Pearl-Studded Hoop Earrings Are Having A Moment

By Victoria Gomelsky | October 25, 2022

Ask any jeweler where hoop earrings fit in amid their overall selection of merchandise and you’re likely to hear a refrain: Hoops are the denim of the jewelry world. With a deep cultural heritage that goes back 5,000 years—all the way to the royal tombs of Mesopotamia!—hoops are arguably the most basic of jewelry staples, easy to wear and equally easy to sell.

What’s new for this most essential jewelry item is, of course, the numerous ways in which hoops are now embellished. It should come as no surprise to readers of this newsletter that the most relevant, fashionable examples feature cultured pearls. Dotted along the bottom rim of a hoop, or placed there as a single gem in a delicate balancing act, pearls are the freshest way to enliven a standard pair of hoops or huggies.

Whether the earrings are classic door knockers (à la the pair by Rush Jewelry Design), avant-garde takes on the traditional hoop (see Grace Lee’s whimsical twisted-wire style), or elegant examples of the pearl’s regal countenance (check out Mateo’s ethereal floating pearl hoops), they all send the same message: There’s nothing basic to see here.