Battle of the bangles

There are few jewellery designs that have been as successful as the Cartier Love bracelet, dreamt up in the New York workshop of Aldo Cipullo in 1969 and still the Richemont-owned brand’s best-selling design, according to HSBC. The close-fitting, oval-shaped gold bracelet with a screw-motif can only be unfastened with a small screwdriver, evoking the idea of binding love.

Given the Love’s long-running popularity, it’s little wonder rival jewellers are bringing their own branded bangles to market. This spring, houses including Pomellato, Dior and Piaget are launching new jewellery collections themed around the bangle. Last August, Tiffany & Co unveiled its Lock collection of four unisex, padlock-style gold bracelets, which was recently expanded to include necklaces, rings and earrings.

Lisa Hall, luxury brand buyer at Mappin & Webb, says that bangles make up almost a third of total sales among the luxury jewellery brands it sells at its UK stores; sales of bangles increased in the “double digits” between 2021 and 2022.

The bangle has long been a sign of status, wealth and beauty, dating back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. As an object of adornment, bangles “would flatter and draw attention to the hand and wrist”, says Josephine Odet, a jewellery industry veteran and gemstone specialist. “They were symbols of class . . . used in some cultures as currency.”

Today, that currency is increasingly tied to luxury brands, with buyers signalling status and exclusivity through recognisable branding, rather than precious materials. “You have five or six icons in the space that are markers, enabling you to come across as being part of the club of the happy few,” says Erwan Rambourg, HSBC’s global head of consumer and retail research. “When at a bar or hotel or restaurant, people can tell at a distance that it’s a Cartier Love bracelet, or a [Van Cleef & Arpels] Alhambra necklace or a [Bulgari] B. zero1 ring.”

“All brands want to find a way to distil their brand into one bangle,” echoes Hannah Teare, a London-based stylist and acting fashion director at Tatler magazine. “People buy into that — it’s about stating your tribe.”

All brands want to find a way to distil their brand into one bangle. People buy into that — it’s about stating your tribe

The blurring of traditional gender boundaries is also fuelling sales of the category. “Men have become more fashionable and interested, even in jewellery. Before, it was only a ring and a watch,” says Achim Berg, global leader of consultancy McKinsey’s apparel, fashion and luxury group. “Men have qualified for bracelets — it’s now a great category.”

It’s no coincidence that many of the bangles on the market today bear a resemblance to the Cartier Love. The logo-studded F is Fendi bracelet or Valentino’s rock-studded version could pass for Love at a distance. Rambourg says the Tiffany Lock bangle has been referred to as “the Love bracelet from Cartier with a contemporary twist”.

But none yet rival the popularity of the Love. According to Geneva-based research company Digital Luxury Group, “Cartier Love bracelet” recorded a total of 3.39mn Google searches globally last year, compared with 117,700 for “Tiffany Lock bracelet” and 85,900 for “Van Cleef Alhambra bracelet”.

Malaika Crawford is style editor at watch publication Hodinkee and lives on New York’s Upper East Side. She frequently sees women in “armfuls of Love bracelets”, she says, sometimes up to six. “People are just hooked on it,” she adds. “In the same way people look at a [Rolex] Daytona or Alhambra; it’s a status thing.”

And so the battle of the bangles wages on. House codes also ooze from new fine jewellery bangles at Pomellato and Dior. The former’s Together collection features a centre link that riffs off the Milanese brand’s signature chain jewellery, while in April, a new Gem Dior bangle will feature a fully closed design.

High jewellery — the hard luxury equivalent of haute couture, featuring one-off gems that are often set with large, important stones — is also feeling bangle fever. Louis Vuitton’s best-selling fine jewellery bangle is its gold Empreinte, which features a clasp in the LV initials; last month, it introduced a high jewellery diamond bangle in white and yellow gold that’s subtly designed around interlocking Vs.

So how to wear your tribe-semaphoring bangle in 2023? While Hall says that stacking and showing your “wrist game” has been the norm, both Teare and Crawford agree that layering should be avoided this year. Crawford likes the idea of a single statement, such as the Bulgari Serpenti Viper which eschews a clasp and simply encircles the wrist.

Or the Cartier Trinity, with three different types of gold loops in one jewel, not least because it can be slipped on and off. “It’s cool and unexpected,” says Crawford. “I’m really obsessed with that kind of clinking noise.”

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