Heart Necklaces

Why the heart necklace never goes out of style

A heart necklace has never needed to be in fashion to be worn. It's the one motif nobody has to decode: you can read it from across a room, it's understood without a word, and it moves easily from one era and one style to the next.

That's also why it's the one most often given. Choosing jewellery for someone always means risking the wrong taste. The heart takes that risk away: it doesn't say "I chose for you", it says "I thought of you". That nuance changes everything when the gift is opened.

One motif, five different characters

Our heart necklaces for women don't all look alike, and the difference comes from the way the heart is set.

As a heart pendant necklace on a fine chain, it's the one you forget to take off. The motif stays small, close to the collarbone, and it sits under a shirt collar without any bulk.

Open, the heart lets the light through and becomes lighter. It looks bigger than it is, without weighing any more.

Set with diamanté, it catches the light with every movement. It's the evening version, or the one you choose when you want the jewellery to do the work instead of the outfit.

On a strand of faux pearls, the heart sits lower and gains volume. The faux pearls soften the metal, and the whole piece feels less direct, more dressed up.

As a charm, the heart shares the chain with other charms (a star, a clover, an eye) and becomes one element in a composition you build yourself.

Gold heart necklace or silver heart necklace: the simplest guide

The question comes up every time, and it has a short answer: choose the colour you already wear.

A gold heart necklace warms. It goes with beige, off-white and warm colours, and it gives the heart a fuller roundness.

A silver heart necklace cools and refines. With greys, blues and black it blends in, and the outline of the heart looks sharper, more clearly drawn.

If you wear a watch or a ring every day, match the necklace to it. It's the safest guide, and it avoids the classic mistake: choosing the colour that shines most in a photo rather than the one that goes with everything else.

Most of our hearts come in both colours. You choose once, on the product page, with the colour swatch, and the necklace sits in exactly the same way in both versions.

How high to wear it

Most of our heart necklaces fall just below the collarbone. It's the height that goes with the most, and the one to choose if you're unsure: it works under a collar as well as over a fine jumper.

Higher up, the heart joins our choker necklaces and rests against the skin at the base of the neck. Lower down, it becomes a long necklace over the chest and can be seen from a distance.

Almost every chain is adjustable: the extender chain lets you change the height as you fasten it, without a mirror. And nothing stops you layering a short heart over a longer heart chain necklace. Two heights are always better than one, and it's the simplest way to lift a plain outfit.

The occasions when it's just right

The heart necklace is the jewellery of special dates. Valentine's Day, of course, though it's far from the best: giving a heart on 14 February is simply following the calendar.

It's more fitting at other times. For a birthday, when you want to mark the day without overdoing it. For Mother's Day, where it works from one generation to the next and never feels out of place. For a graduation, a house move, a new baby: all those moments when you're looking for something that stays once the words have faded.

And for no reason at all. That may be its best use: the gift without an occasion is the one that's remembered, because nobody was expecting it. You'll also find it among our necklace gifts for her.

What it's made of

Most of our heart necklaces are made from stainless steel. That isn't a detail: this metal won't tarnish on the skin and doesn't leave the green mark of the alloys common in costume jewellery. Faux pearl strands and fabric cords have their own material, listed on their product page.

Some pieces carry 14ct gold plating; the exact finish is listed in the details of each product page, along with the length and the material of any decoration.

Giving it

It's probably the easiest motif in our collection to give, and the least risky. Every necklace is sent in its gift box, ready to give just as it is, and no price appears inside.

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