Beach & Ocean Necklaces

Beach jewellery: the summer that doesn't end in August

Some jewellery reminds you where you've been. Beach jewellery is part of that family: it brings a little of the sea into a working week, and it does so without looking like a costume or a wink.

That's the strength of this collection. Worn in July on sun-kissed skin, a beach necklace feels obvious. Worn in January over a cream polo neck, it becomes a promise, the promise of next July. You fasten it in the morning and the day starts a little lighter than it was meant to.

Starfish, shells, cowries: what you'll find here

The starfish necklace is the backbone of this page. Its shape reads from a distance, which makes it a bold motif, and it holds up very well at a small size: on a fine chain, the starfish is recognisable at first glance. A gold starfish necklace is the one that most looks like the beach itself.

The shell is the other great motif of the collection. It comes in real shell, whose sheen varies from one piece to the next, in a pearlescent version, in a gold scallop shell scaled to a fine chain, and in the cowrie, that small, smooth, rounded shell people were already gathering three thousand years ago. It has its own page: our shell necklaces.

Around them you'll find the turtle, the seahorse, the enamelled fish, the spiral conch and the branch of coral. A turtle necklace or a fish necklace can carry a single motif, while some pieces bring together five or seven of them on the same chain.

Build-your-own sets: the most interesting half of the collection

Many of our ocean necklaces are charm necklaces, and some of them arrive in separate pieces: a chain, a ring, and charms delivered alongside.

You add the ones you want to show. The starfish alone for lunch, the whole series for dinner. You do it as you fasten the necklace, with no mirror and no tools, and the result exists only once: nobody else wears the same combination as you.

That's also what makes these pieces easy to give: the person who receives one decides what to do with it, instead of being handed a choice already made.

Gold or silver: two different seas

The same necklace doesn't tell the same story depending on its colour, and the difference is sharper here than with any other motif.

In gold, enamels warm up, the pearlescent effect leans towards cream, and the whole piece takes on a sunny note, the colour of sand and late afternoon.

In silver, whites and blues stand out more clearly, haematite takes over, and the piece turns more serious, the colour of cold water and pebbles.

Several pieces come in both colours: you choose once, on the product page, with the colour swatch.

Which length for an ocean necklace

Most of these necklaces are worn high, at the base of the neck or just below the collarbone. That's no accident: an ocean motif reads better close to the face, where it catches the light, than lost in the middle of the chest.

The shortest ones join our choker necklaces and need an open neckline. Mid lengths work everywhere, from a shirt collar to a fine knit. A few pieces fall lower and join our long necklaces, to wear over an open shirt or doubled into two loops. Ocean motifs on a soft cord are on our scarf and cord necklaces page.

Almost all chains are adjustable: an extender lets you move from one height to another as you fasten it.

The material, and why it matters more here than anywhere else

A summer necklace meets salt water, sun cream, sand and sweat. It's the toughest routine you could put a necklace through, and that's why the material matters here.

Most of our ocean necklaces are made of stainless steel. It won't tarnish on skin and won't leave the green mark that common alloys can. Real shell, on the other hand, is a natural material: no two pieces are ever quite identical, and that's what makes them interesting.

Take your necklace off before the pool and the sea. Put your perfume on before your necklace, never after. Store it somewhere dry in its gift box.

This is ocean jewellery made to be worn, not kept in a drawer. Every necklace is sent in its gift box, ready to give as it is, with no price showing inside.