The Wall Street Journal - 17.08.2019 - 18.08.2019

D2| Saturday/Sunday, August 17 - 18, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

STYLE & FASHION

FASHION WITH A PAST / NANCY MACDONELL

Hoop Earrings:

Going in Circles

IS IT A TREND if it never goes away? That’s

the koan posed by the hoop earring—a shape

that’s been a continual presence in jewelry for

thousands of years and yet has buzzily gained

prominence over the past few. (Zendaya’s ap-

pearance in a saucer-sized pair at the Louis

Vuitton 2017 resort collection did a lot to

make that happen.) They were a standout ac-

cessory at several spring and fall shows,

thanks to designers like Valentino creative di-

rector Pierpaolo Piccioli and Stella McCartney,

who partnered with the textile artist Sheila

Hicks to create large, fiber-wrapped hoops.

Part of the reason hoops are everywhere is

that ears are exposed, thanks to the concur-

rent fashion for low, center-parted ponytails

and chignons, a trend championed by Jen At-

kin, one of Kim Kardashian’s hair stylists.

There’s a long tradition of hair-earring symbi-

osis: During the Middle Ages and much of the

Renaissance, when women wore headdresses

that concealed most of their hair and ears,

earrings were rarely seen; and earrings once

again all but disappeared in the 1840s and

’50s, when hairstyles covered the ears.

The chignon, with its ballerina lines and

unobstructed view of the ear, is an ideal

partner for the large, unadorned hoop that

is dangling from so many ears. The pairing

has even been woven into the reigning pro-

fessional-casual uniform. “You have your

hoops, your bun, your jeans, your blazer,”

said Los Angeles jewelry designer Sophie

Buhai, who describes her best-selling Every-

day Hoop as “pared-down and subtle.”

“People gravitate toward the simple and

clean,” said designer Jennifer Fisher, whose

hoops are worn by Michelle Obama, Lady

Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, but personal prefer-

ence determines size. Ms. Fisher makes more

than 20 different styles of hoops; although

FAST FIVE

History Oneofthe

first hair-styling

products designed to

offer a soft hold, it

was an anomaly

when it launched in

the early 1980s. Re-

sult: It quickly be-

came a favorite of

beauty insiders.

Claims Silk powder,

oils from soy and

wheat protein and

jojoba figure promi-

nently in the light-

weight grooming

cream, which man-

ages to moisturize

and control frizz

without feeling

greasy. London-

based stylist George

Northwood appreci-

ates its versatility.

“It can be used on

wet hair and then

left to dry to allow

wave orcurl defini-

tion...blow dried into

the hair to help

smooth [it] and can

be used as a finish-

ing product,” he said.

Fans Kit Harington,

Emma Watson, Ga-

rance Doré, the late

John F. Kennedy Jr.

Cult Moment When

longtime royal hair-

stylist Amanda Cook

Tucker (who has

reportedly cut Prince

William’s and Prince

Harry’s hair since

they were kids) re-

vealed via an Insta-

gram post the essen-

tial tools and products

she uses for Kate

Middleton’s blowouts.

Among them:

Silk Groom. $24,

kiehls.com

—Fiorella Valdesolo

CULT FOLLOWING

Creme Rises

To the Top

Kiehl’s Creme Silk

Groom is unfussy—

in both packaging

and purpose—and

a little goes a long

way. Both qualities

have been key to

this unisex hair

tamer’s success

her customers most favor the Samira. Essen-

tially a smooth, hollow tube, it comes in mul-

tiple diameters. Ms. Fisher compares the fit

of a pair of hoops to that of a pair of jeans:

“Half an inch can make a difference.”

One of the earliest known hoops—gold

ones that date to circa 2600 BCE—were

made in Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq.

Ancient Egyptians of both sexes wore hoops,

as did Minoan, Greek, and Roman women,

who liked such heavy styles that they had

specialized healers, auricolae ornatrices ,to

tend to their stretched-out lobes.

The design of the hoop has altered very

little since. “All the motifs go back to the

ancient world...You will see a pair that are

3,000-years-old and think, ‘They’re so mod-

ern,’” said jewelry historian Ruth Peltason.

And the hoop’s prevalence in cultures

around the globe, from the Hmong women

in Vietnam to the Romani, make it one of

the world’s most frequently referenced jew-

elry forms.

In European fashion, the hoop’s popularity

over the centuries has been fairly consistent,

although it has often been overshadowed by

more of-the-moment designs like girandoles

or pendants. That changed in the late 1960s

and early 1970s, when big, dramatic hoops

became de rigueur, with every source from

fine jewelers like David Webb to inexpensive

brands offering their interpretations.

The interest in large, decorative hoops was

part of the trend for what was then known as

“ethnic” fashion—styles that borrowed from

cultures that were described as “exotic” or

“colorful.” This language has, for the most

part, been shelved. But our impulse to borrow

from other cultures is as old as fashion itself,

and it’s not going anywhere.

Objects have no inherent meaning;

we “code” them based on cultural beliefs.

These codes can be read differently

depending on your cultural background,

which is why there’s so much misunder-

standing about things like hoop earrings.

History is not much help here because

it’s a catalog of dubious precedents. Further

complicating things is the widespread

usage of the hoop.

In the U.S., the large hoop earring, along

with natural hair, was one of the elements

of Afrocentric dress that grew out of the

Black Power movement of the 1960s. The

large hoop has also been claimed by Latinas,

and is a fixture of “chola” style. There

hasn’t been a lot of acknowledgment of this

history, which has angered some black and

Latina women, especially because, while

white women can wear a large hoop and re-

main free of its coding, they cannot. As the

writer Sandra E. Garcia put it, “large

hoops...make me stand out, make me seem

too loud, too visible, too ghetto, too black.”

I think the hoop trend is part of a larger

movement to fold streetwear staples like

sneakers, hoodies, and T-shirts into ready-to-

wear collections to add edge and appeal to

younger customers. This type of clothing is

rooted in subcultures like skate and surf, but

it’s most especially associated with hip-hop;

that’s its cultural code. It’s also the new lux-

ury fashion—no fashion house can remain

competitive without a hit sneaker, for exam-

ple. But I don’t hear much acknowledgment

of that connection, or that code.

Hoops are everywhere, thanks

to the fashion for low, center-

parted ponytails and chignons.

1. Earrings, $550, jenniferfisherjewelry.com ;
2. Raphaele Canot Earrings, $2,250, Dover
Street Market, 646-837-7750 ; 3. Earrings,
$5,400, ninarunsdorf.com; 4. Earrings, $395,
sophiebuhai.com ; 5. Earrings, $7,500, Cartier,
212-446-3400 ; 6. Earrings, $78, cultagaia.com ;
7. Earrings, $540, bottegaveneta.com.

It’s Not Quite Sweater Weather

And yet: In an air-conditioned summer office, you find yourself craving

the gentle cuddle of a cozy sweater, the kind of in-between-seasons

garment that’s almost ridiculous. Like the short-sleeved ‘T-Shirt’ sweater,

whose heyday may have ended with Lana Turner in the 1950s. In new,

delicate fabrications, it’s somehow very right...right now

F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, STYLING BY ANNE CARDENAS

Clockwise from top-left: T-shirt, $125, lalignenyc.com ; T-shirt,

$1,175, loropiana.com ; T-shirt, $295, uneheures.com ; Marisa Witkin T-shirt, $350,

The Conservatory, 212-473-1333 ; T-shirt, $285, francesdelourdes.com.

F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (EARRINGS); GETTY IMAGES (SIMONE); MATT CHASE

LUCY MAN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

STILL LOOPY

From left: Nina Simone at the 1970 Newport

Jazz Festival; giant hoops wrapped in textiles

at the Stella McCartney fall 2019 show.