Mood rings aren’t just for kids

“You light up a room with your sparkle, just by being you. Celebrate yourself today.”

Sadly this isn’t a lavish compliment delivered by my husband or colleague. Rather, it’s the state of mind I’m in, at least according to the chart accompanying one of the new generation of mood rings I’m wearing. It’s gone green, so apparently I’m in “harmonious” mode.

However, this spiritual state doesn’t quite ring true. I scan the chart, but sadly there is no specific shade for, say, “you are number 1,567 in the queue to speak to an agent at the bank and feel ready to throw the phone across the room”. Of course, the not very mystical truth is that the colour change is caused by thermochromic liquid responding to body heat. Still, we all love a suspension of disbelief.

When mood rings first took off in the mid-1970s, they were accompanied by an impressive level of hyperbole. One TV advert depicting a couple flirting over a game of chess had a sultry voiceover claiming that the accessory would “reveal your subconscious feelings in a myriad of breathtaking colours”.

This ring is a playful, interactive talking point

In 1975, The New York Times ran an article describing the Mood Stone ring sold by Josh Reynolds, who popularised the phenomenon, as a “$45 whimsy that has had hundreds of conspicuous consumers storming the jewellery counter at Bonwit Teller”.

However, the fad faded and when mood rings became a trend again in the 1990s, it was more of a phenomenon among children and teenagers, along with scrunchies and jelly bracelets. The accessory even provided part of the plot in hit 1991 tear-jerking movie My Girl, in which 11-year-old Anna loses her mood ring in the woods, and when her best friend goes to look for it he is fatally stung by a swarm of bees.

Fast forward 30 years and mood rings, as well as other emotion-related jewellery, are finding a following again, chiming with nostalgia and the cultural movement towards being more open about our feelings. The fashion jewellery space is awash with crystal bracelets focused on offering protection or harmony, rings with emojis and smiley motifs, and beaded bracelets with often bumper-sticker-ish slogans such as “kindness is magic”. According to a Google Trends analysis by jewellery website JewelleryBox, mood rings were in the top 10 most searched jewellery items in 2022. London-based affordable jewellery label Astrid & Miyu’s 1970s-style mood ring (£85, astridandmiyu.com, new stock available soon) has been one of its best sellers since it launched in 2022.

Mondo Mondo founder Natasha Ghosn says her sterling silver ($195) and brass ($175, mondo-mondo.com) mood rings are so popular they almost transcend the brand. “We actually have customers that only come to us for that,” she says. “For me it’s really nostalgic. I am a kid of the ’90s, so I grew up with mood necklaces and mood rings from Claire’s Accessories.” Her modern version came about, she says, when “me and my friends all bought these toy mood rings in cheap metal and I was learning how to make jewellery and I thought it would be so beautiful to have a modern silver mood ring”.

Swedish brand Acne Studios created a mood ring this season as part of its spring/summer 2023 collection, called Secret Society. The collection was based on the concept of an outsiders’ book club and, within the narrative, the mood ring allows people to communicate their feelings without speaking. There are two designs in the collection: one is a 1970s-inspired cabochon ring, the other features a face with a straight line for a mouth (£140, acnestudios.com). According to the brand, the face was drawn by founder Jonny Johansson to represent an ordinary Swedish citizen: not too happy, but not too sad — which ties into the concept of lagom in Swedish.

London-based independent jeweller Jessica de Lotz introduced a mood ring last year as part of her latest Heart on Your Sleeve collection, which explores the idea of being open about your feelings, as well as the influence of the moon on menstrual cycles and emotions. The ring, on a mount that resembles a wax seal, comes in silver (£250) or 9k gold (£995, jessicadelotz.co.uk). It can be paired with other designs, such as the Dial Up Your Emotions necklace, which has a dial, in the form of a pen nib, that can be set to stones that represent different feelings. “My jewellery is led by stories, and you can have a conversation about this ring,” de Lotz says. “It’s a playful, interactive talking point.”

Perhaps there’s also a wistfulness for a more innocent time in the face of technology’s onward march. Mondo Mondo’s Ghosn says of her ring: “There is something fascinating about the colour change — it feels like a piece of technology without being a computer.” Now that we have Apple watches and Oura smart rings that track sleep and heart rate, potentially repackaging anxiety as adornment, a ring turning blue seems delightfully analogue. Even if all it really tells me — whisper it — is that I’m a bit hot and need to take off my jumper.

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