At 62, I had worn nothing but my wedding ring for forty years
At 62, I had worn nothing but my wedding ring for forty years
Six things the Sherene set gets right that one thin bracelet gets wrong, from a woman who was quite sure she was not a jewellery person.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and until this year the only thing I had ever worn on my hands was my wedding ring. Forty years of it, and nothing else. I had decided somewhere along the line that I was not a jewellery person. What I had actually decided, though I would never have put it like that, was that getting ready is something you do when somebody else is going to see you. So this is not a review. It is a woman who started getting ready for herself again, saying so.
The set I am writing about is called the Sherene, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is five fine chains that come together as one set, made to be worn stacked up the wrist. I chose the gold. When the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Five bracelets. All at once. At 62. Read on.
Here is how it started, because a letter like this ought to be honest about that. My friend Sue and I were having a coffee at the garden centre back in the spring, and she had a little stack of gold chains on her wrist that caught the light every time she picked up her cup. I said something daft about that sort of thing being for the young ones. She said, says who. And then she said the thing I have thought about most since, which is that she does not put them on for anybody else. She puts them on because she likes the look of her own hands again.
I went home and thought about my own hands, which have washed up a great many dinners and held a great many small children, and which I had not given a moment's thought to in years except to notice they were getting older.
I had spent years telling myself there was nothing to dress up for. It had honestly never occurred to me that I might dress up for me.
I ordered the set that evening, half expecting to feel silly. I have put them on every single morning since, and having done so, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning they came. Five of them in a little tangle, and I had them on before the kettle boiled.
Somebody else has already done the matching
This is the part that mattered most to me, because I have never trusted myself to put jewellery together. They arrive as a set of five, chosen to sit beside each other, so there is no standing at the dressing table wondering whether two different chains look right together. You put all five on and your wrist looks considered rather than accidental. I have not had to think about it once.
I never know what goes with what, so I have always ended up wearing nothing. This is done for you. I put all five on and it just looks right.
Marion D., HucknallEvery chain is different, and that is the whole trick
Look closely and no two are the same. One is made of long flat oval links, one is a twisted rope, one is a proper curb chain, one is a flat smooth ribbon of a thing that lies against you like silk, and one is a figaro, a long link and then some short ones. That mixture is what stops it looking like five of the same bracelet, and it is why the stack looks like something a person chose rather than something that came out of a packet.
Laid out side by side. Not one of them the same as another.
The flat one is my favourite, it catches the light beautifully. Together they look far more expensive than they were.
Christine A., SouthwellFine, not fussy
They are slim, light little chains that sit flat against the wrist. They are not the heavy, rattly sort that end up spinning round so the nice part is underneath, and they slip under a cardigan sleeve without any fuss. They look like something, rather than like a lot. At our age I think that is the line you want to stay on the right side of.
Delicate and light, not clunky at all. I forget I am wearing them until I catch them in the light.
Sheila P., KimberleyFive of them means you can have it any way you like
All five for a Sunday. Two on a Tuesday. Just the flat one under a blouse if I am feeling plain. It is five bracelets, so it is five different wrists, and I find myself picking a different combination depending on where I am going, which is a small pleasure I did not expect to be having at 62.
Before breakfast, at the dressing table. Some mornings it is all five. Some mornings it is two.
I wear two for work and the lot at the weekend. It is like having several bracelets instead of one, which is exactly what it is.
Val H., Long EatonGold or white gold, and they behave with everything
Mine are the gold ones, which sit happily next to my wedding ring, and there is a white gold set as well if your things are silver-toned. Either way they go with a cardigan, with a summer dress, and with a winter coat sleeve, without arguing with any of it. I have not once had to change what I was wearing to suit them.
Five in a set, which quietly solves a birthday
This is the bit I had not thought of when I ordered. Five chains in one set, for what most places want for a single bracelet, means you can keep the lot or do what I did and put two aside for my daughter's birthday. She wore hers to work the next day and sent me a photograph of her wrist from her desk. I have my three, she has her two, and I think of that every time I put mine on.
Two of them put by for my daughter's birthday. Christmas quietly started, too.
Kept three and gave two to my sister. Two presents and something for me out of one order, which felt like getting away with something.
Rita M., CotgraveThis, against the one thin bracelet you keep buying
You can buy a single bracelet anywhere, and I have bought a few over the years, worn them twice and wondered why they looked like nothing on me. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
On its own it disappears on the wrist
You are left guessing what goes with it
One look, and the same one every day
Heavy ones spin round and rattle
Often the price of all five of these
Five chains that fill the wrist properly
Already chosen to go together
Wear one, two or all five
Fine and light, and they sit flat
Five pieces, gold or white gold
About the price
The Sherene set is £29.99 at the moment. It was £60.00, and that is for all five.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that with the autumn sale on this is the sort of thing that goes quickly, and once a run has gone it can be a wait for it to come back. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and months of daily wearing in, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered the second set. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
In the dish on the dressing table overnight. They are the first thing I reach for now.
If your wrists have been bare for years, and you have told yourself somewhere along the way that you are not a jewellery person, I would start here. Not for anybody else. For the pleasure of catching sight of your own hands and thinking they look rather nice. Go and have a look while the gold is still there.
Caroline
SHERENE | 5-Piece Gold Bracelet Set
- Five fine chains, made to be worn stacked
- Five different links: paperclip, rope, curb, flat herringbone and figaro
- Already matched, so there is nothing to put together
- Wear one, two or all five
- Gold or white gold tone
- Five in a set, so two can become a present
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now. Five bracelets for the price most places ask for one.