Nobody is entirely sure who came up with the very interesting concept of charm bracelets, but it is well known that they have a long and interesting history. In all likelihood, they were probably originally created as a way to allow disenchanted and disillusioned jewelry-wearers to add variety to their bracelets. This is one thing charm bracelets do very well – they allow you to take a simple base bracelet and customize it in essentially an infinite number of ways. The logic probably went something like this – “If necklaces can be customized with unique pendants, why can’t bracelets?”
And to be honest, there is a lot of truth in this. Charm bracelets allow jewelry-wearers to take their creativity to new heights, and express themselves in metal. At an airport recently, for example, the author of this article spotted a young woman who was wearing a very ornate charm bracelet. Upon being asked about it, the young lady explained that she was a college student who had taken a year off to travel around the world, and that she purchased silver bracelet charms in every country that she visited, so that she had a solid souvenir with which to remind herself of all the places that she had been. In other words, the bracelet was a composite of her travels. In essence, she had turned her bracelet into a sort of travelogue, a record of everywhere she had visited – a fantastic idea, and a truly creative one.
These are the kinds of people that the world of jewelry needs. Enough uninspired pieces by high-end marques; enough diamonds and rubies and other flashy stones; enough hoop earrings, thick studded bracelets and cliched signet rings – what we need is an opportunity for jewelry to once again become a canvas for the inspired among us to paint their thoughts upon. This, after all, is what fashion is all about – it’s about expression, not statements of how rich and dull you are.
And like always, of course, it takes the youth to remind us of this – like that young college girl in the airport. No surprise, then, that charm bracelets have recently seen a revival in popularity with the youth, particularly the stylish young people that like to experiment with different ideas, which the charm bracelet allows them to do at a level that very few other items of jewellery can match. The beauty of it is that you start with a very simple base – a silver charm bracelet, with no charms attached. The bracelets themselves are very, very simple – until you start adding charms to your bracelet. Because there is such a vast amount of different silver charms for bracelets available, pretty much every charm bracelet can be turned into a unique one-of-a-kind item of jewellery, customized to reflect your personality. The best part is, you can do this anywhere in the world – nearly every store that sells jewellery has silver charms charm bracelets and other charm bracelet related items for sale.
One warning – we recommend only using sterling silver charm bracelets, as sterling silver (or 925 silver) is strong enough to withstand the stresses of regular everyday wear, unlike the more pure forms of silver, which are fine for some articles of jewellery but are far too soft and malleable for charm bracelets, and will definitely start to get deformed and twisted out of shape with daily wear.