I was in Copenhagan this week and this is a bracelet which caught my eye on Osterbrogade in a little jewellery boutique called Pico. I loved the beadwork and couldn’t resist buying it.
I also bought it as felt it would compliment a Links of London Sugar Cane Silver Ring which my aunt bought me when I graduated from Fashion College a few years ago.
The Sugar Cane Silver Ring is one of my favorite rings because while it appears to be quite a solid, heavy statement ring, it is in fact very light. The sterling silver bars are strung on very strong elastic so whenever people comment on it (which is quite often) I love taking it off and showing them how you can squash it! A great dinner party piece.
Anyway, I am digressing as usual (although the ring is a very worthy digression). Back to the bracelet… which I also love because it reminds me of Fiona Paxton‘s beautiful Native American inspired beaded necklaces and I thought it was a nice neutral base on which to layer my other bracelets.
Normally a growing-up fashion reserved for teenagers, it seems to be a growing grown-up trend to layer up friendship bracelets, which themselves are becoming more and more sophisticated. I have a 19-year-old cousin who has been working this look for at least five years and I find myself thinking of her colourful sparkling friendship-laden wrists more and more often these days. Julia, please post in a photo! She mixes them up with silk and silver, pearls and plastic with the odd bangle adding a solid note to the layers. Each bracelet has a story or a person or a place behind it and I find myself more and more often wanting to wear my places/people/stories on my left wrist and picking up little bracelets wherever I go for my friends and family.
This is a picture of my current collection:
From left:
1. An ivory waxed cotton woven bracelet embedded with little sterling silver beads… I picked this up from a bohemian long-haired man with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen at Capo Testa in Sardinia this summer.
2. A red chord bracelet with a sterling silver heart charm bought in Istanbul in April this year.
3. Aforementioned beaded bracelet from Pico in Copenhagen.
4. Sterling silver bangle with faceted green amethyst from Pomegranate, one of my favorite jewellery shops in London. Just bought this a few weeks ago. Love it!
5. Brass and mother-of-pearl bangle, again from Sardinia, bought from a Senegalese man on Baia Sardinia.
6. A Chinese bell-bangle given to me by a good friend from Hong Kong. Apparently it is customary in China to put a few of these on a baby’s wrist so that parents will wake up and hear if the child is being taken away by bad spirits at night.
Maybe it is a recession trend… certainly a symptom of this age of austerity, in which one does not feel comfortable “blinging it”. It is an age where the sentimental/emotional value of objects is valued more than their price and precious pieces are worn subtly and casually. In fact, even diamonds are making more and more appearances in the friendship bracelet arena. One brand that does this particularly well is Redline in Paris which can be purchased at La Boutique des Joailliers. Another idea is to mix a white gold diamond tennis bracelet with silk and leather chord friendship bracelets. A wonderful purveyor of this look who has been at the forefront of this precious casual style for many years is Eric Van Peterson. Visit his shop on Walton Street in London and you will find a treasure trove of leather and pearls, diamonds and chord, gemstones and bohemia all mixing together under some sort of beautiful harmonious anarchy. There should be no rules in the realm of jewellery and the idea is not to be too precious about precious things. Tapping into this wave, many designers are mixing precious stones and metals with cotton chord in the guise of a casual friendship bracelet but in fact are creating very precious pieces to be worn every day but treasured forever.
Here is a selection of such treasures I’ve found on the web:
Aqua & Green Friendship Bracelet, Links of London
Fiji Luck Bracelet, £88, Astley Clarke
8LA Coco Love Disc Bracelet, £58, Austique
Sterling Silver Box Belcher Bracelet, Links of London
Leather Stud Wrap Bracelet, £26, Jigsaw
Eternity Bangle, £2695, Astley Clarke
Scosha "Follow The Sun" Bracelet, Rose and cream hand braided linen with a 10k yellow gold tag engraved with "Follow The Sun". £206, Kabiri
Scosha Black Braided Bracelet - Sapphire Black braided cotton bracelet with 18k yellow gold fastening and bezel set blue sapphire, £245, Kabiri
Anna Hu Black Diamond Knot Bracelet - An 18k white gold bracelet with a knot design set with 41 round shape black diamonds, £2100, Kabiri
Cloudy Aquamarine Bracelet, £800, Astley Clarke
Lyra Diamond Tennis Bracelet, £1895, Astley Clarke
Sea Shell Enamel Bangle, £75, Astley Clarke
Twisted Love Bracelet, £55, Jigsaw
8LA Deep Purple Bracelet, £65, Austique
Silk Wrap Around Gem Bracelet, £18, Jigsaw
Scorpio Bracelet, Astley Clarke
Balance Charm Bracelet, £355, Astley Clarke
Evil Eye Charm Bracelet, £125, Astley Clarke
18CT white gold Disco Ball Bracelet, £435, Astley Clarke
[...] and sparkling stones. She had the look I had just written about in my blog post on friendship bracelets the day before down to a perfect T! And I told her so. And then we got talking and she told me [...]