How to choose the right earring for statement necklaces

My large beaded necklace gets top accessory billing

A reader left a comment on my blog wanting to know more about pairing necklaces and earrings in an outfit. Let’s start this discussion with statement necklaces.

What’s a statement necklace? It’s a necklace that’s characteristically bold, large-scale, and does the heavy lifting in an outfit. It can have personality and make a statement.

You can buy a necklace that’s a statement necklace or you can create a DIY statement necklace by doubling or tripling smaller necklaces to create more visual volume.

In music terms, your statement necklace is either a solo artist like Adele or a dynamic duo like Sonny and Cher, or an awesome trio like Maurice, Robin, and Barry from the Bee Gees. They’re all outstanding.

I also call these necklaces a something necklace. (That description will make more sense in a minute.) It’s really something. It’s not standing in the shadows. It wants attention. It speaks in ALL CAPS, large fonts or exclamation points. Its message is:

See me now

Let me entertain you

Notice me first

It may or may not be striving to be complimented but it’s earning them. You can interchange those terms: statement necklace/something necklace.

Statement/something necklaces in action

My non-dainty, non-demure big honking crystal necklaces are a statement or a something necklace. They get noticed.

My crystal necklace gets plenty of attention

My crystal pendant gets compliments

My large-scale crystal pendant is a star like Adele

So what kind of earrings do I wear with them? With the largest crystal on the brass chain above, I wear this delicate mesh earring by Ajna Designs Jewelry. It’s outlined in 14k gold fill and the inside crystals are a smokey-taupe color. They have a hint of a color connection to the necklace.

Earring from ajnadesignsjewelry.com

I call an earring that takes on this supporting role to strong necklaces a nothing earring. I don’t use the word ‘nothing’ in a disparaging way AT ALL. (That point requires all caps.) If I come up to you and say, “Oh, what a beautiful nothing earring,” take it as a compliment.

When you don’t have an earring that plays this role, you may never wear that spectacular necklace you have because you can’t figure out what kind of earring to wear with it. A nothing earring is a perfect earring. Often I take clients shopping for the sole purpose of finding those special nothing earrings that they’ll wear with their something necklaces.

If you’d ever want to see me lose my stylish mind, creep into the house at night and steal my crown jewel of nothing earrings, these gray faceted beauties that probably cost me $30 about 10 or 15 years ago.

I couldn’t wear many of my necklaces without these earrings

They were my earring of choice when I decided to wear this large-scale chunky necklace over my red sweater. See what I mean? They relate…enough…without getting in the way of the solo necklace.

Bringing out my crown jewel of nothing earrings

The large beaded necklace needs a nothing earring

Creating a DIY statement/something necklace

Here’s my friend Marj. She was wearing a Bee Gees type necklace combo for brunch at one of our get-togethers. She’s wearing a barely there earring as she’d gotten her ears re-pierced and had to wear studs for awhile. Her cluster of necklaces is definitely getting compliments.

Marj wears layered necklaces and small posts

Here’s one of my dynamic necklaces. I’m a crazy-jumping-up-and-down-screaming fan of it. I’m wearing my crown jewel of nothing earrings with this one. There’s such ease in getting dressed when you don’t have to think hard about which earrings to wear. Just grab your nothing earring and you’re out the door.

My Chico’s necklace takes the spotlight

When nothing earrings get bigger

I’m been trying to think about how I would discuss the accessories my friend, fellow blogger and Instagram buddy is wearing. Meet Elizabeth. She’s the Vintage Contessa. Her Instagram feed is @antiquegoddess. Elizabeth is 5’11”.

The necklace she’s wearing here is resin and by Stella McCartney. She tells me the black earrings are junk and made of plastic. Elizabeth is a trailblazer, not a follower of rules. She can do whatever she wants. But I’m going to suggest that her black earrings are her nothing earrings in this outfit.

Elizabeth wears large-scale accessories

The resin necklace is about triple the scale or more of the earrings. The black earring relates to the trim in the caftan she’s wearing. Even though black can steal the show when it’s up against a honey-color, the necklace wins out.

On me, I’d probably wear these earrings alone, but on Elizabeth, they’re playing a backup role.

I have a similar example from my wardrobe. See that whole lotta pearls at my neck? Well, actually, it’s a duo. This is a Sonny and Cher necklace.

Choosing a large but subdued earring to wear with pearls

Double the pearls for great impact

I felt this colorful, lustrous Etro jacket could do well with a necklace with a lot of presence. To get that presence I put the two sets of pearls together. The petal pearl necklace came from TJMaxx. The bauble pearl necklace came from a consignment store in Fargo on my last shopping trip with my mom.

Alexis Bittar gold edged clear earrings

And what’s the nothing earring I’m wearing with it? Well, it’s a jumbo-sized crystal earring with gold trim by Alexis Bittar (a TJMaxx purchase). With a plain white shirt and jeans, the earring could stand alone. But with the pearl combo necklace, it blends in, relates in color and scale, but doesn’t take anything away from the necklaces.

More doubling up of necklaces

This is Veronica. She’s a big fan, as am I, of necklaces by the Sol Sisters. What you’re looking at are two two-part necklaces. The light colored one is made from jasper beads and the rust/orange one is made from carnelian beads. They are both doubles. I decided to use both of them in this outfit which is a chambray blue linen dress (Eileen Fisher), a soft black linen jacket (Eileen Fisher), and an ombre carnelian colored scarf from her collection. The jasper beads relate to her hair color and the carnelian beads relate to the scarf and the darker red tones in her hair. I love these together.

Doubling doubled necklaces wins an accessory Grammy

We added a nothing earring to this. I don’t have a picture of it but it’s a button ear with gold on the outside and a moonstone in the center. It’s a very important nothing earring that gets used all the time (priceless).

This ends the visual part of the lesson. Have I made this subject as clear as mud or as clear as a spring stream in the mountains?

I hope you realize if you have necklaces that you’re not wearing that it would be important to get out there and find nothing earrings. You’ll look for earrings that have a hint of something that relates to your necklaces. As you see, I have only a few choice nothing earrings that I wear with lots of something necklaces.

Okay, my friends. I’m ready to take questions and/or hear your marvelous comments. Who wants to start?

XO