Zoë Kravitz’s bands above the elbow
Jewellery has run out of wrist. The upper arm is the only bare surface left, and it is having a moment.
Wearing: A Jessica McCormack event in London — A series of gold bands worn above the left elbow, with a silk slip dress
Zoë Kravitz wore a series of gold bands above her left elbow to a Jessica McCormack event in London, with a silk slip dress and satin pumps. Vittoria Ceretti was photographed in Saint Tropez in a sculptural bicep bangle by the New York label Aflalo, with a single lab-grown diamond hanging from it. Two sightings does not make a trend, but the direction is coherent enough that Who What Wear has called it a micro-trend for late summer.
The logic is almost architectural. After several years of stacking, the wrist is full: watch, bangles, a tennis bracelet, a few thin chains. There is nowhere left to add without it reading as clutter, and the upper arm is a large, bare, curved surface that nothing currently occupies.
It works specifically with sleeveless and slip dresses, and it does something a wrist piece cannot: it draws a horizontal across the widest part of the arm, which shortens the visual line from shoulder to elbow. Whether you want that is a genuine question and worth being honest about — it flatters a long arm and can shorten a short one.
Practically, an arm cuff has to grip. Unlike a bracelet it has no gravity working for it and nothing below to catch on, so it needs to be an adjustable open cuff you can squeeze to fit, not a closed bangle sized for a wrist.
What transfers
If your wrists are full, move up. An open, adjustable cuff on the upper arm adds a piece without adding clutter — but it must be adjustable, because nothing holds it on but friction. Try it against a sleeveless neckline first: it draws a horizontal across the arm, which suits some proportions and not others.
