THE JOURNAL
From left: Mr Anwar Hadid in London, 25 August 2021. Photograph by Mr Neil Mockford/Getty Images. Mr Pharrell Williams in Paris, 7 December 2021. Photograph by Mr Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images. A$AP Rocky in New York, 30 June 2021. Photograph by Gotham/Getty Images
In 2020, AKA the Year Everything Went Crazy, one small, simple item stood out: a silver chain, worn by an actor playing a literature student in a BBC/Hulu adaptation of a hit novel. Admittedly, there was little to do in the spring of 2020 but become obsessed with Normal People’s Connell Waldron (played by the actor Mr Paul Mescal) and his chain. Viewers’ eyes were drawn to the famous neckpiece sitting just-so on the character's collar bones or variously peeping out from the necklines of football shirts and unassuming hoodies. Almost two years on from that first, swimmingly strange pandemic spring, the Instagram account @connellschain still boasts 157,000 followers.
It’s perhaps no coincidence, then, that the medium-short length necklace – somewhere between a regular necklace and a choker – is having a bit of a moment. Designers and consumers alike are feeling the lure of this deceptively simple style, which is proving both versatile and highly wearable, taking in discreet, minimal designs as well as maximalist, statement pieces.
As tends to be the case with trends, it is celebrities at the vanguard. Think of Mr Harry Styles in a pearl necklace in the video for “Golden”; A$AP Rocky in a choker with mini-portrait centrepiece at LOEWE’s SS20 show; or Mr Justin Bieber on Instagram last summer wearing a chain strung with a rainbow of gummy bears and mushroom charms.
Fundamental to the appeal of the short necklace is that it can be worn with other, longer necklaces. “Over the last few years, there’s been a big trend towards men layering,” says Mr Maxim de Turckheim, Senior Buyer at MR PORTER, who name-checks style-conscious, adventurous celebrities like Bieber or Tyler, the Creator as being at the forefront of the stacking trend. “What we saw is that a lot of people have moved away from that midsize towards either really short or really long, so they’ll be wearing 45cm pieces literally on the collarbone and then they can layer that with longer, chunky chains,” he says.
Evidently, more and more contemporary brands are taking to the shorter length. Launching exclusively on MR PORTER are pieces ranging from a tennis necklace in gold and white diamonds by Norwegian jeweller KOLOURS JEWELRY to a chunky beaded number by the French designer Lauren Rubinski. Delicate necklaces by master craftsman Shaun Leane featuring diamond-lined tusk pendants are also available in the length, alongside understated gold double-wrap chains by Foundrae that can be hung with pendants.
Of course, the trend for shorter necklaces for men isn't completely new. Short chains in gold and silver were a staple of menswear at UK garage nights in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while the length has been worn by rock ’n’ rollers for decades – Mr Alex Turner in a simple chain at the Mojo Honours List Awards in 2008; Mr Damon Albarn in surfer-style beads in the 1990s; Sid Vicious in a padlock chain in the 1970s. But what came before was never available in such a wide variety, nor was it as notable for its craftsmanship.
“The inspiration for our thin and short tennis necklaces are based on KOLOURS JEWELRY being a stackable concept,” explains the brand’s founder Mr Magnus Thorud. “We have worked on creating a very thin tennis necklace, so it can be stacked with two or three necklaces together, mixing lengths and colours to create a very unique styling.”
Thorud thinks the trend may have started with men increasingly buying pieces originally designed for women and that the variety in the market for women’s jewellery will have drawn men to the style.
“I love the idea that the pieces can also be worn by a girlfriend, son or daughter, making the collection a family heirloom”
“Personally, I am a huge fan of the diamond tennis necklaces being thin with smaller stones and shorter lengths,” he says. “I think the perfect way to style this is having several layered in the lengths that go in the neckline of the T-shirt.” This way, he says, the necklaces will move naturally in and outside the neckline.
Similarly versatile, if aesthetically very different, Lauren Rubinski’s Donut pieces are hand-painted and can be worn in a single colour or multicoloured. The clasps can be worn at the back or at the front and she explains that they “are painted in enamel and made of gold; really the clasp can be used as jewellery when you turn the necklace around”.
For Thorud, every piece in the collection can be worn by men and women equally. “I love the idea that the pieces can also be worn by a girlfriend, son or daughter, making the collection a family heirloom.”
Part of the appeal of this style, says de Turckheim, is its insouciance, something “that pops out from your T-shirt,” he explains. And it offers a pleasing contradiction in terms of how it interacts with clothing and the body, being at once visible and yet understated – teasing the beholder with a flash of metal, just like Connell’s chain did back in the summer of 2020.