Emily Ratajkowski’s name necklace for son Sylvester is sparking a personalised jewellery trend: show your true love with a child’s thumbprint, or coded messages in hieroglyphs or Morse code

Dec 20 , 2023

Model Emily Ratajkowski wears a necklace spelling out her son’s name – as well as a “mama” necklace. Whether they feature a thumbprint, hieroglyphs or Morse code, super-personalised pieces make jewellery even more meaningful to the wearer. Photos: Handouts

Queen Victoria had a bracelet with nine lockets containing strands of hair from each of her nine children – and who can forget Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton’s ‘romantic’ vials of blood?

Today, Linden Cook’s Impression necklaces feature a loved one’s thumbprint, House of K’dor has its Morse Code collection, while Dyne’s Loverglyph rings translate personal sentiments into hieroglyphs

It goes without saying that jewellery is more often than not a sentimental gift or purchase: a sign of love or devotion, or bought to commemorate a significant milestone. But how about when you want to take the gesture up a notch?

Enter super-personalised jewellery.

Of course this, too, is nothing new. In the Victorian era, jewellery made with locks of hair taken from a beloved was a treasured gift for occasions such as a betrothal or the birth of a baby, as well as to provide comfort to the bereaved. Upon the birth of their first child, Prince Albert presented Queen Victoria with a bracelet with a heart-shaped locket containing a lock of the baby’s hair. The bracelet would eventually hold nine lockets: one for each of the couple’s children.

Meanwhile, who could forget then-married couple Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton each wearing a vial around their neck containing the other’s blood?

Emily Ratajkowski wears a necklace with her son’s name, Sylvester

If this seems a little much, there are plenty of other ways to imbue your jewellery with some additional meaning. Take model Emily Ratajkowski, who was recently snapped wearing a pendant with her son’s face on it, layering it with another necklace spelling out the child’s name, Sylvester.

Australian jewellery brand Linden Cook’s Impression necklaces – made using a technique known as lost-wax casting – turn the thumbprint of a loved one into a sweet memento. The Impression collection was started with the aim of creating “timeless, handmade and one-off pieces of jewellery”, explains the brand’s managing director and co-founder, Georgie Amad.

A Linden Cook Impression pendant, featuring a thumbprint of the owner’s loved one

“We also wanted to build a collection that held genuine sentimental value for our customers. I think our customers love these pieces as they are incredibly personal and allow them to hold their most special memories and people close to them.”

Clever too are British-Italian jeweller Sarah Ysabel Narici’s Loverglyph rings for her Dyne label. Each one is crafted with coded secrets, codes and symbols that are of personal significance to the client.

A House of K’dor bracelet, designed with a personalised message in Morse code