The Best Pendant Necklaces For Everyday Wear

A well made pendant necklace can earn it’s place through proportion, rather than shine. That chain needs to be long enough to actually wear with the pendant resting against skin or a neckline (typically between forty five and fifty centimetres for most frames) and the pendant itself must have enough weight to stay put and hang flat rather than flipping around all day. Budget versions fail on both counts: the chain’s too thin for the weight of the drop and kinks, or the clasp is some cheap version of a spring ring that won’t stay closed after a month. Consider too how the pendant connects to the chain. If it fastens to the chain with a soldered bail that sits flush with the necklace that feels intentional; if it threads onto the chain and thus swings loosely off centre, it can look cheap despite the quality of the piece itself.

It’s easy to understand why this humble style is so useful when getting dressed day to day: where a stack of necklaces won’t work, one carefully chosen pendant will.

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By drawing your eye to a single point on your body, it works with almost any neckline as long as you’re conscious of where it falls.

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Directly against a crew neck or high collar, the shorter chain will automatically sit right above the line of the fabric and feel neat rather than fussy. On anything that leaves room round your neck – a v-neck, a button down shirt with two or three buttons loosened, a scoop-neck top – a slightly longer chain allows the pendant to drop into that gap and actually becomes the focus of the outfit, rather than fighting with the neckline.

The easiest mistake with necklaces is layering too much. Few things work better than one simple pendant on a slightly long chain, one plain chain closer to the throat and nothing else jostling for attention.

Keep the piled up-of-three-strands-for-maximum-clash-for-night-out strategy for going out when that’s actually the look you’re going for. Pendant necklaces are perfect for the moments people assume they’re too simple to work: school runs, office jobs, coffee with a friend you haven’t seen forever. They’re the piece that elevates a plain t-shirt or jumper just enough that it looks like you cared about your outfit without feeling like you’ve tried too hard. Throw one on with a shirt or knit with a lower neckline on days where you’re feeling fancier and it has job of a statement earring, only subtle, and far easier to wear from 9am until whatever time you actually decide to call it a day.