Pearl Earrings Are the Easiest Way Into the Pearl Trend, Jewelers Say

By Victoria Gomelsky | October 28, 2026

For all their luminous beauty, pearls can be tricky to incorporate into a jewelry wardrobe. Strands can feel formal or elaborate, especially when paired with a casual outfit; bracelets and rings can subject the organic gems to too much wear and tear.

Enter the pearl earring—a chic and, by now, staple element of the ongoing pearl jewelry renaissance.

Imperial Pearl earrings — *Sterling silver earrings with 8 mm–9 mm Tahitian cultured pearls and 0.8 ct. t.w. lab-grown diamonds, $1,805; Imperial Pearl*

Yoko London earrings — *Glitz earrings in 18k white gold with akoya pearls and diamonds, £5,000 ($6,700); Yoko London*

From simple studs to classic drops, baroque statement pieces to studded hoops, the selection of stylish pearl jewels designed to adorn the ears has never been more abundant. Just ask Ali Galgano, founder and CEO of Serpentine Jewels, a personal jeweler in Greenwich, Conn.

Galgano recently created a custom pair of ear jackets for a client who wanted to dress up her sizable heart-shape diamond studs. The resulting look resembles a veritable waterfall of akoya and South Sea pearls.

Serpentine earrings — *The custom pearl ear jackets Ali Galgano made for a Serpentine client feature a mix of akoya and South Sea pearls. (Photo courtesy of Serpentine Jewels)*

“The front is a single strand of 12 pearls that slips onto the earring post and sits in front of the earlobe, just beneath the stud,” she tells JCK. “The back consists of five strands of pearls that also attach to the earring post but sit behind the ear. I just love the different sizes of pearls mixed together—they’re as far away as we can get from our typical grandma’s pearls that we all inherited but no one wears anymore.

Serpentine VCA pearl studs — *Serpentine has done well with vintage pearl earrings such as these Van Cleef & Arpels pearl, diamond, and platinum ear clips from the 1960s.*

While Serpentine does well with custom pearl designs like the ear jackets and vintage pearls—such as a pair of Van Cleef & Arpels pearl studs that date from the 1960s but look and feel remarkably modern—Galgano is convinced that pearl earrings for men represent the trade’s real untapped opportunity. The proof is right there at Serpentine.

“I have a colleague, Christopher Stetzel—he’s the only man that works at our company, and he’s in charge of our operations and logistics,” she says. “Every day he wears a pearl earring in one ear.”

Galgano shared Stetzel’s take on why he’s drawn to pearls:

Serpentine pearl lover — *Christopher Stetzel, Serpentine’s in-house pearl promoter (photo courtesy of Serpentine Jewels)*

“I personally have always loved the aesthetic ‘delicacy’ of a pearl,” he writes. “They have an innate elegance to them, and maybe that’s just from social grooming or the way they are/have always been portrayed. [In recent years], the rules were more or less thrown out, or at the very least rewritten. From Pharrell’s Tiffany collection where pearls were juxtaposed with a more industrial and aggressive feel, to Jonathan Anderson using mother-of-pearl to create livable apparel at Loewe, down to one of the most recognizable streetwear brands like Supreme adding nothing more than an iconic logo to a single strand of pearls (also a Tiffany collaboration), I think men are finally realizing that the rules for ‘masculine’ style are no longer relevant, and were never really there in the first place.

“A man can walk down Madison Avenue in a skirt carrying a handbag with a pearl in his ear with complete confidence, and no one thinks twice,” he adds. “And something about that is so liberating. I’ve never really cared for gender constructs in terms of the way I clothe myself, and my jewelry presentation is no different.”

As jewelry manifestos go, we can’t think of a better one. Pearls for everyone!