High Fashion Has Hijacked the DIY Jewelry Game, Too
Kidrogony is a term I heard said (and possibly coined) by our editor-in-chief Thom Bettridge on an editorial call recently. He used it to address the fact that people in high fashion seemed to be obsessed with dressing like children at the moment.
He's not wrong. Miuccia Prada and Raf unveiled the latest installment of their powerful alliance this month, flitting between dark red Milan rooms and Sardinian beaches and sending striped baby rompers for adults down the runway.
Last year, Tyler, the Creator and Harry Styles wore Mary Janes on red carpets — a go-to choice of footwear for schoolgirls across the world. They even did so with the full white sock combo, with Gucci, Loewe, Fendi, and Dr. Martens supplying fresh ones this season.
The day after the aforementioned kid fashion call, the social media-less Bottega Veneta dropped the second issue of its digital magazine. It included a series shot by David Lachapelle in which Naomi Campbell, Ning Zetao, and Travis Scott modeled. Travis is pictured splashing around in waist-high water wearing a necklace not unlike the one your friend made you in middle school. The price? $3,400.
Brightly colored, name-spelling, and charm-laden jewelry just like this blew up during lockdowns last year, albeit decidedly more DIY and definitely less expensive. The hunger for craft brought on by new time on hands was a major factor. So, perhaps, was the search for new and at-home entrepreneurial moves.
The true origins of this accessory aesthetic are hard to pinpoint, though it played a key role in '90s teen style. Streetwear labels *EVAE+ and SALUTE played their parts in normalizing charm jewelry for men back in 2019, getting a valuable endorsement from A$AP Rocky.
With the likes of Bella Hadid and A$AP Rocky flaunting jewelry done DIY and by under-the-radar labels, high fashion houses naturally saw dollar signs. Instead of bracelets spelling out your mate's name, they now say Balenciaga.
And is it unexpected? High fashion has a long history of putting its pricier spin on everyday items, like the baseball cap or sneaker, and this reworking of once-DIY goods draws parallels to a certain recently-revealed LV x Nike shoe. You only have to look at the monumental rise of the crochet hat and its newfound place in the showrooms of Marc Jacobs and Prada to realize that nothing is sacred — no matter how I-could-make-that-at-home it might be.
With DIY jewelry now firmly in high fashion sights, we've rounded up a selection of this season's latest, from the pricey end of the spectrum via Balenciaga and Bottega to some options from people actually making them from home.
High fashion or homegrown, get the DIY Jewelry look below.
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