I am 68 and the first piece of jewellery I have ever written a letter about is a copper bracelet I saw at the swimming baths
I am 68 and the first piece of jewellery I have ever written a letter about is a copper bracelet I saw at the swimming baths
Six things the Nadine Copper Bracelet gets right that everyday jewellery gets wrong, from a woman who had never once written to a shop about anything.
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 in all my years of birthdays and anniversaries I have never once written to a shop about a piece of jewellery. What I have done is fill a box with things I never wear, thin chains that tangled, bangles that rattled down my arm and clattered on every table, gold coloured things that stopped being gold coloured 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 Nadine Copper 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 bench across from me in the changing room at the swimming baths, slipped off a wrist and set down on a folded towel, 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.
A twisted band of warm copper, the colour of a new penny, catching the light under those unforgiving changing room bulbs of all places. When we were both back at our pegs I watched her put it on again, before her watch, before her coat, first of everything. So I asked her about it. Read on.
On the arm of my chair, on the rust jumper I wear half of autumn. The colour is the whole point.
Here is what a lifetime 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.
Jewellery either sat in the box being precious, or sat on my wrist looking cheap. I had stopped expecting a third option.
The Nadine 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 send it back. I did not.
It does not look like its price
It looks inherited. That is the best word I have for it. A twisted copper band with a proper weight and a soft satin finish reads as the sort of thing that comes down from a mother with a story attached, not the sort of thing that arrives in the post. I assumed exactly that about the one at the swimming baths, and I was exactly wrong. Nobody has looked at mine and guessed anywhere near what it cost, and I have not been correcting them in any hurry.
On the little green dish on my dresser. It has a way of looking like it has always been there.
My daughter turned it over looking for a hallmark and asked which relative had left it to me. I bought it three weeks ago.
Barbara W., HorburyThe twist is the detail people notice
The band is not a plain hoop. It is a ribbon of copper wound round on itself in an even twist, so the light moves along it as your hand moves, softly, the way it does on old candlesticks. The finish is brushed rather than polished, satin rather than shiny, which is precisely why it does not look cheap. Shiny copper shouts. This one does not say a word until somebody leans in, and somebody always does.
Next to the reading glasses, where it gets left at night. The twist is what everyone leans in to look at.
Three people at church asked about it in one morning. It is the twist that catches their eye, every time.
Sylvia M., MirfieldIt has a proper weight, and sits quietly
Most bracelets at this sort of money feel like they might blow away, and the heavy ones rattle down your arm and clatter on every table. The Nadine does neither. It has the solid, settled feel of a proper piece in the hand, and because it holds its place on the wrist it does not slide about or knock on the desk when I write. I put it on in the morning and it stays exactly where I put it, which after years of chasing bangles up my arm feels like very good manners.
On, with the morning tea. It sits where you put it and stays out of the way.
It feels like a piece three times the price when you pick it up. Substantial, but it never once gets in my way.
Margaret H., BrighouseThe colour was made for this time of year
Warm copper against rust, mustard, brown and cream is one of those pairings that simply works, and that is most of my wardrobe from September onwards. Gold can look brassy on our colouring and silver can look cold, but copper is warm without shouting, and it flatters a wrist that has seen some weather, which mine has. I have worn it with a rust jumper, a brown coat and my good cream cardigan, and it has yet to argue with any of them.
Against my autumn jumpers it looks lovely, warmer than gold and kinder than silver. I get more compliments on it than on anything I own.
Kathleen B., CleckheatonOpen at the back, so there is no clasp to fight
I want to shake the hand of whoever decided this one did not need a clasp. The band is open at the back, so it eases on sideways in a second and sits snug, and taking it off is just as quick. No squinting at a tiny catch, no holding one end in your teeth, no asking Brian to do the fiddly bit. My fingers gave up on little clasps some time ago, and this bracelet simply does not have one.
On in a second, off in a second, no clasp at all. I can manage it with wet hands at the sink, which says everything.
Doreen T., MenstonOne size, and it never comes off
Because the back is open, one size sits right on any wrist, and there is no measuring and nothing to get wrong. The woman at the swimming baths told me hers comes off for the water and goes straight back on after, before her watch, before her coat, and I understood her completely within a week of mine arriving. The box pieces take turns. This one just stays on. I have already told my sister June she is getting one for Christmas, which is that particular worry quietly solved.
I take it off at the leisure centre and put it straight back on after. It is the only piece of jewellery I actually wear.
Jean A., TodmordenThe Nadine, against the bracelets you have been buying
You can find a bracelet for this sort of money 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
Fiddly clasps that need a second pair of hands
Rattle down the arm and clatter on every table
Gold coloured until about the second month
Look exactly what they cost
A twisted band of warm copper, satin not shiny
Open at the back, eases on in a second, no clasp
A proper weight that sits quietly where you put it
One size that fits any wrist, nothing to get wrong
Looks a great deal dearer than it is
About the price
The Nadine Copper Bracelet is £29.95, down from £49.00.
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 I would have counted £49.00 fair money for it, so coming down to £29.95 made it an easy yes, and after weeks of daily wearing I have not found a single reason to think otherwise.
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 your jewellery box is full of things you never wear, and your autumn coats are all waiting for something warm at the wrist, this is the one I would ease onto your arm myself, while there is still stock to be had. Stop dithering and go and look.
Pat
THE NADINE COPPER BRACELET
- A twisted band of pure copper, as the boutique has it
- Soft brushed satin finish, warm rather than brassy
- Open at the back, no clasp to fight with
- Eases on sideways and sits where you put it
- A proper weight that feels far dearer than it is
- One size, no decisions to make
- Free UK delivery
Sale on now. The first autumn stock is already going.