Whimsy in fine jewelry is hardly new—there are delightful examples from eras past—but the modern iterations feel like they’re in a league of their own. Witty, nostalgic, cheeky (sometimes even a little crass), they’re the kinds of creations that get you smiling, reminiscing, and, perhaps most importantly, enjoying your jewelry.
What might surprise some, though, is where many of these pieces are coming from. Fine jewelers known for serious gemstones and serious design are letting their personalities show, creating pieces that break from the expected. And they aren’t necessarily catering to a different customer so much as a different side of the customer they already know.
JCK has been shouting about whimsical jewels for years—they began becoming a fully fledged, noticeable “thing” in the immediate post-pandemic era, when the jewelry show floors opened back up and everyone seemed ready to finally have fun.
At JCK Las Vegas in 2022, animal jewelry emerged as a mini trend amid the larger conversation around dopamine dressing. Parlé, a company best known for exceptional colored gemstones, was among the brands getting playful: Creative director Brecken Farnsworth told JCK at the time that pieces including a winged tooth fairy pendant represented something of a departure for the company. “They thought I was nuts,” she said. “The piece sold.”
By the following year, the menagerie had expanded. Scarab beetles, storm clouds complete with diamond and gold lightning bolts, and plenty of other smile-inducing creations populated the Vegas show floors.
And the mood has hardly subsided. At the 2025 Las Vegas shows, JCK’s Victoria Gomelsky noted the sheer volume of whimsical, nostalgic jewelry on offer, including Harwell Godfrey’s Granny Squares collection, an exuberant gemstone interpretation of the colorful crochet blankets associated with the 1970s. Designer Lauren Harwell Godfrey described the collection as part of a broader exploration of the decade, ranging from Studio 54 glamour to “the whimsical, folksy magic of Jim Henson’s Muppet Show.”
If the recent New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is any indication, the runways have finally caught up, corroborating what jewelers have been telling us for several years: luxury does not have to take itself quite so seriously.
At Carolina Herrera’s spring 2027 NYFW show, creative director Wes Gordon punctuated an otherwise polished anniversary collection with humor. Gold frog brooches referenced founder Carolina Herrera’s beloved La Grenouille restaurant, while black and white cookie earrings turned another quintessentially New York symbol into an accessory. The whimsical pieces didn’t undermine the elegance of the collection; if anything, they loosened it up.
Thom Browne further embraced the natural world, building his spring 2027 collection around insects and metamorphosis. Butterflies, bees, dragonflies, ladybugs, beetles, and even a black widow found their way into a painstakingly tailored collection. Browne summed up the impulse by telling Vogue simply: “I wanted to play, so it didn’t become too serious.”
That sentiment extended beyond jewelry and accessories. Elle characterized playfulness as one of the defining themes of NYFW’s spring 2027 collections, pointing to designers’ embrace of punchy color, exaggerated proportions, fringe, and a broader “joy of getting dressed.”
For jewelers, the significance isn’t that everyone suddenly needs a frog brooch. It’s that whimsy can coexist with—and perhaps even enhance—the qualities of fine jewelry clients already value: craftsmanship, rarity, precious materials, and a distinctive point of view.
A customer who owns the serious diamond bracelet may be exactly the customer ready for the diamond-encrusted hamburger, jeweled mushroom, gemstone bug, or pendant inspired by a childhood obsession. The purchase isn’t necessarily replacing the classics; rather, it’s adding another dimension to the collection.
And playful jewelry carries an obvious advantage at the counter: It gives people something to talk about.
As jewelry becomes increasingly personal, that gives salespeople an advantage. A humorous jewel isn’t designed to appeal equally to everyone—its specificity may be the point. The customer who thinks it’s ridiculous probably wasn’t its customer to begin with. The one who immediately says “OMG, I need that” very well may be.
The post-pandemic desire for dopamine dressing may have helped accelerate whimsical fine jewelry, but several years later, these pieces are still coming, and coming strong—from independent designers, gemstone specialists, established jewelry houses, and now the fashion runways.
This no longer looks like a temporary reaction to a difficult era in time. It’s proving that having good taste and a generous budget doesn’t mean you also can’t have a sense of humor.
Top: Sparky the Robot charm in 18k yellow gold with emeralds, $6,450; Lauren Newton
