By Llyn L. Strelau
As a jewellery designer, I have fantasies of going back in time to be employed in the court of a Renaissance prince or the palace of an Egyptian pharaoh or a Maharajah. Those were the days when men of power both commissioned and wore a wealth of jewellery that confirmed their status and success and, I think, for many, the pure joy of wearing beautiful pieces. They were a time when men were the peacocks and the desire for adornment was strong.
I am not exactly sure what’s happened since those glory days of men’s jewellery. I expect early sumptuary laws forbidding ostentation, the rise of Puritanism, and more recently, contemporary male business suit homogeneity, may have had a large impact. In most of the modern era, the jewellery men wear (if they wear it at all) is, simply put, boring as hell!
