2018 Trend alert: the shell necklace

We hoped to get rid of it between the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, but no: the shell necklaces are back trendier than ever.

Just surf a little 'on the net to notice: from Alexa Chung to Leandra Medine (who particularly love the Turkish brand Tohum), no one seems to be able to do without them; but is it really all fashion bloggers fault if these memories of our tragic childhood style are the must-haves of the season?

Of course, a part of their responsibility is undeniable, because everything they wear inevitably influences ranks of followers, but those to thank or crucify, depending on whether you love this accessory or not, are Prada and Louis Vuitton.

You know, Mrs. Miuccia has turned a clever review of the ugly into a form of art, her trademark, then, in this view, not even the cowries and other shells necklace that completes corduroy garments with a 70s flavor and angora sweaters look out of place. Because Prada's really brilliant move is to combine a typically summery jewel with pieces from the fall-winter collection.

And Vuitton? Kim Jones, in his collection for the French fashion house, recreates the most classic of stylistic weddings: The Hawaiian shirt and the puka necklace.

Originally from Hawaii, this accessory has exploded in popularity, at least in the States, in the '70s and has cyclically returned in the following decades.

It was David Cassidy, an actor-singer famous for an old sitcom called "The Partridge Family", along with Elvis who wears them in the movie "Blue Hawaii", while among the women, the most copied was Elizabeth Taylor, a diva who has always been more into jewelry than Cartier, Bulgari and Tiffany combined.

Leaving the island where it was born, the puka necklace, after winning Hollywood, has become a cult among hippies and surfers.

For a strange twist of fate, from objects worn by cool types riding the waves, they have been transformed, over time, into the most common accessory among clubbers of the Riviera Romagnola, members of brotherhoods and, as someone pointed out, between the cast of every series of CW dramatic films for teenagers.

A fun facts about the model preferred by the uber-influencers is not for the puka necklace (thank God!), but for the ones made out of cowrie. These shells come from the Maldives and, it seems, have been the first international money in human history. In ancient Africa, they represented wealth and were exchanged for food, goods, and services, but in other places, it could take on different values. On the Fiji Islands they were transformed into necklaces and worn by the tribal chiefs as a symbol of power; in the Japanese tradition, the laboring woman was holding cowrie shells to help the progression of childbirth; in Pompei women wore necklaces of cowrie shells as a symbol of fertility; while elsewhere they were among the popular remedies for the "malocchio" aka. the evil eye.

But let's go back to our fashion problem.

Of course, lovers of this 2018 must-have underlines the taste of a bit of a 'naivety that tells of beach and saltiness, but if you really cannot do without it, just wear it on holiday or choose the less "nature", but cooler version created by jewelers like Aurielie Bidermann.