I used to watch my grandmother Helen get ready to go out shopping when I was living with her. I remember her ritual of choosing her clothes and putting on her makeup and putting hair spray in her hair that had been set. And the last thing she did was put on the pearls. So, I just always associated pearls with being a very ladylike, womanly thing. A pearl necklace on a boy or someone who identifies as male becomes this (bleeping) with gender. And I like wearing pearls, and I like getting my nails done. And I don’t think those things belong to gender.
Marc Jacobs – American fashion designer.
The quote is from Harper’s Bazaar, Dec. 2020/Jan. 2021 issue.
Jacobs goes on to say that he finally bought himself a pearl necklace one recent Christmas and he calls the single strand of Mikimoto pearls “part of my ritual self-care.”
I can relate to the love of pearls and ritual self-care. There’s something comforting about a strand of pearls resting against my neck and I find the luster and texture of the creamy beads soothing. Self-care is important – in the form of a piece of jewelry, a cup of tea, a walk in nature, a manicure, a nap – whatever works and it’s interesting just how simple it can be. My ritual of self-care is a daily walk, an afternoon cup of green tea, and reading a good book in the evening. Also, I wear jewelry every day. I enjoy the morning ritual of sitting at my vanity and choosing a ring to slip on my finger, a necklace to hang around my neck, a bracelet to grace my wrist.
How about you, ODFL readers? Do you have a piece of jewelry that makes you feel good? Do you have a self-care ritual? Please share!
My grandmother gave me a pearl necklace. It took her, like, 25 years to give it to me, because she gave me one pearl at a time. That was the old tradition – the way that families could afford nice things. So when I was little, every Christmas and birthday I’d get one pearl, and she’d add it to my string. When I was eight, I had eight pearls on a string. I remember being like, ‘Why another pearl every holiday?’ – an ungrateful kid, basically who never even wanted a pearl necklace. But by the time I got the complete strand and had a moment to reflect on it, I was like, Wow. It took her years to give me that gift. It was so beautiful and powerful, something that I was completely not grateful for, all those years, and then amazed by her persistence. In my twenties, my apartment on Elizabeth Street got broken into; the necklace was stolen. But I have it in my mind, in my heart, so it’s fine – I got the gift. 
OverDressed for Life 