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What Wendy Wore: Next Season’s Earrings … Big Hoops

July 7, 2014 by WendyB

I’ve been loving the ear jewelry that’s emerged in the past year. There are so many options! But the trend that’s (thankfully) replaced the statement necklace started, as many trends do, quite slowly. Miley Cyrus flaunted her ear cuffs in 2012, when she cut her hair short. But Miley’s style is risky — her short ‘do was too punk for a lot of people. For a trend to go mainstream, it needs mainstream acolytes. Actress Emma Watson fits that bill perfectly. She looked pretty — with just a dash of edginess — when she wore diamond ear cuffs to the premiere of The Bling Ring in June 2013.

#168879080 / gettyimages.com

Similarly, I added single earrings to my line back in October 2012, inspired by the style that I wore in the 1980s.

wendyblackhair

Me, wearing a single black earring in the mid-1980s.

But the style didn’t go mass-market till this January, after guess-who made a splash at the Golden Globes with her single earring? Yep, it was Emma Watson again. While quite a few of her peers opted for ear cuffs for that event, she was already experimenting with something else. The jewelry industry has definitely taken note of the buzz. At the big JCK Las Vegas jewelry trade show that I attended at the end of May/beginning of June, it was “all about the ear,” as JCK Magazine senior editor Jennifer Heebner reported. She wrote that “nearly every firm had a funky ear offering,” including ear cuffs, climbers (longer earrings that curve up the ear lobe rather than hanging down) and jackets (decorative backs that hang below the earlobe). Mismatched studs — including “front-back” earrings, like the one Watson wore at the Globes — are also hot, as US Magazine recently reported.

usmag

From the June 30, 2014, issue of US.

This look has fashion editors hitting the piercing parlors so they can load up on more studs. If you’ve done the same and want to add to your collection of mismatched studs, you’ve come to the right place. I have about 80 stud earring styles on my website now!

rebeca

My gorgeous customer Rebecca recently purchased my sterling-silver letter R stud and my gun emoji stud.

I wear four studs regularly (usually my screw earring, middle finger earring, gun earring and skull earring, all in 18K gold) but lately I’ve found myself craving something else. The last time I felt this craving was in 1998, long before my jewelry-designing career began. I woke up one day that year with a desire for giant gold hoop earrings — 2″ in diameter or more. Off I went to a store I used to like, to ask for the biggest hoops they had.  I still remember the snotty and very tall saleswoman literally looking down her nose at me while she said, “No one is showing earrings like that.” She was so rude that I persisted just to drive her crazy, making her take me  through practically everything on that jewelry floor. She finally came up with 1″ diameter hoops. That was the best she could do. I still have them.

hoopssmall

My hoops from 1998.

They weren’t really what I was looking for, but it was better than nothing.

I thought of that saleswoman a year later, in 1999, when Jennifer Lopez released her debut album On the 6. Hoop earrings like the ones she wore in her “If You Had My Love” video soon become a signature look for Lopez — and for a lot of other people too.

ifyouhad

She got more extreme after “If You Had My Love.” Click for the full video.

Big and bigger hoops had their biggest moment since the 1980s heyday of the bamboo “doorknockers.” The trend continued for years.

lovedont

Lopez wearing hoops in her 2001 “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” video.

Hoop earrings were so hot that they were reserved for the queen bee, Regina George (played by Rachel McAdams), in the 2004 movie Mean Girls. Her sidekick, Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), complaining about Regina, said:

“If only you knew how mean she really is, you’d know that I’m not allowed to wear hoop earrings, right? Yeah, two years ago she told me hoops earrings were her thing, and I wasn’t allowed to wear them anymore. And then for Hanukkah my parents got this pair of really expensive white-gold hoops and I had to pretend like I didn’t even like them. It was so sad.”

You can glimpse my white-gold hoops in this photo from 2002.

2002hoops

This was taken in Hong Kong.

Big hoops were a surprisingly long-running trend, like other trends I wrote about for the Huffington Post last year. J. Lo was particularly devoted. Here she is wearing a giant pair at the premiere of the Michael Jackson This Is It movie in 2009.

#139169822 / gettyimages.com

 

But you can tell she was a bit of an outlier at that point from this 2010 blog post about the return of the hoop earring. Beyonce, another celebrity devotee of gigantic earrings, made a political statement with a pair of oversize Obama hoops in 2012. But even Beyonce couldn’t make big hoops de rigueur that year, during which the statement necklace ruled. When you’re wearing a big-ass J. Crew bubble necklace, you can’t risk having your giant earrings get tangled up in that shit.

Now, with all the emphasis on the ear, it’s time for the huge hoop to make a true comeback. Racked NY warns against looking like late ’90s J. Lo., but I say go for it. After all, that’s the look I whipped up for myself recently.

These hoops are 2 1/4" in diameter. I might make my next sample a little bigger.

These hoops are 2 1/4″ in diameter. I might make my next sample a little bigger.

I wore these when MrB and I went to see the limited run of tick tick … BOOM! at New York City Center on June 28. tick tick … BOOM! was originally performed as an autobiographical, one-man show by the late Jonathan Larson. In it, he fretted about turning 30 while still working as a waiter at a diner as he struggled to find success as a theatrical composer. The Jon in the play, like the real Jon, was trying to make something of his futuristic musical, Superbia, which, in real life, was never fully produced. That was disappointing to Larson, but the work he wrote to vent his disappointment was seen by a producer named Jeffrey Seller, who later went to a workshop performance of Larson’s next play: Rent. Of course, Rent went on to be a massive hit, winning a Pulitzer Prize, playing on Broadway from 1996 to 2008, and becoming a movie in 2005. The tragic thing, as you may know, was that Larson didn’t live to see his success. He died on Jan. 25, 1996 — the day of Rent‘s Off-Broadway preview — of an aortic dissection caused by Marfan Syndrome. He went to two different hospitals in the days before his death, complaining of severe chest pain, shortness of breath and dizziness, but, in both cases, the doctors he saw failed to diagnose his problem Aortic dissection continued to be frequently overlooked by medical personnel until 2003, when the death of actor John Ritter and a Pulitzer-Prize-winning series of articles in the Wall Street Journal drew attention to the condition.

tick tick … BOOM! is often funny, but in a bittersweet way because of the back story. After Larson died, it was expanded into a three-person piece. At City Center, the role of Jon was played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who, having worked as an English teacher while he wrote the Tony-winning musical In the Heights, can certainly relate to the Larson-based character. Karen Olivo, who starred with Miranda in In the Heights, played Jon’s girlfriend, Susan, who wants to leave New York City for a more civilized life in a slower-paced place. Leslie Odom, Jr., played Jon’s best friend Michael, who had given up the artistic life to enjoy the riches of a Madison Avenue job even as he struggles with a recent diagnosis of AIDS.

I don’t go to enough theater in New York, because I missed Karen Olivo in In the Heights AND in her Tony-winning portrayal of Anita in the 2009 revival of West Side Story. Shame on me, because she has one of those powerhouse, bring-the-house-down, Idina Menzel voices. (Menzel has a Larson connection too — she originated the role of Maureen in Rent.) Someone get Karen Olivo an animated Disney movie so she can have her own “Let It Go” moment! Why has Hollywood been sleeping on her? Yeah, she had a gig on the television show Harry’s Law for a while, but last year, like Larson’s Susan character, she left New York for Madison, Wis., because she was so sick of what the New York Times described as “…plenty of defeats … on both coasts: demoralizing auditions, readings and workshops that paid little and went nowhere, periods when she barely worked the minimum number of weeks to keep up her Actors’ Equity health insurance …” I guess starring in a hit musical and winning a Tony can leave you with the “fame doesn’t equal fortune” scenario. That’s too bad and I demand someone fix this immediately.

Anyway, here is the rest of my outfit from that night. I’m leaning against the Robert Indiana Love statue on 6th Avenue in this photo (click to enlarge).

loveWhat Wendy Wore
Mullet
Dress: Patrick Kelly (acquired in 2009, probably)
Shoes: Prada (2011)
Purse: Prada (2007)
Hoop earrings: My own design

You can see more of the sculpture in this picture.

love2

As for the earrings, if you’ve saved your old ones — as so many of my friends have! — it’s time to bring ’em out again. Jennifer Lopez had hers on for a television appearance in June. Super-moody singer Lana Del Rey wore a giant pair when she performed at the Glastonbury music festival in England on the same day I was wearing my hoops to the theater. Lana and I are really thinking alike lately.

#451373162 / gettyimages.com

 

If you need to buy something new, my barbed-wire hoops will be coming out shortly. Whatever you do, don’t go for nameplate bamboo earrings unless you’ve got serious personal style.

She can get away with it.

She can get away with it.

Unless you’ve got the over-the-top flair of a big pop star, you risk looking ratchet in that style — and not Beyonce’s type of perversely chic ratchet!

Beyonce's "ratchet" nameplate hoop earrings, from her Instagram via Necole Bitchie. Click for source.

Beyonce’s “ratchet” nameplate hoop earrings, from her Instagram via Necole Bitchie. Click for source.

That said, I kicked myself when I saw those “ratchet” earrings back in 2012, because I’d been toying with adding “ratchet” to my collection of word necklaces. For some reason I hesitated, and then these earrings popped up. Lesson learned. I’ve never again hesitated on a word-necklace idea! I’m following my instincts with the hoops too. You gotta go where inspiration takes you!

UPDATED TO ADD: For my gorgeous commenters who are anxious to note that giant hoops never left us entirely, I hope it is clear that my reply is, “Of course!” Telling you that hoops are back is the same as pointing out that stud earrings or, going outside of the jewelry category, sneakers are hawt right now. They were always around — they just weren’t a la mode. But now, for instance, sneakers are on the Chanel and Dior runways and fashion-forward people want new and different sneakers. Same with hoops, and I’m going to have some good options, so start saving up for those!

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Filed Under: Celebrities, earrings, fashion trends, on the town, outfit post, pictures of me, theater, What Wendy Wore

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jacqueline Zenn says

    July 7, 2014 at 12:54 am

    What does it mean that I never stopped wearing big hoop earrings? #Detroitbitch forever I suppose.

    Ha! I still wear my old pyramid stud 2.5 inch hoop earrings from high sometimes even though I moved away 15 years ago.

    PS. I heart the mullet dress!

    • WendyB says

      July 7, 2014 at 7:57 am

      Why shouldn’t you wear them? 🙂
      It’s not like hoops ever disappeared entirely, same as stud earrings. They’ve always been around but now studs are having a huge moment. Huge hoops will be having the next huge moment and you’re already covered! Though you might still want mine … 🙂

      • Jacqueline Zenn says

        July 7, 2014 at 5:45 pm

        I probably will! I need some new silver (or white gold) hoops.

        Also playing with the idea of more ear piercings – I had double pierced ears in my teens/early twenties, but I like the idea of doing industrial or maybe just upper lobes. Could you do jewelry for those?

      • WendyB says

        July 7, 2014 at 11:18 pm

        Of course! I want to get some more piercings myself as soon as my recent one settles down (it’s been giving me grief!)

  2. déjà pseu says

    July 7, 2014 at 9:00 am

    For once I feel on top of things…I’ve never stopped wearing my big hoops! 😀

    • WendyB says

      July 7, 2014 at 12:42 pm

      You’re setting the trend!

  3. Miss Cavendish says

    July 7, 2014 at 10:13 am

    In 1987 or 88 I asked my then-boyfriend to buy me large gold hoops for my birthday. He went to the jewelry district in Toronto and came back with thin, one-inch gold wires. They were too conservative for my taste but I wore them till I bought myself what I really wanted.

    • WendyB says

      July 7, 2014 at 12:42 pm

      Same thing that happened to me! I had to settle for the 1″ ones till I got what I wanted 🙂

  4. Monika Faulkner says

    July 7, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    Ha!! I’ve been wearing one of my pairs of hoop earrings quite regularly lately…I haven’t measured them, but I think they’re just over an inch. I also have a second pair that are probably close to two inches wide; maybe it’s time to start flashing them again, hmmm?!

    • WendyB says

      July 7, 2014 at 11:18 pm

      Oh, 2″ is the minimum you should be wearing now 🙂

  5. Stacy says

    July 7, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    I’m ready for hoops again!
    That is such a sad story about Jonathan Larson, I can’t even stand it. At least he “went out” knowing he finally made it. Somewhat comforting, I suppose.

    • WendyB says

      July 7, 2014 at 11:17 pm

      He didn’t even know though … :-((

  6. Jet aka Punk Glam Queen says

    July 7, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    Love hoops & always have various sizes in my left ear with all the piercings. I have loads of pairs, from tiny (for my nose!) to huge ones. Something interesting I noticed some time ago is that hoops never seemed to have gone out of style in the UK, from subtle to super blingy. I’m sure yours will be lovely! XXX

    • WendyB says

      July 8, 2014 at 12:29 am

      I’ve never given up my hoops entirely either but now it’s time for the super big ones. I can’t say I care for those 1″ ones I got at all! That’s the only pair I’ve had that I’ve never really liked. I like really small or really big, but nothing in between like I got from that snooty woman! Ugh!

  7. Sheila (of Ephemera) says

    July 8, 2014 at 12:04 am

    I haven’t stopped wearing bigass hoops ever! I have a pair that are real gold that my husband bought me for our 5th anniversary in 2002. I told him I wanted “real gold hoops like the ones on my dresser” – he liked the bigger pair on my dresser and went to a bunch of different stores until he found them. What a sweetie.

    • WendyB says

      July 8, 2014 at 12:28 am

      What a good husband!!!!

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MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
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Original jewelry designs, photos and text are © Wendy Brandes 2007-2016. All rights reserved.

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