What has turned a traditional string of pearls into something so cool and classy that it can be draped as comfortably around the neck of a hip-hop star as that of new US Vice President Kamala Harris?
Harris’s wardrobe of power pearls featured throughout the campaign trail of last year’s presidential election, with favored designs including a link necklace from the Gumball collection by Irene Neuwirth. “Pearls are a safe political choice,” explains Carol Woolton, author and contributing jewelry director at British Vogue. “[They project] an image of success and classy refinement, rather than glamour and sex appeal.”
But it isn’t just Harris fueling the revival. Movies and television series about royal families, such as The Crown, are full of pearls, as are women’s-wear runway shows. Designers have been layering ropes of pearls and fine gold chains on models for the past few seasons as collections pick up on themes from the 1970s and ’80s. The surprise, however, is seeing designers like Grace Wales Bonner, Kim Jones at Dior, and Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen adding pearls to their menswear collections.
A pearl necklace has an adaptable, chameleon-like quality, letting it look simultaneously formal — think Queen Elizabeth II in her triple row — and edgy, as on young, male music-scene icons like A$AP Rocky, Harry Styles and Young Thug.
Of course, there’s historical precedent: 16th-century Elizabethan courtiers draped themselves in pearls as a mark of sophistication and status, as did Mughals and maharajahs from the Indian subcontinent, while punks in the 1970s used pearls as a symbol of rebellion. However, a renewed, gender-fluid appeal is now energizing the market.
Fresh and versatile
Many pearl specialists are reporting an uptick in sales over the past few years.
“Requests for Tahitian strands have increased very recently due to Kamala Harris’s strand of Tahitians,” says Peggy Grosz, senior vice president at Assael. “But there has been an overall resurgence in pearl demand for many reasons. The classic strand of pearls, at any length, has been shown to be so much more versatile than commonly thought.” Thanks to fashion designers, she adds, “the pearl necklace is wide open for interpretation and innovation.”
Francis Mastoloni, co-owner of the eponymous family brand, agrees. He sees the pearl wardrobes of today “evolving from a traditional look of a single strand of perfectly round South Sea pearls, to one that is more on-trend and modern, with different mixes of color and shapes.”
This more relaxed, everyday look has broader appeal, he asserts, adding that Mastoloni is “always looking to evolve [its] designs based on consumer-trend triggers like pop culture and [the] economy.”
To this end, the jeweler has been stringing monochrome combinations of South Sea and Tahitian specimens with tonal mixes of the Fijian variety. It has also punctuated rows of pearls with gold design details. “Adding gold chain to some of our strand collections provides a lighter, more fashion-forward look,” Mastoloni comments, pointing to “positive feedback” that has resulted in strong pre-Christmas holiday sales for the brand.
Similarly, Assael is mixing tones of Tahitian and South Sea pearls, selling long strands of the latter. The jeweler’s Silk collection, for example, features South Sea pearls threaded onto fine gold snake chains to create a more relaxed, minimalist, contemporary look. “We have been doing well with Tahitian and Fiji strands because women have woken up to the wide range and beauty in [different] color tones,” says Grosz.
A modern twist
Irene Neuwirth uses chain spacers on designs like the Gumball Link necklace that Harris wore, alongside combinations of Akoya pearls and turquoise or opals in her necklace collections. Meanwhile, Japanese pearl specialist Tasaki — which appointed New York fashion designer Prabal Gurung as its creative director in 2017 and collaborates with jewelry designer Melanie Georgacopoulos — has been innovative in slicing and segmenting freshwater pearls, as well as hyphenating a row of pearls with gold bars.
Danish jeweler Sophie Bille Brahe plays with volume on her Peggy necklace by stringing a row of pearls that graduate from tiny to large. For her Peggy Deux design, she attaches dainty seed pearls to a string of cultured pearls. Californian jeweler Sophie Buhai creates funky assemblages of baroque pearls, while Mizuki updates the necklace by threading a flexible stainless steel collar with small pearls highlighted by three large ones. Other Mizuki styles include a gold necklace with a small group of graduated Akoya pearls and a diamond.
New York designer Mateo Harris, who started his career creating jewelry for men, similarly strings together pearls and sleek gold chain, and he dangles a Brancusi-style gold mask pendant from a row of 6-millimeter pearls. The jeweler is an aficionado himself, often sporting a row of cultured pearls around his neck. In that, he joins the likes of fashion designers Giambattista Valli and Marc Jacobs. Jacobs told Town & Country magazine in November that after wanting a strand for years, he’d finally bought one at Mikimoto and hadn’t taken it off since. “A twinset always belonged to a different gender, a strand of pearls belonged to a different gender,” he reflected, “and you see with young kids today, it’s like, no, it doesn’t.”
Gender-fluid style
The success of last year’s Mikimoto and Comme des Garçons collaboration for high-end British retailer Dover Street Market endorses Jacobs’s sentiment. It featured an Akoya pearl necklace with a sterling silver chain and Comme des Garçons logo — a design that both men and women bought. The brand is launching a fresh collection this spring. Even Mikimoto’s advertising and social media now features men in pearls, imbuing a traditional product with a cool, progressive image.
Yoko London, whose pearls featured in SSS World Corp’s spring 2020 menswear show, has also noticed an increase in male buyers.
“Our Classic collection has been particularly popular in this area, with Tahitian strands and baroque South Sea strands proving the best-selling items among men,” says chief executive Michael Hakimian. “With celebrities such as Harry Styles regularly wearing pearl jewelry now, we feel this is a market that will continue to grow.”
The company is making a point of offering a contemporary twist on classic designs by adding diamond details, and by targeting both the women’s and men’s market with rare pearls.
At the root of this trend is the fact that jewelry is a form of self-expression and storytelling, maintains Ruby Autore, marketing head and international jewelry manager at Australia-based pearl specialist Autore. “The beautiful thing about pearls is that every single one is unique, and I think people are drawn to this, and the ability for individual self-expression through this gem,” she notes.
Both Autore and its sister brand, Autore Moda — which Ruby Autore founded last year — have reimagined the traditional look with the modern consumer in mind. In each collection, they are revamping pearl strands through graduated colors, the inclusion of motifs and tassels, and multifunctional pieces that can be worn in a variety of ways.
“With the presence of pearls across such a diverse market today, the industry is adapting, and we are constantly seeing new and interesting designs appealing to a wide demographic of people,” Autore insists. This modernizing makeover of such a classic design confirms the pearl necklace is definitely back in the spotlight.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2021. To subscribe click here.