How colourful Y2K beaded jewellery is making a luxe comeback
Taylor Swift brought back the friendship bracelet, which millennials will remember from the playground – now, designers are creating luxe versions of the playful, nostalgic baubles
We all recall the friendship bracelets that dominated playgrounds in the early 2000s. Cubic alphabet beads, spelling everything from names to declarations of BFF status and spaced between colourful plastic beads, were the epitome of cool for teens. They were also must-haves for rave party kids in the 1990s who dubbed them “Kandi”.
These bracelets and necklaces were creative expressions of style and belonging. Whether thoughtfully colour-matched or randomly looped through a shoelace; they were more playthings than jewellery. It was a cheap and cheerful way for young people to jazz up an outfit, and the trend was to wear armfuls of them.
Their connection to rave culture links them to music and dance and perhaps this is what has led to their revival of late, thanks in no small part to Swifties – fans of Taylor Swift who created their own versions of beaded jewellery to swap during her Eras tour. And this has come at just the right time, when the midriff-bearing, low-rise-wearing Y2K aesthetic is returning.
While the colourful trend is an exciting one for young Swifties and Gen Z, those who went through the Kandi jewellery heyday and may still be partial to the vibrant look, have long outgrown the cheap, plastic beads.
A more stylish use of colour can be seen in traditional jewellery like African beads or Chinese jade bead strands, and several designers have captured this vibrant trend and elevated the beaded look. Taking advantage of the natural beauty and vibrancy of gemstones, it’s unlikely you’ll be trading these creations with another random concertgoer.
Florentine designer Carolina Bucci has been creating beaded designs – fashioned out of gemstones like amethyst, rose quartz and even coral – long before Swifties caught the bug.
But she acknowledges that the Bucci Forte Beads collection does stem from a place of nostalgia. Not only are the beads shaped exactly like the rounded plastic ones we once all owned but they are also presented as a DIY kit with a shoelace cord, anchored with Florentine Finish 18k gold tips, made using a hammering technique featured in the designer’s collaboration with watchmaker Audemars Piguet.
Bucci fondly remembers making plastic beaded bracelets during summer holidays as a child, a tradition she revived when she became a mother.
“My sons’ wrists would be covered by the end of the summer, and just before they went back to school, we would cut them all off. As for me, I would mix the bracelets with my real jewellery and love the spirit of play and whimsy that they signified.”