I look at a lot of new jewellery concepts, keep an eye on catwalk looks and read any jewellery trend report I can get my hands on, partly out of curiosity and partly because customers sometimes ask me what I think of them. The short version for 2026 is that jewellery has got louder. After a few years of small, quiet pieces, this year is about earrings sized to be seen, necklaces worn three and four at once, and a general appetite for more rather than less.
I don't think that's a bad thing. I just don't think it changes anything about how I design.
What's actually trending this year
The clearest shift is in scale. Earrings that used to sit close to the ear are now oversized and sculptural, the kind of piece that changes the whole shape of an outfit rather than quietly finishing it. Necklaces have followed the same pattern. Instead of one fine chain, people are layering several at once, mixing lengths and textures, building up rather than paring down.
There's more colour around too, and a general willingness to wear jewellery that draws attention rather than avoids it. After several years where quiet, understated luxury set the tone, that idea has simply gone out of fashion this year.
Why none of this changes how I design
Here's the thing I keep coming back to when people ask if I'll be "following" this year's trends. I already make pieces at both ends of that scale, and I have done for years. Lana is small and pared back. Gaia is not.
Gaia has always been the bold end of what I make: giant hand-turned wood beads set against chunky sterling silver, necklaces and earrings built to be noticed. I didn't design it this year, and I didn't design it because bold jewellery happened to be back in fashion. I designed it because I wanted to see what happened when you took a single material contrast and pushed it as far as it would go. The wood had to be genuinely substantial. The silver had to all but disappear next to it. That's not a trend decision, it's just what the piece needed in order to work.
Iris is the same story from a different angle. The collection is named after my mother, who has an eye for beautiful things and wears them simply, and it includes hoops sized to be properly seen, not just small studs. Again, that scale was decided years before 2026 had an opinion about it.
The difference is the reason, not the size
I think the actual distinction worth making isn't bold versus simple, but whether a piece exists because it was designed for a reason, or because it fits what's selling this particular season. A giant earring designed with intention and a giant earring designed because giant is currently in fashion can look identical on a shelf. They behave very differently once the season ends.
That's really what I mean when I talk about buying less and buying better: not a promise that everything I make will be quiet, but a promise that every piece is decided for a reason that has nothing to do with what's currently in fashion, which is why it doesn't expire when trends move on.
Jewellery that doesn't reset every year
This is also why sustainability isn't a slogan at Silverwood, just part of how things are actually made. Every piece is handmade in small batches from sterling silver and responsibly sourced wood, and every order plants a tree through One Tree Planted. None of that is about keeping up with anything. The point is making things properly, so pieces are still worth wearing long after this year's trend report has been forgotten.
So if you're drawn to bigger, bolder pieces this year, Gaia and the larger Iris pieces were made for exactly that, and they'll still make sense in five years' time. If you prefer something smaller and quieter, Lana hasn't changed either. Either way, the choice was never about what year it is. What matters is what actually suits you, and what you'll still want to reach for once this particular trend has moved on to the next one.
