Your jewellery pieces should complement, not compete with, each other and your clothing. 

When considering your earrings, necklaces and bracelets for an outfit, a good place to start is to decide on your main statement piece. This will be led partly by your clothing and where you want to draw the eye. 

Your chosen statement piece might be a chunky necklace, bold earrings, or a heavy bracelet stack. Once you’ve got this, build your other accessories around it. For a curated look, your other jewellery pieces should support the statement piece and draw focus to it. Adding too many big or bold pieces can look cluttered, so take some time to think about which pieces work well together to draw the eye where you want.

Let’s talk necklines…

Firstly, think about your clothes. If your chosen focus area is your neckline, and you want to achieve this with jewellery rather than clothing, opt for a simple top. A v-neck is ideal for layering necklaces that fall at varying lengths on the chest area within the ‘v’. You can also layer necklaces over a plain round neck top, but be sure to have the shorter necklaces long enough that they don’t easily tuck under the collar and get hidden.

Choose one large, colourful pendant as the ‘hero’ of the neckline. Toolally’s acrylic Feather Drops or Swinging Circles will do the job. Then build up from there with two or three simpler necklaces of different lengths. Alternatively, if you’re going for an all-gold look, try the Large Alphabet Pendant necklace as your statement, layered with a smaller pendant and finished off with a simple, short gold chain.

The ideal chain lengths for a curated appearance and reduced risk of tangling are ones with about two inches difference between them, for example a choker of 14-15”, a mid-length of 16-17”, and a long pendant of 20+”.

When you want your focus to be your neckline, balance this with small earrings.

If earrings are your heroes...

Go big and bold. Enjoy expressing yourself through fun, colourful earrings. If you choose to stack earrings, stick to studs, cuffs or small hoops up the ear, while the main pair of earrings can be as big and detailed as you like.

Balance your statement earrings with a delicate necklace. You can wear a few simple rings and a bracelet, but don’t overload in that area as then you’ll be competing with your ears as the focal point. 

Hands on...

If your thing is to wear lots of rings and bracelets, keep your neck and ear area simple. If you choose to wear a necklace at all, a delicate chain or a small simple pendant will be enough. And for earrings, again keep it simple with hoops and/or studs.

When stacking multiple rings, keep them all the same metal, but choose a combination of thick and thin bands, detailed and plain, chunky and delicate. Spread the rings across both hands. But for bracelets, choose just one arm to load them up, not both. This will look intentional and not overwhelming.

Clothing considerations...

As well as the size and number of jewellery pieces, if you’re looking for overall balance it’s important to consider colour and pattern too. 

If your clothing is patterned and colourful, the jewellery to best complement that takes a little more thought. If the jewellery is too busy, too sparkly or a clashing colour then the eye has nowhere to rest. Yet if you just wear a delicate pair of earrings and a couple of simple rings then they will get lost and diminish the impact of the whole outfit. Pick out a colour from your outfit and choose one statement piece of jewellery to wear that will complement your bold outfit. Keep all other jewellery smaller and simple.

Remember, choosing your outfit and your jewellery should be fun. Enjoy experimenting with layering, mixing and matching, and choosing items that work well together to express your own style and personality. If you take the time to consider each accessory, you'll soon get a feel for the right balance. Enjoy! 😍