An ear-cuff is an ear decoration that you wear on the outer edge of your ear. It’s not a painful clip-on that pinches your ear-lobe, and it’s not for pierced ears. You can pop it on and off in a couple of seconds and it’s a huge new trend. Ear-cuffs are available in many more styles, themes, colors and prices than traditional earrings, so you have plenty of choice – from simple classy, gold cuffs to dainty evening/bridal/bridesmaid earrings – and hundreds of animal, floral and geometrical designs!
Ear cuffs are a fabulous new way to shun the conventional look and use asymmetry to project trendy, individual style! And as so many hairstyles are asymmetrical, this trend has taken off in a big way. You only wear ear cuffs on one ear, so they fit in perfectly with asymmetric styles that show one ear. And even if you have an asymmetrical haircut, just push the hair on one side behind your ear or wear your hair up – and you’re ready to show-off this latest jewelry trend! Plus – it doesn’t matter on which ear you wear your cuffs, so you can ‘chop and change’ as much as you like!
1. Mix & match your ear-cuffs
Wearing ear-cuffs is the modern way to wear several mismatched earrings on one ear. So if you’ve got old pierced earrings hanging about in the back of a drawer, now is the time to wear them with your new ear-cuffs! The new ‘mix and match’ approach to ear decoration is an offshoot from a retro-style from years ago. There used to be a trend for women to have several piercings in each ear and to wear matching studs in a curved line from lobe to the top of each ear.
And this new trend has taken inspiration from that idea, but made it more stylish, varied and cool for modern fashion fans. However, you don’t need a piercing to wear an ear-cuff, so you won’t be left with a trail of tiny holes in your ear, when you didn’t have time to put your earrings in that morning. So that’s another ‘plus’! And you can keep the look simple and minimalist, or go to the other extreme and create a very fancy earring feature by pairing ear-cuffs with studs, hoops and dangly styles, too!
2. How to put on ear-cuffs
Ear-cuffs are so simple to put on that you just need to slip the open section of the cuff onto the thinnest part at the top of your ear. And then you just slide it down gently to a wider part of your ear, and stop where the cuff fits naturally and feels comfy and secure.
I love how easy they are to put on, as I have wasted so much time in my life trying to thread curved sections of my pierced earrings into place! And they make excellent gifts, because one-size really does fit all!
3. Do ear-cuffs come in different sizes?
No, they aren’t available in small, medium and large etc. But as they are small metal pieces of jewelry, you can easily adjust an ear-cuff that’s too big by squeezing the two ends of the cuff together gently to make them a little smaller. Then try it again on your ear and you can always squeeze it again if necessary.
If your ear-cuffs are made of thick metal, you may need to use pliers, but they usually fit without any adjustment needed. Some retailers make their ear-cuffs slightly larger than necessary to ensure they are big enough for all wearers, so it’s quite normal to have to adjust a new pair to your own ear size.
4. What ear-cuffs should I wear together?
Eternity Ear Cuff + Little Sphere Stud + Dewdrop Huggie + Crystal Orbit Stud
Eternity Ear Cuff + Shooting Star Open Hoop + Pave XO Studs
It’s all up to you and your creativity! But if you’d like some tips, try these ideas to get you started. For a party look wear all diamanté ear-cuffs, but vary the shape so you have two different-sized hoops, with a formal, dangly diamanté and a diamanté stud. Or choose pearl as your theme material and wear different styles of cuffs and ear-studs with pearls on them.
Then, of course, you can swap the look again by mixing diamanté with pearl, or silver, or gold, for another special occasion! You can make the theme ‘hoops’ and wear several hoops made from different metals and colors, or arrange a several different sized ‘crosses’. Or have all gold cuffs one day and all silver cuffs the next day. You can harmonize fashion clothes in warm colors with gold and clothes in cool colors with silver.
5. Ear-jackets & Ear-crawlers
Ear cuffs come in all shapes and sizes, which you’ll find out about as you read through the rest of this article. And you’ll soon know exactly what kind of look you are going for to enhance your individual fashion style! There are actually several new types of earring that trend-setters wear together to create a statement theme which could be say, geometric/Boho/urban/romantic or just a flowery, girly look.
The main alternatives to ear-cuffs are ear-jackets and ear-crawlers. And as they are often worn together with pierced earrings, here’s a quick run through:-
a) Ear-cuffs
Ear-cuffs are mostly horizontal hoops or spiral/helix shapes that don’t need you to have pierced ears, as they fit onto the outer ear fold.
b) Ear-jackets
Ear-jackets do need you to have pierced ears as they fit onto the post of a stud earring. These pretty gold and pearl ear-jackets just need you to add a gold or pearl stud to fit them together. Ear-jackets are clever little jewelry add-ons that you slip onto the post of a regular pierced-earring, behind the ear-lobe. And they are often curved so they follow the bottom line of your ear-lobe in a totally new look for ear decorations!
https://pin.it/oMsg0oP https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/ear_jacket
c) Ear-crawlers & Ear-climbers
Ear crawlers are also called ‘ear-climbers’, which I think is a much better name, don’t you? LOL! Anyway, ear-climbers are also known as full ear-cuffs, and they differ from other new earring styles because they cover the whole of the ear from lobe to top. They can be a simple silver line, for the latest minimalist, silver style. But they also come in a vast range of extravagant styles in crystals, rhinestones, pearls and animal themes, including the very popular butterfly designs, dragons, snakes and a huge range of twists and gorgeous, colorful semi-precious gem designs for glamorous evening wear!
d) Hooked ear-pin earrings
Italian Bead Minimalist Gold Ear Pin Earring
You do need a piercing to wear ear-pins. They are held in place by a great new method with a hook at the top and the bottom section threaded through your pierced lobe! As you can see, there’s a lot of space left free for you to pop some of your favorite ear-cuffs on the outer edge of your ear to add variety and style!
Now let’s get down to the practical questions about how to put on and wear these fabulous new ear-cuffs, ear-jackets, ear-crawlers and hooked ear-pins!
6. Helix ear-cuffs for an indie-rock look
Helix or spiral ear-cuffs are highly fashionable and make your ears look as if they have 4, 5 or 6 piercings. They don’t need any piercings at all to be worn alone, but you can mix and match them with other earrings lower down, like a pierced chain earring or an ear-jacket, held in place with a plain pierced stud. These fairly plain, wiry ear-cuffs look great with old-style sneakers and skinny jeans for an indie-rock image.
7. Quirky Boho ear-cuffs, jackets and pins
Evil Eye Talisman Ear Jacket Earrings
And if you already have pierced ears you can combine gem studs with a quirky ear-jacket, like this fabulous ‘evil eye’ design! And then fill in the space above with plain and textured ear cuffs for an original and super-trendy new look!
8. Get hippy chic with a feathered ear-cuff
Feathers have always been popular with hippies as they represent natural materials made into simple adornments. So it’s no surprise to see how many feather designs there are in the ear-cuff earring range. Feathered ear-cuffs or ear-crawlers are the perfect accessories for music festival wear, along with a long flowery dress, a simple forehead band and/or crocheted fashion clothes!
But don’t expect them to be the same traditional feather designs, because the new season ear adornments are wonderfully original and futuristic, too!
9. Fabulous chain ear-cuffs for anytime wear
Dainty chain earrings have often been in fashion and they’re back again dangling prettily from a trendy ear-cuff set high up on the ear fold. And they’re very easy to style if you already have a gold necklace chain you like to wear. Chains are frequently used in jewelry in general and adding a double chain to one ear will instantly give your whole fashion look extra style, without being over-the-top!
10. Seductive multi-chain golden ear-cuff for evening wear
This lovely cascading set of golden chains will absolutely transform your evening look and add lots of class to a plain, black or one-color dress! It’s an evening ear-cuff that won’t become uncomfortable, like ordinary pendant earrings, as it is gently hooked around the cartilage at the top of your ear. So you don’t need pierced ears to wear this gorgeously glam ear-cuff that sways seductively as you move your head. Gold is always a classy look and this ear-cuff will instantly match your other gold jewelry such as a necklace, brooch/pin or bracelet.
11. Informal silver full ear-cuff glamor for day or evening
Over the years, gold and silver compete with each other for whose top in the fashion stakes. One generation will prefer gold, or rose-gold, so the next generation naturally wants to be different and chooses silver or white-gold jewelry. And at the moment, silver is the preferred precious metal for trend-setters. Silver is slightly less formal than gold, so you can wear larger silver jewelry during the day and in an office job, without appearing overdone.
So if you want to project a super-stylish image, why not wear just one silver whole-ear, ear-cuff and show you’re an original thinker with the confidence to make your own decisions? You just wear one ear-cuff, and highlight it by pushing your hair behind that ear and this gives a fashionable, asymmetrical look. Remember to dress in a slightly formal style in a professional office situation, to avoid looking out-of-place and to bring out the pretty texture and color of your cool, silver ear-cuff. And if you’re going out straight from work, this versatile ear-cuff will be perfect for showing your fabulous fashion sense!
12. Check your wardrobe
And if you also like to spend your time in blue-jeans and out walking in Nature, you’ll find that a silver or gold ear-cuff will also blend in perfectly with your leisure fashion style! So take a look in your wardrobe now and decide which style, or styles, you like to project. Whether you’re a rock chick, Goth, Emo, tribal, futurist, urban chic, classic chic, sophisticate, young, medium or mature woman – there are so many new ear-cuffs and fabulous modern styles to transform your look into fresh, flattering and full of personality!
And finally . . .
Always have a plan before you go out shopping for a new fashion accessory, as it’s so easy to see something that attracts your eye, but will it match your other jewelry or fashion clothes? The two main extremes in ear decoration fashion this season are silver minimalism and multi-color extravagant! So if you love to wear patterned fabrics, you may well be attracted to fancy butterfly or dragon ear-cuffs, but you should really keep your jewelry plain and monochrome to get the right balance. And if you tend to wear dark suits for work, why not wear a bright, trendy ear-cuff to show you do have a lighter side!
