If, as Marilyn Monroe once sang, diamonds are a woman's best friend, pearls are now a man's best friend.

"I just bought this chain in Milan, my colleague was jealous," a radio journalist told us at a rooftop party in Frankfurt recently.

As the sun set over the rooftops of the city, the last rays played with the colorful beads that almost every man wore around his neck that evening.

Maria Wiesner

Editor in the “Society & Style” department.

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The trend is not entirely new.

Fashion seismographs registered the first gentle tremor of gender boundaries when wearing pearls in 2016, when the American rapper Pharrell Williams wrapped several of the long necklaces Coco loved at the Chanel show in Paris.

The German actor Lars Eidinger did the same in 2019 for the autumn-winter show of the Parisian luxury label.

A year later Harry Styles tried it too.

It was then that the jewelry industry began to see an increased interest in necklaces from men.

The pandemic increased demand, as the home office with zoom sessions focused on the body region above the waist anyway.

So what is the best way to accentuate the face in the cool glow of the screens?

symbols of power of kings

People resorted to those accessories that have such an old tradition among men that they were long considered a symbol of power: Indian Mughals wore heavy pearl necklaces as early as the 16th century.

A century later, England's King Charles I even had his portrait taken with pearl jewellery.

The gesture mimicked socialite and 1920s party mouse Stephen Tennant in the last century as he posed in long strands of pearls for photographer Cecil Beaton.

Decades later, Mick Jagger proved just how sexy androgyny can be when he draped pearls around his neck on tight black lace.

It almost seems mainstream when the Japanese pearl label Mikimoto emphasizes for its capsule collection with Comme des Garçons that the jewelry is aimed at all genders.

Pearls and necklaces are no longer reserved for the avant-garde and rock stars.

Ever since rappers like ASAP Rocky swapped their heavy gold chains for delicate, shiny cords, women now have to guard their jewelry boxes.

A young designer confirmed this to us on the roof terrace: “I stole the necklace from my mother.

She was too stuffy for her, just right for me.” He'd paired it with a t-shirt and blue eyeshadow.