How to Choose the Right Jewellery For Any Outfit or Situation

We have listed nine principles to ensure a sophisticated look with jewellery.

1. Sparkle for parties, matt for the day

Start with your plans for the day. Bracelets and bangles are not suitable for the office as it makes typing virtually impossible. It is not appropriate to wear a skull or other markedly rebellious symbols to the church, while a pearl necklace is unexpected at a night club. So, go through your day’s schedule before you leave the house.

Choose silver jewellery without gemstones, classic gold or other metal for the day. In case you wish to wear gemstones, choose a small diamond, a modest pearl, black onyx or other stone with a matt finish (coral, turquoise, jasper, agate etc). Sparkling gemstones such as amethyst, citrine crystal, topaz, crystal etc) suit the office only when small, jewellery with large sparkling gems should be left for more festive events.

2. If you must choose one, take the earrings

As earrings are placed so close to the face, they are bound to be in everybody’s field of vision when you speak with them. Earrings are also the easiest way to add some glow and light to your face. So if you need to make an impression with only one piece of jewellery, wear earrings that perfectly match your hair, eyes and complexion.

If your hair is long, choose metal or a colour that stands out best against the background. If you wish to accentuate your eyes, choose a crystal matching or similar to the colour of your eyes. You should also consider the shape of your face – a thin face is added texture with round or embellished earrings while a round face is made thinner by long dangle or teardrop earrings.

3. A simple accessory against a patterned background

Select your focus – either the outfit or the jewellery. You can’t have both. If you are wearing a colourful patterned dress, the jewellery won’t be visible and only confuses the dress pattern. The same applies to fabrics of special texture and contrasting stitches – it is equally difficult to notice jewellery on them. Several patterns together always seem a little common.

If you have a lot of colourful patterned clothes in your wardrobe, choose simple metal accessories or jewellery in single colour. It is always safe to take one colour from the pattern and choose jewellery with a semi-precious stone of the same colour. For instance, a dress with blue paisley on red could be matched with coral or garnet of the same hue or even blue lapis lazuli. The effect is more balanced and beautiful if the jewellery is not placed directly on the clothes (necklace, pendant) but slightly further away (bracelet, ring, earrings).

4. Prominent jewellery requires a modest background

If you have a truly eye-catching piece of jewellery that you want to highlight, give it a background of single colour. An accessory with a complicated shape, multiple colours or merely prominent size needs a peaceful surface, otherwise it will not stand out or will appear over the top.

There are two ways to make the colour of your outfit and jewellery work for each other. A daring and fun solution is to use contrasting colours. For instance, lapis lazuli looks amazing on yellow clothes. Ruby and garnet as well as amber come to life against dark blue background. The purple hues of amethyst or charoite get an additional touch of sparkle on dark green or brown. Turquoise will gleam on scarlet and larimar on rowan red.

However, if it seems too much, you can choose neutral hues for the background (black, white) or select clothes and jewellery of similar colour (beige with pink, light blue with dark blue). In case the piece of jewellery is multicoloured (e.g. jasper, agate), choose a colour discernible in the gemstone or opt for the elegant black or white. Simply remember that it is not good to wear more than two colours at a time. You can always add black or white, as they don’t count.

5. Consider the colours of nature

It is largely a matter of taste which colours match and which don’t. Still, you could start with colours that match you. Look at the colour of your hair and eyes, your complexion. If you see cool tones (as in case of most Estonians), you look better with silver jewellery, while girls featuring warmer tones look better in gold. Blonde women usually tend to be cooler or the silver type, while dark-haired women lean towards gold. Cooler types could prefer red, purple and blue tones, warmer types could stick to yellow, orange and greens. Cold hues match up while warmer tones are made for each other.

A clever tip on how to decide on the colour match is to think about their co-existence in nature. For instance, pearl and mother of pearl match up and all the colours of the sea starting from greenish blue to stormy grey, the warm southern seas of larimar and the natural white of the sandy beach, coral red and the deep sea blue. You can similarly find excellent combinations when looking around in Estonia – the red of the roses matched up with foliage green, the purple of the pasqueflower together with dark brown, the amethyst purple of the melampyrum against the citrine crystal yellow.

6. Large jewels for larger ladies

When selecting jewellery, it is also important to consider your body – they need to be in proportion. Small and delicate jewellery simply disappears on a larger woman, highlighting her build and making her visually even bigger. Similarly, heavy and large jewels on a slim or slightly-built woman seem like crude fetters pushing her down on the ground and making her smaller and shorter.

You could also think about your body type. For instance, the apple-shape body with thin legs and arms, but wide hips and chest and round waistline should not wear short necklaces. They make the upper body visually shorter and further accentuate the roundness. It would be a good idea to select longer dangling jewellery (earrings, necklaces) that visually diffuse the heaviness in the middle and make it seem taller and slimmer.

On the other hand, women with a pear-shaped figure marked by narrow shoulders and wide hips should avoid long necklaces as they add further heaviness to the hips. Instead, they should opt for shorter, bolder and bulkier necklaces or several chains at a time to add visual “weight” to the upper body. The same trick applies to women who would like to make their small chest look bigger. Then again, women with larger chest who do not wish to accentuate their bust could leave out necklaces altogether and instead, draw attention to their face with earrings.

 

7. Less is more

Choose one piece or a set of jewellery as the focal point. It is fun to play with details, but it can easily get out of hand. Thus, as said by Coco Chanel, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”

Powerful jewellery does not stand companions so wear them alone or together with clearly more modest jewellery. If you have a prominent necklace, choose small earrings, while in case of large and eye-catching earrings, you should leave the necklace out altogether. With a bulky bracelet, take off the large rings and vice versa. Rings do not compete with each other, so you can wear a number of them together, however, make sure that they match.

Also try to keep the balance in case of jewellery sets. Matching earrings and a ring – excellent! But if you add a necklace with a similar pendant and a bracelet, you are overdoing it. Only wear the pieces of jewellery that complement each other and leave out everything else!

8. When money is short, opt for neutrality

This is actually nothing new – in case of a limited budget, the classics work best. Diamond, pearl, moonstone, rose quartz, crystal – these are the most neutral options. Jewels with no colour or delicate hues fit practically everything and you can make them more formal by varying the size, sparkle or amount.

In case you need to choose between a couple of options, we recommend the following set:

• Simple silver or gold earrings for daywear
• Classic pearl earrings or earrings with sparkling gemstones for the evening
• A necklace with adjustable length that can be used with every collar type
• One sparkling or pearl pendant for the evening
• One silver or gold pendant without a gemstone or with a little gemstone for daywear
• One statement ring with a striking effect reminding you of your femininity every day

9. Remain true to yourself

Have you heard the word “fashion fool”? We all know somebody who would fall over herself to follow the latest fashion. Actually, there is no point in allowing the trends to make you a slave of the consumer society. If you always try to follow the fashion trends, you will lose yourself and also a lot of money to keep pace with change.

It is much healthier and affordable to remain true to yourself. Turn to the latest fashion only as far as fitting for you and complimenting to your body and ignore everything else. High-quality clothes and jewellery highlighting the positive features of the wearer are always in fashion.

The most important thing is to listen to your inner voice and wear whatever suits it. You can wear anything with everything if you feel like it! The point of jewellery is to express our personality and this game shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Thus, regardless of the fashion and rules, remain true to yourself. Your “I” is always beautiful – adorn yourself to be you!