Mixing metals used to be a no-no kind of fashion faux pas. You either had to choose gold or silver, usually depending on your skin tone.
No-no no more! Since last summer we have seen the hottest trend in jewelry: metal-mixing – pairing burnished gunmetal with bright yellow gold, pale rose gold with oxidized silver, rhodium with copper. Mixing silver and gold (and rose gold, and platinum) is gorgeous when you do it well. A lot of pieces of jewelry on the market now have more than one metal in the individual piece, tying everything together.
Mixed metals add depth and interest to jewelry. This look can be seen stacked as rings, layered as neck chains, dangling from ears – often with multiple metals appearing on the same piece. Now they all work nicely together.
So, how to master the art of mixing metals in your jewelry?
It doesn’t take much effort to see results because small additions can add flourish. If you’re unsure about mixing metals, bracelets are the perfect place to experiment — particularly bangles or delicate stacked rings. Stick with one metal as the “major” colour and use other metals as accents. Play around with it, as long as the jewelry is fabulous. When mixing and matching several pieces, it’s important to keep in mind the ratio. Then, it all depends on your personality: Do you prefer the look of mixing a lot of one color with just a little of the other? Or going 50/50? Think of it like mixing any other two bright but contrasting colours. It can be beautiful, or it can look overdone, all depending on the ratio. You set the rules. But remember, sometimes rules were made to be broken.
Mixing metals is now totally cool for jewelry, and for your makeup, too!