Travis Kelce Endorses the Latest Trend in Men's Jewelry

The start of awards season is usually the highlight of the jewelry calendar. In 2024, that was true, but there was a rival event this year, and both had plenty to say about how men wear their finest at this point and beyond. I'm talking about the Super Bowl, of course. The walk from the bus to the locker room was invented in the NBA and has been the de facto running track of modern men's fashion. More recently, NFL players have taken center stage and caught up with the perennial peacocks of professional basketball.

There has always been flair in the NFL (thanks to BroadwayJoe Namath), but the styles and jewelry choices selected by these stars have opened up the conversation about what men's fashion can be. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce wore tight-fitting chain links with his custom Amiri loop set. 49ers linebacker Fred Warner wore a diamond and pearl pin on his double-breasted Louis Vuitton look, which LeBron James also wore to the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscars party. In the United States, football is more popular than n no matter what religion. For these men, who represent the qualities that many closely associate with masculine ideals, wearing classically feminine pieces means that the culture has changed.

The diamond tennis necklace that was once the bastion of WASPy ladies who lunch can now be seen on men everywhere. The Rock wore one to the Oscars earlier this year, and Usher wore three to the 2024 NAACP Awards with a Laquan Smith ensemble. They are understated and delicate, two words not normally associated with the personalities of the men who wear them. On the other end of the spectrum, men are adopting looks more closely associated with heiresses and Daddy's Girls.

At the Oscars and their after-parties, heirloom-quality brooches adorned everyone's lapels, from Cillian Murphy's star pin to Nass' snake number with a sizable pearl, to the respective diamond flower pins of Jeffery Wright and Sir Ben Kingsley. Rings aren't new to men's style, but they're going way beyond the little finger in 2024. A$AP Rocky wore rings on every finger except his thumbs while hugging the fashion designer Raf Simons at this year's Bottega Veneta show in Milan.

We've all been hit over the head with quiet luxury throughout 2023. The innocuous tonal palette of expertly draped and extremely expensive fabrics has swathed the industry and popular culture. This look has validity both as a standard set after years of luxury streetwear dominance and as a return to the craft of making clothes stripped bare. Elegance takes many forms, and even understated enthusiasts complement their minimal look with tasteful mid-century jewelry or a delicate locket. Cartier's Tank Carrée has been the ascendant watch form in recent years, they recently re-released the Baignoire, its oval cousin. But regardless of style, the general trend is that smaller is better. A 40mm bezel seems almost vulgar in 2024. The style standard has returned to 36mm, which looks very nice with diamond accents.

Calm will likely remain, but there is strong momentum in favor of the pendulum swinging in the other direction. This takes multiple forms, like the Western resurgence led by Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton and Beyoncé in the rest of the world. But most interesting is a more general feeling of vivid opulence. No one better illustrates this radical change than the undisputed king of the red carpet: Colman Domingo. Her looks are incredibly vibrant. His wrists, hands, neck, lapel and even his bow tie are endlessly adorned with natural diamond balls. He exudes confidence, his skin shines and his smile radiates joy. What a time to live! He seems to say it in every appearance. Jewel-toned and silky, this shift moves men's style away from androgyny and unisex towards gender-only.

The level of comfort demonstrated by men of all styles speaks to a normalization that this country and the world will benefit from. The more comfortable we are expressing ourselves, the less we rely on striated moors and the negativity they engender to define us. If a diamond tennis necklace on the world's biggest action star and a buckled suit on a Pro Bowl Tight End represent the vanguard of a new era of identity, I can't wait to see where we go from here.