jewelery company Mikimoto, which created the cultured pearl over 125 years ago, is one of the most prestigious brands in the industry.
Last September, the company launched PassionNoir, a bolder collection of large South Black Sea cultured pearls strung on an elastic necklace or bracelet or rings, earrings and necklaces made of black rhodium-plated silver.
Yasuhiko Hashimoto, CEO of Mikimoto America, said that PassionNoir was created because the brand noticed a growing interest in pearl jewelry among male buyers. However, he said that the collection, which has a masculine appearance, also appeals to women.
He noted that the idea of men wearing pearls is not new, and that Indian maharajahs and British and European kings have been wearing pearl necklaces for centuries.
“The pearl was a symbol of power,” he said. “It remains timeless and elegant, but it can also be fun. Men today feel empowered to take risks with fashion and try new things. ”
Is this a fashion? Kennedy of Zale doesn’t think so.
“Pearls are probably one of the first jewelery categories we saw men cross,” she said. “At Signet we look at all categories and we think, okay, do we have a proposal for him and her? Every idea we come up with is now thinking about how we can make gender more fluid.”
Source: CNN Brazil
Source: Breitbart
