Baseball player wears a necklace and fascinates his followers 1:44
New York (CNN Business) --
Ladies, take care of your pearls.
Men come for them.
Pearl jewelry is now catching the eye of some men, with necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings infusing this feminine classic with a bolder, more rugged edge.
Men are wearing pearls unabashedly in all sorts of settings.
Major League Baseball players have adorned their necks with pearls to take to the field of play.
Rap and pop icons like Drake and Harry Styles are making them popular, as are Hollywood actors and runway models.
Jewelers say the men's pearl trend began to emerge before the pandemic as the fashion industry evolved and embraced gender fluidity.
The pandemic helped fuel the trend further.
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"Men's jewelry started to take off before the pandemic. As soon as the lockdown kicked in and we started living in this virtual world, it soon became about getting dressed from the neck up, just as the search for jewelry began Zoom-worthy for women,” said Angie Kennedy, vice president of marketing at Zales, a division of Signet, the largest jeweler in the United States that also owns Kay Jewelers and Jared.
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Male athletes, rappers, and pop culture icons like Harry Styles are popularizing pearls.
At first, men were looking for ways to dress up the neckline and highlight the face with hoop earrings, she said, and accentuate their look with black and white diamonds.
"Last baseball season, we saw players walk out on the field wearing pearl necklaces. That cemented the trend for us," says Kennedy.
But these men are not wearing your grandmother's classic white pearl necklace.
“They are incorporating diamonds, or adding pearls to a gold chain.
Some also wear a matching bracelet,” says Kennedy.
Pearl jewelry designed for men incorporates unconventional materials, such as leather.
They also feature different colored pearls, such as pink, black or Tahitian pearls, and the styles sometimes incorporate design elements such as skulls, a nail head or animal claws.
Although men gravitate towards these more daring styles, Kennedy says he intends them to be gender neutral.
"She can wear it on a Friday night and he can wear it to a game on Saturday. What used to be worn in a much more formal way can now be worn with a T-shirt," she said.
There's another reason pearls are making a comeback in the midst of a pandemic.
"When things are scary, people tend to go back to things that are classic or timeless. Pearls have been around for a long time and will continue to be around. In a way, they represent strength," says Kennedy.
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Give pearls a twist
Mikimoto, the Japanese jewelry company that created the cultured pearl more than 125 years ago, is one of the most prestigious brands in the industry.
Mikimoto's new PassionNoir pearl collection is masculine in its design and appeal.
Last September, the company launched PassionNoir, a more daring collection that includes larger South Sea cultured pearls strung on an elastic necklace or bracelet, or set in rings, cuff earrings and necklaces made from platinum-plated silver. black.
Yasuhiko Hashimoto, CEO of Mikimoto America, said that PassionNoir was created because the brand had seen the growing interest of male buyers in pearl jewelry.
But he said the masculine-looking collection also appeals to women.
The idea of men wearing pearls is not new, he said, noting that Indian maharajas and British and European kings have worn pearl necklaces for centuries.
"The pearl was a symbol of power," he says.
"It's still timeless and elegant, but it can also be a fun twist. Men today feel able to take fashion risks and try new things."
Mikimoto's men's jewelry is made of cultured pearls from the South Seas.
Is it a fad?
Zale's Kennedy doesn't think so.
"Pearls are probably one of the first categories of jewelry that we notice men's interest in," she said.
At Signet, we looked at all the categories and thought, "Do we have the deal for him and her? Every idea that comes to mind, now we think about how we can make it more gender fluid."
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