Vivienne Westwood’s jewellery has never been shy: it has always been a remarkable show led by Vivienne’s creativity, which made her famous worldwide for a unique, bold, timeless style.
Every pendant, earring and choker carries the same quiet boldness: the kind that makes strangers hover half a second longer before asking where you got it. The answer, ça va sans dire, is less about where, and more about who you chose to be that morning.
The orb, Reimagined and Rehearsed to Perfection
At the centre of it all is the orb. Regal, celestial, faintly ironic, it remains Westwood’s most iconic signature, perfectly embedded in most of the latest designer jewellery collection. Equal parts royalty and cosmos, it’s the kind of emblem that speaks volumes: bold, unapologetic, unique. One version sits low and delicate against the collarbone; another one swings dramatically from a curb chain, ready to charm a camera lens or a cocktail party.
Wrist Talk: Cuffs, Bangles and Tiny Provocations
Drop your gaze from the neckline and the conversation continues at the wrist. Slim bangles coil with precision, marked by a slightly off-centre orb, enough imbalance to keep things interesting and away from boredom. Heavier cuffs offer engraved phrases that read like whispered secrets or rebellious slogans, depending on who’s reading.
Charm bracelets collect icons with meaning: a star, a pin, a Baby orb with a past. They’re wearable memories masquerading as accessories. The kind of thing you catch yourself fiddling with mid-sentence. It’s the proof that jewellery can be both decorative and sentimental because all the charms can represent a person, a feeling, a memory dear to us.
Layering Without Restraint
There’s no particular method to styling these pieces, but a few instincts serve well.
Pearls with metal, polish with matte, fine chain next to full drama. Space is key: let each element breathe and shine, let each element blend beautifully, without following a script.
Asymmetry is, as always, encouraged. A single stud on the left, a long drop on the right, imbalance becomes a work of art.
Balance reveals itself not in symmetry, but in the confidence of the wearer. Rings may be stacked, scattered, or worn alone with deliberate edge. The only rule worth obeying? Choose combinations that might raise an eyebrow, preferably in admiration.
In the Making: Mischief, Hand-Finished
Design begins with a sketchbook in Battersea and rarely ends where it starts. The process is messy in the best way: zines, medieval diagrams, stray postcards, all feeding into wax prototypes and hand-set stones. Pieces are cast, polished, refined, and checked by hand, often bearing small signs of the studio if you look closely enough.
Turn over a pendant and you might find a hallmark tucked inside the bail, or a brushstroke hidden behind the setting. Signs that someone made this, not something. Which is precisely the point.
Add a Baby orb to a white tee and it alters the tone by lunchtime. Swap a pair of simple hoops for shoulder-length drops and even Thursday begins to misbehave. A lariat falling over knitwear shifts the whole silhouette, punctuation to a day that wasn’t supposed to be remarkable. These are pieces that respond to movement, catching light, attention, sometimes a compliment that turns into a flirtation.
They’re worn in motion-tying laces, hailing cabs, brushing past someone in a gallery. Jewellery like this doesn’t wait for the big moment. It makes the small ones matter.
Choose Your orb
Pick what suits your mood. An orb pendant with boardroom gravitas. Huggie hoops for after-dark conversations. A bangle that says exactly what you’re thinking, without you needing to repeat yourself.
Let them follow you through the city, catching light, catching comments. Their purpose isn’t to behave. Their purpose is to be noticed, worn, remembered and, occasionally, to start just a little trouble.