Layering Jewellery - Part 1 - Genres of Boho Fashion

The genre of boho fashion is huge and all-encompassing. There are so many different aesthetics and looks to be inspired by.  For this look - jewellery is key, and layering jewellery is the easiest way to add a little bit of 'boho' into your look. To achieve the layered boho look 'more is definitely more'. The well known quote from Coco Chanel 'before you leave the house...remove one item' definitely doesn't apply here. However that could leave you to just wear everything you like which may not necessarily look good. The easiest way to approach it is to break down your jewellery into different subgroups. The 3 subgroups that I gravitate to the most are (1) Middle Eastern/Indian, (2) Tribal/African and (3) Beachy. Generally speaking you can throw any jewellery items that fall within these subgroups together and it will look good. Each of these can be broken down further for example Middle Eastern can go more down the Islamic route or down the Indian Bollywood route, but for the sake of simplicity thinking of 3 groups is the easiest approach.

Middle Eastern

Generally speaking I think this is the hardest look to achieve mainly due to accessing items inspired from this region. In middle eastern countries the bangle rules. If you go to any bazaar you will see stall after stall of brightly coloured bangles. Given these countries rich natural resources most have a preference for gold coloured items over silver - and the more yellow colour gold (i.e. the higher the gold content) the better. For most Europeans silver coloured metals work better with lighter skin tones, so if you are on the fairer side this may be something that works less well for you. Other nods to this look can be to incorporate specific motifs and symbols such as the evil eye, hamsa, the more Indian elephant, or other more religious symbols. As a general rule I try to avoid the more religious symbols thinking this inauthentic to wear if I don't share these beliefs. Colours to try would be strong colours such as warm red tones, bright brilliant blues and deep emerald greens. Certain shapes also invoke the middle eastern look such as the teardrop (think of the shapes of the Taj Mahal) and the paisley leaf which is often seen on pashminas and other materials. 

Key influences: bangles, gold, filigree, shiny metal finishes and certain motifs (see the 2nd pic for hamsa, evil eye and filigree pieces).

Tribal/African

This is probably my favourite genre as I think when done properly it looks the most effortless whilst being very impactful. This one is about textures and you can easily mix metals here to achieve this look. Gold and silver look amazing against a backdrop of black; I have a beautiful ceramic bangle which looks gorgeous with black larva beads. It is also easy to incorporate loads of different colours so you don't have to be as careful as you would need to with the Middle Eastern genre. African style beads are an easy way to short circuit the look, giving an immediate pop of bright colour. I would say that as long as the pieces you incorporate look on the more 'rustic' sides of things anything goes here. Materials to look out for would be wood or resin rather than 'traditional' jewellery materials. I bought some bangles from the Western Saharan refugee camps near Tindouf and the materials used are resin and scrap metal; similarly some bangles I bought from Nigeria are made out of colourful plastics. One rule that I would try to follow without fail is to try to avoid shiny metals which will completely destroy the aesthetic.

Key influences: alternative materials, wood, spiraled earrings, matte metals and brightly coloured beads (see the 2nd pic for the spiraled earnings).

Beach 

If you are just getting in to the boho trend, this is probably the easiest. It also works great for people with lighter skin tones as silver finished metals work a lot better than gold tones. Also, I don't believe that this should be an issue, but if you are Caucasian and you feel uncomfortable about wearing items inspired by countries you have no affiliation with then this look has no geographical limitation - beaches are around the world over! It is also pretty much common sense and can be achieved by use of natural textures such as sea glass, shells and crystals. Blues and sea greens look great - its really about being inspired by the feeling of being on the beach on holiday. I've seen lots of trends of midi-rings with wave patterns which looks great.

Key influences: silver, glass, wave patterns, matte textures, agate, shells, coral.

Mixing genres

Mixing these genres can be tricky, although if you have a good base of bulk jewellery (i.e. items which do not lean to much into either category) then it is easier to pair a few pieces from different categories together. Another easy way to think about it is in terms of geography. For example although Egypt and Morocco are technically in Africa the look of the pieces inspired by or made in these countries tends to fit in the Middle Eastern genre rather than the African/tribal one. So whilst the more Indian style pieces might grate if you try to pair these with traditional African items, jewellery on the more North African end of the scale, such as Morocco or Egypt, can be combined with tribal pieces and look great due to their geography almost acting as a bridge.

In fact the tribal genre is the most easy to mix with the other two as a result of the fact that both gold and silver tones work well. This means that these items can be combined with very gold middle eastern inspired pieces or worn with silver metals and crystals on the more beachy end of the spectrum. Combining beachy style jewellery with middle eastern pieces is difficult - I just don't think that the combination looks good at all. At the end of the day there are no rules and if you like something then wear it, but if you are struggling with the sheer number of beautiful pieces out there and want to show them off at their best then thinking about what genre an item falls into is an easy way to sort your jewellery, making it easier to compile looks, particularly when stacking.