10 Apr 21st Century Style Sees Men Wearing More Jewelry

From the New York Post:

Rich and famous men have long been fond of flaunting small flashes of jewelry. A Rolex here, a ring there (a gold chain if you were in Miami). But fashion-savvy guys in Hollywood are now seriously stepping up their game — sporting delicate pieces, layering up, and co-opting styling techniques from the ladies.

“I think a confident man can step out in [jewelry] that fits his sense of style in a way that is unique, fashionable and masculine,” says Greg Kwiat, CEO of Fred Leighton, the renowned red-carpet jeweler. “Johnny Depp is a great example. For years he’s been very comfortable wearing all sorts of jewelry — big rings, long medallion necklaces, brooches.”

Indeed, Depp is a seasoned pro at the piled-on approach that’s coached on women’s-style blogs. And last March, he began flashing a diamond bauble that he’d originally purchased for his then-fiancée, Amber Heard: “I have a female engagement ring,” Depp told David Letterman. “It was too big for my girl.”

But Depp is no lone ranger in the realm of dude adornment. Pharrell Williams, the CFDA’s 2015 Fashion Icon Award winner, pairs tees with custom, ladies-who-lunch Chanel necklaces; Harry Styles, who nabbed his own style prize at the British Fashion Awards in 2013, is seldom snapped without heaps of Saint Laurent trinkets around his neck, fingers and wrists; and at the Oscars this year, no fewer than five A-list men garnished their lapels with brooches, including Jared Leto and Common, who both wore Fred Leighton.

“Common wore the brooch in a way that was completely masculine and interesting from a style perspective,” Kwiat says of the hip-hop star’s 19th century, sapphire-and-diamond clover-shaped piece.

“When you’re a man dressing for the red carpet you have a more-limited amount of choices than the women who walk the same red carpet,” he adds. “For someone who is interested in style and fashion and wants to make that statement of individuality — going beyond the tux and actually wearing a small brooch as a lapel pin is cool, it’s current, it’s fun.”