Opinion as an active Jewelry wearer
As a person who loves to wear earrings every day, I prefer Clip earrings to pierced earrings for two reasons. The first reason being that you don’t risk as much damage to the ear lobe like with pierced earrings.
Second, the clip earrings design are glamourous vintage timeless designs which can be large, heavy and will not cause any further stress on the earlobe since the fastener is sturdier than a pierced earrings hook.
As a collector of vintage jewelry, I constantly scour eBay for the best deals on clip earrings.
I remember in the 80s, I wore heavy dangle earrings when I had pierced ears, and I had a lot of damage to my earlobe. I had to let them close to let them rebuild the skin again. This experience led me to seek out vintage clip earrings from a by gone era. I love my vintage clip earrings collection which I buy on eBay. I like glamourous, funky, eclectic, unique and distinctive designs.
History of Clip Earrings
“In the 1900s, Victorians created clip earrings because they believed that piercing the flesh was uncivilized. “According, to Vintage virtue.net. Back then, ear piercing was rare thing to do, as opposed to wearing large clip earrings. Even though for over 5,300 years human civilization had been piercing ears around the World in diverse cultures.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the large pieces were changed to innovative Art Deco designed pieces with abstract shapes and smaller in size than the Victorian era earrings. According to the article Guide to clip earrings.
The 1950’s clip earrings were extremely popular. The movie stars of the time made the clip earrings a fashion staple.
During the 1950s, especially in the movies, did you notice how the actor would take off clip earrings to answer the phone in a movie scene. I thought it was a symbol and sign of the bygone era where everything was done with grace and elegance. An example was Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder.
Another example: Audrey Hepburn who was the prime example of grace, elegance, and style in the breakfast at Tiffany’s movie.
The 1950s was the heyday of clip earrings with many different unique shapes and materials used to make clip earrings. Many include Aurora Borealis to Swarovski crystal earrings, to beautiful estate costume pieces by great jewelry designers at the time. Trifari, Napier, Weiss, Hattie Carnegie, Monet to name a few.
Jewelry Design in the 1950s was different than earlier times. The designs echoed the Art Deco era of the 1920s. The clip earrings designs were glamourous for everyday wear, when back then homemakers dressed formal for everyday tasks wearing hoop skirts and high heels. The times were different, and the manner of dress was more formal than casual for everyday tasks. An example of this would be the mom on leave it to Beaver the iconic 50s show. The mom was always well dressed.
The 1980s
During the 1980s, there was a resurgence of the clip earrings with many bold abstract designs to the classic cameos.
As a teenager, I purchased a lot of clip earrings with big bold designs and abstract shapes. I loved my big black and white polka dot plastic earrings which I wore daily. During the 80s, there was a revamp of the 1950s and 1960s in clothing and accessories.
The miniskirt was coming back in style in the 1980s. Also, to the shirtdress and not to mention the neon genie pants. Let us not go there, that was an unfortunate clothing design original to the 1980s.
The 1980s reflected the bold big designs of jewelry especially with clip earrings the excess of the 1980s decade. Abstract designs with varied materials like plastic and Lucite.
In my personal collection, I have many examples of plastic and metal, glass earrings. I will upload photos in this post.
Fashion trends tend to come and go then make a resurgence again decades later.
Pierced Earrings today
Pierced earrings are the default jewelry accessory for many women as these styles are more prevalent at major department stores, it is extremely hard to find clip earrings at most places. I find my clip earrings at eBay or Etsy.
In the U.S., the physical piercing of earlobes became popular during the 1960s. Since this time, pierced earrings have driven the change of the clip earrings market to pierced earrings at department stores.
Pierced ears allow for many pierced earrings that are designed to the masses avoiding some heavy large designs that damage the earlobe.
In Conclusion
No matter how the client decides which earring type to use. Pierced earrings are the dominate style in much of the department stores. It is now rare to find the clip earring. unless you shop for vintage clip earrings on eBay.
What do you think? Have I persuaded you into wearing clip earrings or do you prefer clip on earrings. If you like this content smash the like button. Thank you for reading this post.
