Fifty years of jewellery boxes and I never once wrote to a shop about any of it. This is the exception
Fifty years of jewellery boxes and I never once wrote to a shop about any of it. This is the exception
Six things the Double Heart Bracelet gets right that everyday bracelets get wrong, from a woman who does not review jewellery.
Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Pat, I am 68, I live in Leeds with my husband Brian, and I have owned jewellery for fifty years without once writing to a shop about any of it. What I have done is fill a jewellery box with things I never wear, heavy bangles that clattered on every table, dainty chains with clasps my fingers stopped agreeing with, catalogue pieces that looked tired by the second month. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a bracelet, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Double Heart Bracelet, from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly making the ordinary things a bit lovelier for a few years now. I first saw it on the wrist of the woman ahead of me at the garden centre checkout, her sleeve riding up as she tapped her card, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Two slim white strands, soft ones, not metal, and two small gold hearts resting side by side, catching the light off the card machine of all things. She told me she wears it every single day. Read on.
Here is what fifty years of jewellery taught me. It comes in two piles. The precious pile, the pieces that live in the box for best and come out twice a year, if the clasp cooperates. And the everyday pile, the bits and bobs that clatter, pinch, catch on cardigan cuffs, and end their days in a drawer looking exactly what they cost.
Too precious to wear, or too cheap to love. Those were the jewellery options, and I had done my years in both.
The Double Heart is the first piece I have owned that is neither, and having worn it every day since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. I ordered it expecting to be disappointed. I was not.
It does not look like its price
It looks like something from a proper jeweller, the sort of small considered thing that comes in a velvet box with a story attached. The hearts are polished to a soft gold shine, the band is finished with tiny gold tipped ends, and the whole thing sits on the wrist looking quietly expensive. The woman at the checkout let me believe it was an anniversary present for a good half minute. It was not.
On the dish on my dresser. It has a way of looking like it has always been there.
My daughter assumed it came from the jewellers in town. I let her think so for a week.
Barbara W., HarrogateThe two hearts are the point
Most jewellery is decoration. This one means something, quietly. Two small hearts, side by side, one a little smaller than the other, and it is nobody’s business but yours whose they are. Mine are me and Brian, though I have not told him that. The boutique will even put a name on each heart if you ask them to. I left mine plain. I know whose is whose.
The two hearts, next to the reading glasses. One a little smaller than the other, which is right.
One heart for each grandchild. I look down at it a dozen times a day and it makes me smile every time.
Sylvia M., HorsforthThe band is soft, and blessedly silent
The band is a soft wrap that goes round twice, with fine neat stitching running its whole length, and it weighs next to nothing. No clatter on the table when I write. No pinch, no cold metal, no catching on the cuff of a cardigan. I put it on with my watch in the morning and by breakfast I have forgotten it is there, which I have decided is the highest compliment a bracelet can be paid.
On, and forgotten about. It sits soft against the wrist and stays out of the way.
First bracelet that does not clatter on my desk or dig in. I forget I have it on until someone mentions it.
Margaret H., BingleyIt slides to fit, no clasp to fight
I want to shake the hand of whoever decided this one did not need a clasp. The band adjusts with two little sliding knots, so it stretches open to go over the hand and slides snug once it is on. No squinting, no holding one end in your teeth, no asking Brian to do the fiddly bit. My fingers gave up on tiny clasps some time ago, and this bracelet simply does not have one.
No clasp at all, you just slide it. I can put it on in the dark, which after years of fiddling feels like a small miracle.
Kathleen B., WakefieldIt earns its place every single day
I have worn it daily since it arrived, to church, to the market, to the allotment gate and back, and it looks as it did the morning I unpacked it. The white band has kept its colour, the hearts still catch the light, and because it is soft and light it never gets taken off and left on a windowsill the way the heavy things always were. The box pieces take turns. This one just stays on.
Worn every day for weeks and it still looks brand new. My other bracelets have not left the box since.
Doreen T., RiponIt goes with everything, and it is the easiest gift I know
White band, gold hearts, and I have yet to find a coat or cardigan it argues with. It does church, the market, a birthday lunch and an evening at the caravan without ever being wrong. They make the band in blue, black and pink as well, with the hearts in silver and rose tones too, and because it slides to fit there is no size to get wrong. I have already put a blue one away for my sister June, which is Christmas quietly solved.
Bought one for myself and two as presents since. There is no size to guess, which takes all the worry out of it.
Jean A., MorleyThe Double Heart, against the bracelets you have been buying
You can find a bracelet for twenty odd pounds anywhere. I know, because I own a boxful of the evidence. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Too precious to wear, or too cheap to love
Hard bangles that clatter and pinch
Fiddly clasps that need a second pair of hands
One fixed size that fits nobody properly
Look exactly what they cost
Two polished gold tone hearts, quietly meaningful
A soft stitched wrap band, light as anything
Slides to fit, no clasp at all
One size that adjusts to any wrist
Looks a great deal dearer than it is
About the price
The Double Heart Bracelet is £22.95, down from £40.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is the run being cleared in the sale to make room for the autumn stock, and once it is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that a mark-down like that is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and weeks of daily wearing in, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
In the dish on the hall table, next to the keys. Though most days it never comes off at all.
If there are two names in your life that matter more than the rest, and your jewellery box is full of things you never wear, this is the one I would slide onto your wrist myself, while the white and gold is still there. Stop dithering and go and look.
Pat
THE DOUBLE HEART BRACELET
- Two polished gold tone heart charms, quietly meaningful
- Soft white wrap band with fine neat stitching
- Slides to fit any wrist, no clasp to fight with
- A name can be added to each heart if you wish
- Also in blue, black and pink, with silver and rose tone hearts
- One size, no decisions to make
- Free UK delivery
Sale on now. Once this run is gone, it is gone.