Six Jewelry Trends Fashion Editors Are Embracing This Spring and Summer

Spring is right around the corner, and after what has genuinely been an extremely cold and snowy season (thanks, Punxsutawney Phil), the urge to swap out heavy winter accessories for something lighter, stranger, and more joyful is nearly overwhelming. Fortunately, the spring/summer 2026 runways delivered. The overall mood is a study in productive tension: oversized gemstones, eye-catching tassels, supersized pearls, and chunky bangles are pushing a distinctly '80s maximalism back to the forefront, while thin cord necklaces and understated coin jewelry are quietly offering an exit ramp for anyone who prefers to keep things restrained. There is genuinely something here for everyone, and the six trends below are the ones worth building around.

Cords Galore

The cord and layered leather necklace is back, and it arrives with all the unhurried cool of a '90s revival done correctly. This is the longer-necklace silhouette that defined a decade of effortless dressing, rethought for a moment when personal style is increasingly about layering references rather than following a single aesthetic. The appeal is partly in the simplicity: a cord necklace requires almost no styling effort and rewards almost any outfit. It also functions as the quieter counterpoint to everything else on this list, a reminder that the spring 2026 jewelry moment is wide enough to accommodate a minimalist.

Lockets, Reworked

The locket is having a genuine editorial moment, reworked for a contemporary sensibility rather than left to coast on nostalgia alone. Where previous incarnations leaned heavily on Victorian sentimentality or girlhood kitsch, the current wave of lockets is being approached with a more considered hand, treated as a serious jewelry category rather than a novelty. The appeal of something wearable that also holds meaning, whether a photograph, a charm, or simply the romance of a closed secret, translates easily across casual and dressed-up contexts. It is a trend that rewards personal interpretation.

Shellmaxxing

Consider this your permission to bring beachy energy to your outfits long before the temperatures are tolerable again. Seashell jewelry is taking the spotlight for spring in a range of expressions: everything from simple necklaces to intricate layers, like the tons of tiny ones featured at Balmain, to big baubles seen at the SS2026 Tory Burch show. Both natural materials and metal versions are in play, which means the trend has real range. It can read as breezy and casual on a simple strand, or genuinely architectural when scaled up and layered. The shell's current dominance also fits neatly into a broader appetite for organic, nature-derived shapes across jewelry and beyond.

Key Fob Mob

Yes, keychains have had their moment dangling from bags, but spring 2026 is all about the fob, worn attached to a belt or vest, almost like a pocket watch. Of all the ways to dress up with vintage flair, this is one of the most considered, and credit goes to Jonathan Anderson's Dior Homme and Miu Miu for delivering spring's modern take on the styling of yesteryear. The reference point is clear: the pocket watch worn by a dandy, the fob chain as functional decoration. What makes it feel fresh rather than costumey is the precision with which both houses have contextualized it, pairing the hardware with very current silhouettes. It is a micro-trend with a surprisingly high styling ceiling.

Crystal Clear

While a diamond or a previous stone jewelry moment will never not be appealing, the designers making the most interesting moves this season are working with agates, organic resin shapes, and other large stones that bring a rawer, more tactile energy to the conversation. At Roberto Cavalli's SS26 show in Milan, a red statement piece worn looped demonstrated just how versatile an oversized stone can be across multiple spring dressing scenarios. At Bottega Veneta, a chunky choker staked its claim as the evening jewelry piece of the season. The shift away from precious stones toward more sculptural, geological forms feels aligned with the broader interest in craft and materiality that has been building across several seasons. These are pieces that look like they were found as much as made.

Unexpected Tiny Timepieces

The final trend is the most quietly subversive of the six. The tiny timepiece, worn as jewelry rather than treated primarily as a functional watch, brings a precision and an element of surprise to the spring accessory landscape. Where the Key Fob Mob trend leans into vintage hardware with clear pocket-watch associations, the tiny timepiece is about scale and unexpectedness: something miniaturized past the point of easy readability, existing as much as an object of adornment as one of utility. It sits comfortably within a season where maximalism and miniaturism are operating simultaneously, and where the most interesting jewelry choices are the ones that generate a second look.

Taken together, these six trends map a spring accessory moment that is more layered and more playful than the previous few seasons. The '80s maximalist energy is real and it is running through everything from chunky stone chokers to tassel jewelry appearing on catwalks at Zankov and Zimmermann before filtering into the accessories lines at Mango, Reformation, and J.Crew. But the season is equally comfortable holding space for a simple cord necklace or a reworked locket. The most compelling spring jewelry story is not about committing to a single register; it is about understanding which of these six directions suits your wardrobe and running with it with conviction.