Vintage Double Cable and Paperclip "Iconically You" Chain (32")

This goes straight into my favourite category of jewellery: an Iconically You Chain.

Did I make that term up? Yes. Does it nevertheless describe something deeply important and extremely specific? Also yes.

An Iconically You Chain is the chain that becomes so completely associated with you that if it fell off in the street, someone would pick it up and go, “Oh my God, what is Lucy’s chain doing here?”

It becomes your signature.

They tend to be long, because the dream is that you can basically throw it over your head and go. They need to be solid and substantial enough that you can wear them relentlessly, but easy enough that they become second skin. You chuck it on the bedside table at night, wake up, put it straight back on, and suddenly even if you’re wearing complete nonsense and going to buy toilet roll, you’ve got your gold on and life feels approximately 40% more together.

Then, over time, you make it yours. Add charms. Add lockets. Add little bits of your life. Load it up until it becomes completely unmistakable.

And THIS is an absolutely spectacular candidate.

The link is brilliant. It alternates these long, almost trombone-like paperclip links with beautifully textured sections of doubled cable links, giving the whole chain this amazing rhythm. There is loads going on when you look closely, but from a distance it just reads as a really glorious, unusual gold chain.

The colour is magnificent too. Rich, buttery yellow gold with the faint warmth, so it has that gorgeous old-gold depth without losing any of the brightness. It absolutely sings.

It is finished with a strong lobster clasp, giving you an obvious place to start loading on charms if that is where life takes you. Or leave it completely plain and just let that extraordinary link do the work.

Long, wearable, unusual, properly luxurious and begging to acquire approximately a thousand tiny pieces of personal history. Basically: your future signature chain.