Cord necklaces—in leather, rubber, velvet, or silk—were ubiquitous at the Las Vegas jewelry shows.
The rationale seemed obvious: Designers remain committed to using yellow gold but rather than showing pieces on pricey gold chains, they opted to give buyers more affordable options by styling them on chic cords.
And yet when JCK reached out to designers to ask them about cords’ rising popularity, many cited aesthetic reasons over and above cost savings. Take Lauren Harwell Godfrey, who featured braided leather cords in seductive bolo styles as part of her new Western-themed Gold Rush collection.
“I introduced cords in addition to new chain styles because they give my collectors another way to wear their pendants and medallions,” she tells JCK. “Since many of my bails open, the pieces can move from chain to cord, making the same pendant feel a little more relaxed and entirely new.”
The Italian brand Orogami, which showed an ornate necklace made of silk cord called “The Sculpture,” also pointed to the flexibility of cord material—in both a literal and stylistic sense—to explain its appeal.
“This piece, which we call La Scultura (The Sculpture), is composed of five elements in 18k gold: The bottom piece is from our Seed Collection, while the four elements above it belong to our Sphere Collection, joined by a matching knot cover,” says Angelica Aloisio, whose parents, Massimo and Tiziana Aloisio, are the brand’s founders. “Each element can be worn individually, even styled on its own chain. But for La Scultura as a whole, the silk cord is truly the only material that makes sense. It lets the composition breathe and move rather than sit rigid, and it means the piece can be worn a thousand different ways—higher, lower, taken apart and rebuilt on different cords, or broken down to wear each element on its own.”
Whatever their rationale, designers across the shows embraced soft, tactile cords, accessorizing them with bold gold medallions, dangling pendants, and, in Lionheart’s case, a prancing horse. Even if cords entered the fine jewelry picture for budget reasons, it’s clear that they offer an equally luxe yet more casual look that’s here to stay.
Top: Legacy Jumbo Prancing Horse charm necklace in 18k yellow gold with 1.1 cts. t.w. diamonds, $18,700; Lionheart