Was a request heard often during our recent show in Baltimore. So doing a little research to see if a trend is afoot I found an article in the May edition of Intelligent Life, a chronicle of culture published in London and Europe by The Economist, that brought me up short. “When Men Wear Jewellry,” by John-Paul Flintoff, suggests that a serious trend may already be on the rise in the U.K and by what we heard at the show is already making a landing on our shores as well.
Flintoff says that men’s attitudes toward jewellry (it’s spelled with two l’s in Britain) are on the move. “After perhaps 200 years (at least in the West) of confinement to cuff links, tiepins and timepieces, they are experimenting with the kind of adornment hitherto regarded as exclusively feminine.”
Market researcher Eurolink, he reports, compared 2005 sales of luxury jewelry to British men with 2010 figures and found a marked increase despite the recession. Sales in 2005: £136 million($220 USD) In 2010: £168 million ( $272 USD). The real surprise was that the greatest increase was not in safely conservative watches, but in bracelets and necklaces. Think, perhaps, a single oxidized piece of silver suspended from a leather thong. Not pearls and charms.
Sports and entertainment figures lead the trend. “The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards wears a skull ring that features so prominently on the cover of his autobiography it almost replaces his eye,” Flintoff observes. “The book has sold a million copies, which means that picture is lying around in a million homes, subtly altering the atmosphere the way Keith’s music once did.”
Flintoff’s research suggests that online shopping may make it easier for men to venture into the jewelry trend.
And GemLily is here to help. Starting conservatively, we’re launching our online men’s jewelry collection with contemporary cufflinks. More dash and daring to come.