All signs indicate that the return of these accessories is more potent than ever.
If you lived your adolescence and youth in the 90s and 2000s, you might feel like you are living in a continuous déjà vu: the new generations dress as your mother did then, Britney Spears is making headlines again, and even piercings are in! Lap!
Have you already noticed all the signs that indicate this? If you like to follow what’s happening on the catwalk, you’ll know that Gucci and Chanel have given a lot of prominence to piercing in their latest women’s collections. Alessandro Michele has recovered the septum, the hoop-shaped earring placed in the center of the nose, while Virginie Viard has done the same with what is known as the labret piercing, the piercing that is just attached to the lower lip.
In both cases, there is an evident refinement of the piercing concept, initially linked to urban cultures far removed from luxury, as with punk. The new aesthetics of piercing move away from that rebellious aesthetic and accommodates itself in jewelry thanks to sophisticated and delicate designs. It is a jewel piercing.
Symbol of the new luxury
Gucci and Chanel, moreover, take advantage of it to spread the tentacles of logomania, a distinctive trend in the luxury sector that is very much to the liking of those who invest in ‘brand clothing,’ especially among young people. But this is not an extended detail, something that does happen with the concept of jewel piercing. Proof of this is that this type of earring is a firm commitment by specialized jewelry firms such as Aristocracy. “We are looking for the perfect balance between yesterday and tomorrow,” argues the Spanish firm, which has pierced the perfect path for innovative creativity within the jewelry sector.
In addition to an exclusive collection of designs designed to look like a piercing, it has launched a new format for all those who want to include piercings in their style: a piercing truck. This itinerant business will be in different parts of Madrid and Barcelona in the following months. “Professional banders will accompany clients throughout the process, advising them to design the ‘look’ with which they most identify,” they say from the brand.
The latest, the complete ear design
This business model, as can be seen in jewelry piercing collections from other firms, such as the Spanish Mumit, provides two more keys to what contemporary piercing is like: the ear concentrates a large part of the piercings, which are no longer conceived in isolation, such as the tragus or cartilage piercing, but rather conceptual designs are created that include several piercings conceived as a set.
It is this ability that the ear offers to “experiment, play and combine,” as the Mumit team defines its vision of this accessory that disappeared after the boom at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one – who does not have a mark on the body of that trend?-, is what explains why the jewel piercing trend focuses on this part of the body. Only the nose and, to a lesser extent, the mouth prevent the ear from monopolizing the jewel-piercing direction.
In the ear, the combinations hardly have a limit: that of space. But the entire surface of it is susceptible to being perforated -lobe, helix, tragus, rook…- to achieve the most elegant and original ‘look.’ As claimed by Mumit, “there are no rules, only imagination!” although a decisive factor must also be added to get it right: good taste. This can not be missing, even if we talk about piercings. Aristocrazy confirms that the lobe is the area of ringing preferred by their clients, which they agree with Dime, you love me, who adds that they also “use more original options such as a helix or scape,! And we couldn’t like them more!”
The objective is not to add perforations for no reason but to achieve what is known as a ‘curated ear,’ an ear decorated by a row of organized piercings, which have an aesthetic sense and harmony as a whole, where delicate earrings, made in quality metals such as gold, and in whose designs stones have a place if you want to add nuances of color. “The ‘ear design is very fashionable. Everyday girl passes by our piercing studio asking for this new trend, and it basically consists of the combination of several piercings combining them with different piercing earrings”, they say from Tell me you love me.
Not all of them have to be small, but they do have to be elegant and sophisticated. Even if you bet on the elongated designs placed on the ear’s cartilage, it is the upper part. It would help if you gave priority to the design of the jewel. And the good news is that jewelry firms make it very easy for you with such unique creations as the so-called “fake industrial” piercing, the stylized version of the elongated double-drilled piercing that crosses the cartilage. These, for the most part, rest on an inner point of the ear without even needing to be pierced, as they remember from Tell me you love me: “Now the ear cuff has come into play, an earring with which you will go to the last, but that will allow you not to have to make the hole, it is a very versatile and practical option, it simulates a piercing, but it is ‘removable.’