Men, jewellery and that thing in my lapel

The first time I wore my lapel chain to work a rather un-sartorially minded friend asked me, “What’s that supposed to be?” I told him it was a chain historically used to hold a pocket watch in the breast pocket. “There better be a watch on the end of that,” he responded, “or I’m going to punch you in the face.”

In that moment my friend revealed a deep-seated distrust the modern male has of jewellery. If it is to be worn at all jewellery must be functional, like a wedding ring or a watch (even though wrist watches are somewhat vestigial). I understand the historical precedent for this mistrust of ostentation; I too believe that elegance in dress is about less, not more. However, the male reluctance to wear jewellery, I think, comes from our continuing degradation of femininity. Here’s how it works: jewellery is shunned by most men because it is seen as ostentatious. It is most associated with women because it is acceptable for them to be ostentatious. But any sign of femininity in men’s dress is seen as a negative, because femininity is seen as a negative. So let’s work on getting past that, shall we?

I will say that too much ostentation, on a man or a woman or whomever, is inelegant. I prefer the oft-quoted Coco Chanel’s view, applied to accessories: “Once you’ve dressed, and before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” That said, I love a bit of flamboyance, whether it’s a signet ring, a pocket square or a lapel chain. When not overdone, they add a little bit of personality; just a touch of personal style.

The lapel chain is a special male accessory because it has evolved over the last couple of centuries from something functional in the waistcoat to something ornamental in the lapel. As far as I can tell, it goes something like this: pocket watches began to be carried in waistcoats after the invention of the latter in the 17th century. Soon after, the chain was added. On those rare occasions when a man was not wearing a waistcoat – more often in the mid-19th century onward – he would simply move the watch to the breast pocket of his jacket, threading the chain through the lapel hole, with the t-bar exposed out the front (or sometimes hidden in the back). This became especially common for officers during the Great War when the leather Albert came into greater use (as it was more casual and rugged than a chain). After the war, the chain moved from purely functional to slightly more ornamental as the t-bar was eventually replaced with a charm.

The mention of officers during the war is an important one, menswear historian G. Bruce Boyer pointed out to me, as it connects the chains to the old British and American upper classes. “There’s something old-fashioned about upper class usage generally,” Bruce told me, “so that even when the wrist watch won out against the pocket watch, many upper class men continued to wear their father’s and grandfather’s watch and chain.” This perhaps helps to explain why we think of the chain as a dressier accessory, in addition to the fact that being silver or gold makes it dressier than leather Alberts.

Fast forward to today and most lapel chains are no longer functional, at least not in the pocket watch way (although my silver one is always connected to my watch – which saved me from facial injury). Since most men do not carry pocket watches, the clasp has been replaced with a t-bar and the chain serves simply as a piece of jewellery. But that doesn’t mean it is purely ornamental. “Maybe the function is to look like you want to look,” says Adrian Azodi of Monsieur Fox. Adrian’s company makes modern versions of lapel chains, in silver and rose gold, with knots or fox heads on one end and t-bars on the other. And he has his own advice for wearing the chains: wear them with confidence. “Act like it’s supposed to be there,” he says, “and it’s never questioned.”

I met Adrian at the recent Pitti Uomo in Florence and asked him why he thinks lapel chains have made a comeback after decades in the sartorial wasteland. “As more guys wear more accessories like pocket squares,” he told me, “they want something different and that’s where the chain comes in.” I will admit that as I started to build my collection of accessories, I toyed with various ways to decorate my lapel. I have found the chain one of the simpler, more elegant options. So I purchased one of his rose gold chains through the Canadian online shop of the style blog Casa di Sartoria. It is very, very hard to find lapel chains in stores, especially Canadian ones, so I was very happy to see that they are part of the selection available at Casa di Sartoria.

I will say that I don’t wear lapel chains very often. I try to save them for special occasions, more formal nights when a tuxedo would be too much but a jacket and tie too little. The chains add a touch of sophistication and almost always start a conversation. But following on from Ms. Chanel, I usually leave my pocket square at home.

To see more shots of lapel chains, please visit my Instagram.