Does a string of pearls make you look like a Sloane?

[PetronellaSterling]

Had an fun evening out yesterday and the talk turned to jewellery. Two of the assembled group of women said they had always really wanted a string of pearls and would wear them always. These are both very modern, stylish women. I still have a knee-jerk response that says: blonde highlights, turned-up collar, string of pearls... Sloane! And find it very difficult not to associate pearls this way. So is there a way to wear pearls that doesn't make you look like a Sloane? Or are my friends right in saying that this association shows my age (39+1) more than anything?

[EdithWeston]

You can wear pearls with anything (except perhaps a bathing costume). They'll only make you look Sloany if that's what the rest of you says too.

Try channelling Chanel or Madonna, not Diana.

[oldenoughtowearpurple]

oh...thought this might be a friday night thread...

Please excuse my smutty assumptions.

I have a string of real pearls and I think they make me look old and boring. Especially when worn with a classic cashmere jumper.

[twoboots]

i have a long string of pearls,. i wear them in a triple thread with something quite low cut and slinky. nothing screams sex appeal like norks and oyster gob.

[PetronellaSterling]

I have a knee-length, tiered silk black cocktail dress that I could imagine them with in a short of mashed Coco Chanel/Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's style, but still not convinced about wearing them with everthing during the day. As an impressionable teen in the 80s, I saw a brilliant photo of Jane Birkin, barefoot in drainpipe jeans (as skinnies were then called) and an artfully arranged raincoat, hair loose, wearing the most stunning diamonds. There was something about the combo of completely casual and diamonds, when Dynasty and over-coiffed formality was at its peak, that was absolutely brilliant (no pun intended, I'm sure). I'd like to think you'd be able to do the same with pearls, but I'm afraid that I'm a bit with oldenoughtowearpurple: I have a string of real pearls, but they feel too old for me. And that I am a Nice Gel. Which I am not! I'd be delighted to be shown other ways of wearing them though to make them a bit more 21st century.

FWIW, I adore tahitian grey pearls and wear them (well, fake ones) a lot. It's the normal ones I have more trouble with.

[PetronellaSterling]

But oldenoughtowearpurple - tut, tut. I very carefully said a string of pearls, not a pearl necklace. Mind, gutter, lalalalalala.

[bigkidsdidit]

I have a string and wear them in the day lots. They are quite smart but not sloane I don't think! I don't wear them with a shirt though or an upturned collar. Quite often I'll wear cropped trousers or slim jeans, a slim fit jumper and my pearls just peeking out to work. I think they're great - but I was only 30 last month!

DH, mind, CANNOT resist the pearl necklace jokes every time I wear them. a definite downside

[bigkidsdidit]

Oh, and I make sure to have slightly messy hair on days I wear them to avoid the Nice Gel image

[PetiteMum]

Doesn't it depend on the type of pearls? I think these are q nice

www.highlifeshop.com/popup.aspx?productid=1098&src=images/product/large/1098.jpg

[rookiemater]

I have a pearl necklace I bought on holiday, it was not hugely expensive and the pearls are not all of exact uniform size which makes it IMO slightly less old fashioned. I love it and wear it a lot particularly to work, I don't think I look too Sloaney.

[Chipotle]

My parents bought me a perk necklace but it's different in that the pearls are very small. It's lovely and I wear it often, I don't think I look sloaney.

[PetronellaSterling]

I agree, it all depends on the pearls, the size, the colour etc. But my question was more: how would you wear a classic string of pearls e.g. www.pearlsonly.co.uk/chinese-akoya-pearls/520.html in a way to make it more modern?

[janmoomoo]

Well I am an eighties child too, so they will always look sloaney to me. Or just plain old fashioned. My friend was very proud that her DH bought her some but to me they just remind me of grannys.

I am talking classic string of pearls - the different shape/sized ones look nice.

[PetronellaSterling]

Thanks janmoomoo - that's what I mean. I really want to like them... and in isolation, I do like them actually. By which I mean, I look at them in the box: pretty. I put them round my neck and - ta da! Somehow, instantly, I feel, well, not exactly hip & trendy. I need to figure out how to wear them. There must be some kind of non-preppy way, surely?