Dua Lipa, Hailey Bieber, Harry Styles – why pearls are going crazy on TikTok as the ‘rules’ for wearing them are scrapped
- Everyone from Gen Z to celebrities to prepsters are embracing designs like Vivienne Westwood’s pearl spaceship necklace
- People are wearing them differently too – micro pearls stacked with other necklaces, for example, are a hit with younger customers, a jewellery designer says
Pearls are enjoying something of a renaissance.
The #VivienneWestwoodNecklace hashtag on TikTok has 31 million views – mostly breathless unboxings of the British designer’s now cult pearl-and-spaceship pendant necklace.
Then there are celebrities like Harry Styles and Hailey Bieber who have been showing off their fondness for pearl necklaces, and the growing popularity of social media “aesthetics” such as #OldMoney that reclaim staples of upper-crust and preppy styles.
But pearls have always been timeless. It’s more that they’re shaking off any last vestige of stuffiness, or “rules” about who can wear them (and how).
Pearls can be posh and punk, pretty and pretty subversive. They appeal to everybody from rock stars and prepsters to Gen Z tastemakers to a grand matriarch who believes a martini to be a breakfast food.
