Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Hello, lovelies!

Jewelry is my favorite accessory, and today I’m starting a new series on building your timeless jewelry wardrobe. For each category of jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc.), I will show different types that are wardrobe multipliers you can wear year round with a variety of outfits. These are the foundation of a jewelry wardrobe, then you can mix in some trendier pieces. Be sure to spend the majority of your jewelry dollars on classic pieces, then choose less expensive trendy items, just as we at Your Style Vault advise for all of your wardrobe purchases.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

This post focuses on bracelets. I feel like many women are fonder of earrings and necklaces when it comes to jewelry, but there are so many wonderful bracelet options. The four types of bracelets I recommend for your timeless jewelry wardrobe are cuff, bangle, pearl, and link. Obviously you don’t want to wear all four at once like I’m doing in this picture! There are millions of variations of these four types of bracelets so you’re sure to find many options that work well with your personal style and budget. Style Vault Complete Insiders, you can shop bracelets from this post and several more options in my bracelet wardrobe collection.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Cuff bracelets come in a variety of widths. The wider you choose, the more of a statement piece your cuff will be. If your cuff is a big one, you’ll want to wear less and smaller other jewelry (rings, necklace, and earrings). This beautiful gold cuff is from ExVoto Vintage, and they will monogram the medal for you. Style Vault Complete Insiders, you can get 20% off this ExVoto Vintage Woodley cuff throughout the month of October 2016. Not an Insider yet? Sign up now for a free trial.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

This tortoise cuff is a fun alternative to metal and also has a monogram option, as you can see. I love, love, love monograms to the point that my husband sometimes says he worries I’m going to monogram him or our cats next. They are safe according to Reese Witherspoon’s famous saying, “If it’s not moving, monogram it.”

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Bangles also come in different widths and materials. Generally three is the minimum number of bangle bracelets to wear together, then you can keep adding more from there. Just don’t let them get too out of hand (yikes, bad pun!)—they don’t need to go all the way to your elbow. Most of my bangle bracelets are metal. On the left, I’ve mixed together two sets of thin bangles that each have five bracelets. You’ll note that these alternate perfectly, which made our photographer, Krissy, laugh when I was arranging them. Those of you who are detail-oriented like me would have done that, too, right? As your bangles get wider, like the bamboo ones on the right, you’ll generally want to wear a smaller number of them, although these bamboo ones are thin enough that I could wear more at once. Style Vault Complete Insiders, you can shop for bangles in my bracelet wardrobe collection.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Pearls are a staple of a timeless jewelry wardrobe. A genuine pearl bracelet is a classic piece that is worth the investment because you will wear it for the rest of your life, but there are also a number of pretty, less expensive pearl options. Here I’m wearing a classic single strand of pearls that happens to be an inexpensive one (aka fake pearls) I bought years ago to mix in with some other bracelets.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Pearls come in a variety of shapes, including the irregularly shaped baroque pearls that make up these stretch bracelets. These bracelet combinations show how mixing together different sizes and colors of pearls looks great. These bracelets are from Cindi Earl Fine Jewelry in Nashville, and she has a variety of shapes and sizes of diamond pave beads to choose from, in addition to customizing the pearl sizes and colors.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Link bracelets are made up of links of various sizes that are in a single strand or multiple strands, like the one shown here. The size of the links can vary from small up to so large that there are only a handful of links in the entire bracelet. Link bracelets are often made of metals, most commonly gold or silver, but also come in other materials, such as horn or tortoise. You can shop for all of these types of link bracelets in my bracelet wardrobe collection.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Thankfully the days of only wearing either gold or silver jewelry at one time are long gone, because I am a big fan of mixing metals. In fact, the bracelets I wear most often are a set of three bracelets with one each of yellow, white, and rose gold. This ExVoto Vintage Gilmer bracelet makes mixing metals easy because it has gold and silver links. The size and texture of the links also varies, making this an interesting and unique bracelet that is still very classic.

Building Your Timeless Jewelry Wardrobe: Bracelets

Some metal link bracelets have stones mixed into them. This can be such a pretty combination, and a metal and pearl bracelet might appeal to those of you for whom a pearl-only bracelet seems too traditional or boring. In addition to pearls, this ExVoto Vintage Graham bracelet comes with smoky quartz, black onyx, or turquoise (not shown) stone options.

I have more posts about building your timeless jewelry wardrobe coming soon. Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you can see the types of necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry you’ll want to include in your jewelry wardrobe. For more style tips from me, read my other blog posts and follow me on Instagram.

Until next time,

Francie

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