2024 Jewelry Trends:
Mid-Century Modern

If one look sums up the mid-century modern trend, it’s actress Carey Mulligan on the red carpet at the 2024 SAG Awards wearing a satin form-fitting strapless Armani Privé gown with one statement accessory— René Boivin’s sculptural gold and natural diamond collar from Fred Leighton. Glamorous, bold, and timeless, that collar epitomizes everything we love about mid-century style.

“She looked the part of the modern swan,” says Rebecca Selva, Fred Leighton’s creative director, who worked with Mulligan’s stylist Andrew Mukamal. He captured the spirit of the era with a contemporary nod, and he did it again at the Oscars when he dressed Mulligan in a recreated 1951 Balenciaga gown accessorized with just huge old mine cut natural diamond earrings from Leighton, weighing 10 carats each. It’s the ultimate in fashionable restraint.

That bewitching mid-century style is in the ether, in part due to the much-publicized television show Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, which tells the story of Truman Capote’s dramatic fallout with society doyennes Babe Paley, Slim Keith, and C.Z. Guest.

They were famously the ladies who lunch, always dressed to the nines, but it was their idiosyncratic jewels that defined their style and character. Verdura, Schlumberger, and David Webb were among their go-to jewelers, and those houses continue to reimagine their signature styles today in new iterations.

Even before the show stoked the mid-century style flame, there was a shift happening. After years of layering chains and charms, there was a longing for statement pieces. “Clients want that one gorgeous diamond collar or signature brooch,” says Selva, who is thrilled to see men express modern mid-century style with diamond brooches. “The brooch says, ‘I arrived’ and it requires a degree of confidence and style.” It’s the quintessential jewel of every well-heeled woman—and man’s—wardrobe. Actor Jeremy Allen White was a great example of the modern male swan in Schlumberger’s Bird on a Rock brooch at the SAG Awards.

These statement styles aren’t a trend; they are timeless investment pieces, says Briony Raymond, the New York jeweler who offers both vintage pieces and her own designs.

Personally, she says mid-century has always been her signature style. “It feels good to wear ladylike, grownup jewelry, it’s empowering,” Raymond said. Those include large-scale earrings which “sit beautifully against the cheek, swoop upwards, and lift the face.” 

Think of these statement designs as elevated staples and wardrobe workhorses that will never go out of style.

Designers are putting their own spin on the period’s style, like Matthew Harris of Mateo’s sculptural bold gold and diamond earrings, Sorellina’s wide collar with a spray of gold and diamonds, and Selim Mouzannar’s weighty diamond cluster rings.

“Whether vintage or new, statement mid-century designs are the building blocks of any smart jewelry collection”, says stylist Micaela Erlanger. “These are the hero pieces every woman (and man) needs.”