I didn’t get my ears pierced until I was fifteen years old. It wasn’t so much that I was scared, but that I wasn’t allowed to. So, when I finally got to wear them, I wore the biggest, most obnoxious ones imaginable. They were total ear spoilers. I wish I could say that I never owned wooden hand painted parrot earrings, but that would be a lie. I was living in Florida at the time and apparently I wanted to blend right in with a cliché. It got to the point where I had so many decorations on my ears that one day I’d had enough and cleaned house. I gave all my dangly, cheap, over-the-top earrings away in a zip lock bag to the Salvation Army. Somewhere out there, someone is walking around like a living, breathing Claire’s boutique. After the purge, I kept my ears naked for years and re-learned what looks good on an earlobe. Recently I’ve started to consider decorating them again. And I’m not going back to the parade float look. I want small, simple studs that say, “I’m making up for the fact my face has no makeup and my hair is in a knot tied with old panty hose.” Something like the following:
clockwise, l-r: PAMELA LOVE SILVER SMALL CRYSTAL STUD EARRINGS, $290.00, Opening Ceremony; NOEMI KLEIN ROCK STUD EARRING, $85.00, Farfetch; HEIRLOOM BY DOYLE & DOYLE GROSGRAIN BOW EARRINGS, $425.00, Doyle & Doyle; ELIZABETH AND JAMES NILE ROUND WHITE TOPAZ STUD EARRINGS, $95.00, Bloomingdale’s.
