New Season, New Mood: Pearls with Attitude on the Spring/Summer Catwalk

Pearl lovers need look no further than the catwalk for ideas of what varieties to wear and how to wear them for these natural wonders are a perennial favourite of Chanel and designers like Ralph Lauren and Erdem. The lucent creaminess of pearls never gets tired. Juxtaposed with luxurious tweeds, brocades, silk, velvet and even black leather, they always look so fresh and feminine. 

Designers demonstrate ways in which pearl jewellery can look individual, contemporary and cool. For example, Yves Saint Laurent was the first couturier to put a leather jacket on the catwalk. It was at Christian Dior where he was promoted from assistant to artistic director on the death of Dior in 1957. It caused an uproar among Dior’s bourgeois clients, and Saint Laurent was fired for his efforts and went off and founded his own couture house. Anthony Vaccarello, the current creative director at Saint Laurent, paid homage to the rebellious spirit of its founder by presenting biker leather tailoring and big white pussycat bow shirts in his Spring 2026 collection. He accessorised this with enormous, antique-style pearl chandelier earrings and stiletto heels, the look at once glamorous and rebellious.