I love pearls and am lucky to have a beautiful necklace of gray ones (and a classic white choker which I converted from my grandmother’s bracelet). I also love that after I posted my Valentine’s Day gift guide, and suggested you might want to practice a little self love and gift yourself, one reader commented she bought herself pearls and a pound of chocolate. I 100% approve!
While I always want to wear my pearls, I have struggled with how to make them feel modern. One of the ideas I try follow when it comes to my #livewithless style strategy, is to figure out how to wear those pieces you love but that often just sit, unworn, for whatever reason. So…..my thoughts, which frankly I took from others, on how to modernize pearls.
Mix them up. Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar Samira Nasr excels at pairing her pearls with other more modern necklaces. Maybe pair your pearls with a delicate or chunky gold necklace and/or anything on a silk or leather cord.
Wear them casually. With a t-shirt or button-down shirt, like above, or even a sweatshirt for your next Zoom meeting. (Samira wears hers with a sweatshirt.)
Mix metals. Silver with pearls feels pretty fresh and more casual. Even worn dressed up like Reese, above, it’s unexpected. In fact, if this really is your thing, her necklace and the one below are from a Mikimoto collaboration with Comme des Garcons. (You can also easily hack this look.)
Embrace classic. Wear them everywhere all the time. Like Lee Radziwill. The main, holding image of this story are new Sophie Buhai pearls coming for Spring. They feel a bit more modern on a dark silk string. I love the longer strand. You can also opt for a vintage strand of Chanel pearls from Resee, or layer them on like Coco did.
Some other pearl options….
Love this! I recently had my jewelry appraised for insurance purposes and was reminded how much was just sitting in my jewelry drawer. I too struggled to make my classic pearls feel modern. My daughter gave me some ideas and I’ll try these, too.
I put on my pearls at the last minute for the inauguration, and I happened to be wearing a Pippa Small necklace that I rarely take off. The pearls looked so good layered that I’ve worn them layered a few times since then. I love the way Samir Nasr wears hers.
Layering and wearing pearls in an unexpectedly casual way are the keys to modernizing them. I love to see new ways to wear old items!
Hmmm, I will have to bring mine out and try some of these hacks! Especially liked pearls mixed with silver ?
Jennifer, thank you for this. I too LOVE pearls and have a vintage strand of graduated pearls from my mother as well as a newer 20 year old strand of Mikimoto’s from my husband as well as pearl earrings, studs drops etc. I have been trying to figure out too how to make them more modern and at my age not look like an oldster. 🙂 You have shown some great ideas, I especially love the silver idea, even though I wear more gold than silver but time to dig up an old silver necklace.
Great ideas. I’m also thinking of pulling out my classic Lanvin velvet and ribbon strands to mix with real pearls and other chains. This is actually a great (and fun!) thing to do in quarantine!