You‘ve probably seen it everywhere on social media: Wearing several necklaces at once, also called layering. And it is true, that layering necklaces can easily spice up your outfit, you can wear all your favorite necklaces at once AND you look super trendy.
But, just like any other trend, there are “rules” that you can follow to make the best out of your layered necklaces. In the following sections, I’m going to tell you how you can style and what to wear with layered necklaces.
Layering Necklaces Ideas
In this following section, I want to show your 9 great layered necklaces ideas. I‘ll often call them principles since I feel like you can adapt them with another and just see them as ground rules. Remember that you just wear whatever feels comfortable and amazing to you.
Layer By Length
This first option of layering is to layer necklaces with different lengths. Nothing is more annoying if two of your necklaces have the same length. Often, it just doesn’t look that good. If you still want to wear two necklaces together that have the same length, try out one of these layering necklaces hacks.
With different lengths, you can see the necklaces in their whole glory. Look also for the spacing between the necklaces. The necklaces shouldn’t be too close to one another, as well as with three necklaces, see that they all have kind of the same spacing another.
This creates a great balance. You can easily connect this layer-by-length principle to many other ways of layering and always have it back in your mind.
Layer By Thickness / Size
Just as you should look for different necklace lengths, different levels of thickness can also be your choice. A thick chain necklace looks great next to a necklace that’s a bit thinner. Play around with chunky and thin necklaces.
Of course, for some outfits, just simple thin necklaces look the best, so try out what works best with what. This principle can also be applied in other ways, for example with the material aspect.
Bold And Small Necklaces
Also connected to the different thickness principle is the mixture of bold and small necklaces. Bold necklaces can be chunky chains or big necklaces with bright colors. To balance out these often statement pieces, combine them with a more subtle and thinner necklace.
They can also have a pendant to bring some more fun to your look. It’s totally personal to what you find as bold and what as a small necklace, and of course, you find the balance between them.
Layer By Materials
Necklace materials play a role in many outfit aspects, as well as in layering them of course. You can go here in two directions: Either you go with the same materials or you mix them. Necklaces with the same materials may look more put together and create a great look for your outfit.
The same materials might be the same metal, like gold or silver, gemstones, or other details that are made of the same material. On the other hand, all the same materials can be a bit boring for some of you guys. Mix velvet chokers, pearls, silver, gold, plastic, or gemstones together to build a fun collection of all kinds of necklaces.
To not make it too confusing and busy, look for other principles in this layering guide that you can adapt to your necklaces.
Metal And Beaded Necklaces
After just mentioning materials, combining beaded and metal necklaces is a great choice for styling layered necklaces. Beaded necklaces can have a fun touch, while a silver or gold chain necklace for example brings a bit more classiness into your style.
You can find out if your beaded necklace fits better with a silver or gold necklace by seeing if the color works better with silver or gold. Adding a metal necklace to a pearl necklace, with fully white pearls or colored ones, creates a total balance.
A metal necklace can dress up the look that you wear with a colorful beaded necklace or it can dress down your look with a simple pearl necklace.
Vintage & Modern
When layering necklaces, you have so many more options from your necklace collection to choose from. This gives you the chance to combine vintage and modern jewelry into one look. As mentioned in some necklace layering principles from earlier, combining different kinds of necklaces can create a unique look and make your outfit more fun and interesting.
The same works for vintage and modern pieces. Maybe an old gemstone necklace to a modern thin chain necklace. You find some antique old pieces either in second-hand shops or in your, your mum‘s, your neighbors’, or your friend‘s old jewelry box. Don‘t worry if they don‘t look that fine anymore, there are tons of tricks that help you make your old jewelry wearable again.
Gold & Silver
Mixing gold and silver necklaces is one of the many controversies in the jewelry fashion industry. However, I still wanted to mention this opportunity. If your silver and gold necklaces work together well is mostly a personal choice and really depends on the necklaces themselves.
A white gold necklace with silver is great together for example. It also depends on your outfit. An outfit with Statement pieces and bright colors probably would look a bit overwhelming if you also combine silver and gold.
On the other hand, a simple outfit with basic pieces can be spiced up with a mixture of silver and gold pieces. Since this topic has different opinions, try out this mixture and see if you include it in your layering necklace options or not.
Layer By Colors
Layering by colors is another principle to create harmony in your necklace set. When preparing your layered necklace set, look for small details with the same colors. Small parts of color matches are great and definitely spice up your look.
Here, it’s even cooler if your necklace‘s color matches the same color as a part of your outfit, for example, a color in your top or another jewelry piece. Next to the same color matches, you can create a great look if you pair one necklace color with a different color. Of course, there are many color options that you can pick from.
Add A Personal Necklace
A special way to layer necklaces is to add a personal necklace to your set of necklaces. This can be with a meaning pendant and a specific symbol, a birthstone, as in the picture, or any other necklace that has a special meaning to you. Styling up and dressing nicely should be in the first place for yourself.
By wearing something personal in combination with a stylish simple necklace can give you a pretty good feeling – while looking so cute! To create a great look, include some of the last and following tips for styling layered necklaces.
Holy Trinity
For the last tip, I want to give you this kind of universal layered necklace style tip. For a great balance and to create a fantastic look with your necklaces, have these three types of necklaces combined: a simple necklace, a necklace with a pendant, and a necklace with a special texture.
The necklace with a pendant brings a cute, fun, or meaningful symbol into your look while maybe adding some color. A necklace with a special texture can be a chunky chain necklace or any other chain necklace that has special details in it. Lastly, a simple necklace brings back some calmness into the look and also sort of connects the two more eccentric necklaces.
How To Layer Necklaces Without Tangling
Although layering necklaces have been popular for a while, still many don’t know how to actually layer necklaces without getting them tangled. It does happen easily, don’t get me wrong, but there are easy ways and hacks to avoid the tangles and weird looking in your layered necklace set.
One Big Necklace
In the first tip, all you have to do is to build one big necklace instead of several small ones.
Lay down the necklaces in the order that you want to wear them (e.g. the necklace with the pendant should be in the middle between the silver chain above and the long necklace underneath) and connect them with the clasps. Don’t connect the last clasp, so you have a long opened necklace and a sort of string.
Now lay your long necklace on your neck and wrap it around your neck as much as you need to. If you connect two necklaces, wrap them around once. If you have three necklaces, wrap them around twice, and so on. Close now the last opened clasp and gently pull the clasps and not-pretty parts of your necklaces to the back. And that’s all!
Your necklaces won’t tangle since they’re all in one big necklace now. It’s also a great way to change the length of your necklaces the way you want to. Play around with your arrangement and gently pull some necklaces a bit down or up.
Crossing The Necklaces
This necklace is very similar to our first hack but with a different procedure. All you do is connect the clasp from your first necklace to the jump ring from your second necklace and the other way around.
The outcome is very similar to the first hack: Your necklaces are connected to one another, you can change both lengths, and they won’t tangle.
And it’s so easy to do! Check out my guide for a more detailed explanation of this layering necklace hack. By the way, you also find there are even more cool jewelry styling hacks and tips.
Necklace Layering Clasp
I also couldn’t leave out this tool. A tangle tool and not just a tool as a hack and tip. Many brands offer specific necklace layering clasps. These clasps have one side with four jump rings and one side with four clasps. You can connect up to four necklaces by closing the tool’s rings with the necklaces’ clasps and the other way around.
The tool often can be separated in the middle so you can open it, wrap it around your neck, and close it again. This helps you to have your necklaces elegantly and easily separated from one another and not get them tangled. You can get the layering necklace connectors clasp that you also see in the picture from the jewelry brand Venu J.
Layered Necklaces Set
This last tip is for the lazy ones. Many jewelry and fashion brands offer necklace sets that include several necklaces that are often already connected to one another at the clasp. The sets have one clasp and the necklace is at one point separated into two.
These make it easier for you to wear your necklaces without them getting tangled. And they are made to wear together so you don’t have to worry about if they match or not.
