Occasionally one particular design captures the collective attention of fashion editors, with that special item making an appearance in numerous fashion spreads. The Chanel chatelaine brooch held that honor earlier this year. For autumn 2009, this recognition falls to a chunky chain link necklace by Michael Kors.
Here’s a Michael Kors ad currently running in various magazines, showing the necklace adorning a neon pink dress and coat, neon colors constituting another trend championed in the designer’s fall collection.
With a piece of jewelry this large and attention-getting, everything else in the ensemble needs to be downplayed. Thus the ad features a shapely sheath dress and coat of matching hues, an understated clutch and strappy platform sandals. Despite the eye-popping neon color of the ensemble, the necklace is the focal point of the ensemble.
In its August 2009 issue, Town & Country magazine uses the necklace to adorn a more casual ensemble designed by Michael Kors, featuring a short, structured winter white jacket worn over a black turtleneck and pants. Once again, the necklace is the focal point. The necklace is misidentified by the magazine as a silver bike-chain necklace. The necklace is actually available in 24-karat electroplated gold over brass, sterling silver plated over brass, or gunmetal-plated brass.
Harper’s Bazaar, in its August 2009 issue, pictures the electroplated gold version with an even more casual look—an unidentified tattersall plaid collared jacket and soft sweater, accompanied by the caption “Large brass links anchor your look.”
In its August 2009 issue, Elle magazine features the necklace adorning a sheath dress once again by Michael Kors on singer Miley Cyrus. Notice the unusual shape of the neckline of the dress. The necklace dominates that neckline, and for that reason, the neckline’s otherwise intriguing design recedes into the background.
Notice also that on Cyrus’s slender neck, the necklace doesn’t settle into a round shape but rather, is bunched together in the front creating somewhat of a vee shape. The links of the necklace are so large that how they settle around one’s neck relates to the size of that neck. Losing the roundness of the necklace almost makes it look like a different piece of jewelry entirely. When the links are this large, adjusting the size of the necklace is an unlikely solution.
The look of huge chain links isn’t limited to this one necklace design, despite all the attention it is receiving. The August 2009 issue of Marie Claire magazine features a chunky bracelet by DVF by H. Stern as the sole accessory to a textured dress from the Calvin Klein Collection. The large links make this bracelet highly dimensional. Like the chain link necklace, this bracelet is a piece of jewelry that demands to be the center of attention.
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